Videos show lunar New Year treats require a forceful stabbing that breaks hearts while making mouths water.

Here at SoraNews24, we like to think of ourselves as having access to the best that Starbucks has to offer, what with all of their tasty Japan-exclusive items that we can stroll down the street and sample whenever we feel like it. But this week, we’re feeling a little jealous of everyone who lives on the other side of the Korea Strait.

The lunar New Year started on Friday, and to celebrate the Year of the Dog, Starbucks branches in Korea have begun selling adorable puppy-themed cupcakes in two different flavors.

Starting things off is the Lucky Choco Puppy, with bits of chocolate mixed into its moist sponge cake.

Alternatively, the Lucky White Puppy is aimed at more sophisticated palates, featuring strawberry and cream flavors.

In both cases, the cupcakes are topped with cookies decorated to look like a softly smiling pooch. The desserts have quickly become social media darlings, with diners sharing snapshots online.

https://instagram.com/p/BeP5unNAJBR/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_ufi_test

However, it turns out that those cookies are pretty crunchy. While that probably makes them satisfying to eat (and opens up the possibility of dunking them into your coffee), it also means that if you’re the kind of fancy person who wants to eat your cupcake with a fork, you’ll need to stab that puppy right in his smiling face, and pretty forcefully too, as these videos show.

https://instagram.com/p/Beh_k5KgWMx/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_ufi_test

Or, of course, you could just pick the cookie up and eat it separately by hand, although that means you won’t be getting cookie and cupcake in the same bite.

The Lucky Puppy Cupcakes are priced at 6,300 won (US$5.90). While Japan does like to decorate its New Year’s cards with Chinese Zodiac imagery, the country celebrates the solar New Year, not the lunar one, which means there are currently no plans to bring these treats to Starbucks’ Japanese branches, so we’ll just have to be thankful for the sakura donuts and cherry blossom chiffon cake the coffeehouse is giving us here.

Source, images: Starbucks press release
[ Read in Japanese ]