We try out Starbucks Japan’s two lactose-free drinks for spring, with their new revised soy milk formula!

Lactose intolerancy is most prevalent in people of East Asian descent, but Starbucks Japan has got you covered if your stomach takes offence at moo juice. They’ve recently (as of March 16) rolled out two new delicious drinks for spring which are specifically catered to the dairy-free crowd: Apricot Honey Soy Cream lattes and Apricot Honey Soy Cream Frappuccinos! We headed down to Sutaba, as the chain is known in Japan, to give the new drinks a try!

Starbucks Japan takes allergens seriously (er, most of the time) and hands out these cards when you order a drink containing soy. This way, the barista at the other end can double-check that they’re handing you a product which definitely doesn’t contain dairy.

First, since we’ve finally been hit with a burst of sunny weather here in Tokyo, we started with a nice, cool Frappuccino. Naturally, we like a lot of whipped cream on top of our Fraps, but we were slightly concerned that this would mean the sneaky inclusion of dairy. Not so – the frothy stuff on the top was all soy cream, whipped to a nice stiff consistency. In fact, Starbucks in Japan has recently revised its soy milk recipe to be even more “soyful” than before, and you can really taste the difference.

The drink comes with generous lashings of honey and apricot syrup and is topped with a spoonful of crispies.

The soy whip is so thick that it’s best to grab a spoon and eat it like a dessert.

The latte is slightly more subtle than the Frap in terms of sweetness, and has an espresso base mixed with plenty of soy milk.

A tall latte will set you back 470 yen (US$4.20), while a tall Frap costs 540 yen. The Apricot Honey series will only be available until April 12, so if you’re a soy milk kind of person and love sweet limited edition drinks, we advise heading down to Starbucks quick before the RocketNews24 staff drinks them all!

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