Coffee fans will want to try these limited edition Starbucks Japan drinks while they’re available, because this time, the focus really is on the coffee.  

Starbucks may be a hugely popular coffee chain, both here and around the world, but it’s not exactly a secret that their drinks in Japan often feature flavors completely unrelated to coffee — matcha and sakura being prime examples.

But this time, the new limited-edition drinks that Starbucks Japan released on February 28 are all about coffee! We tried the new beverages, and we have to say we were quite impressed with how full of coffee flavor they were.

▼ The new drinks: the Crafted Coffee Jelly Frappuccino and the Tokyo Roast Moussed Foam Latte

We first tried the Crafted Coffee Jelly Frappuccino, priced at 590 yen (US$5.30). The drink contains an original espresso-based jelly at the bottom, layered over with coffee-flavored whipped cream and espresso-flavored Frappuccino,  all topped with more coffee whipped cream and “cascara sugar” made from the outer shell and flesh of coffee beans.

▼ Here’s the Crafted Coffee Jelly Frappuccino, packed with the strong flavor of espresso.

The only sweet parts of the Frappuccino were the whipped cream and the sprinkling of cascara sugar, and with the espresso jelly providing plenty of bitterness, the drink was actually quite invigorating. In fact, we found that we quite liked how the strong flavor packed a bit of a punch.

▼ The bitter espresso jelly adds a good deal of kick to the drink.

We of course also tried the Tokyo Roast Moussed Foam Latte (490 yen), which was inspired by the Iced Macchiato con Crema drink available at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo that opened on the same day the new drinks went on sale.

What makes this drink special is that the foam on top contains ground pieces of the “TOKYO Roast” coffee beans roasted at the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo. The main drink itself is a double espresso shot latte, and again, a topping of cascara sugar is sprinkled over the foam.

The coffee-bean-infused foam gave the latte a wonderful aroma and a soft, airy texture that made it an absolute pleasure to drink. And with a higher espresso content than a regular latte, we felt this was truly a drink made for coffee lovers.

▼ Starbucks also have the standard Moussed Foam Latte (not the Tokyo Roast version) and the Moussed Foam Caramel Macchiato, shown on the top right in the menu below. These are currently available as part of the regular menu.

▼ Yes, we were more than satisfied with the new limited-edition drinks!

So, to sum up our impressions, the Crafted Coffee Jelly Frappuccino was a distinctly yet pleasantly bitter beverage full of espresso flavor, and as for the Tokyo Roast Moussed Foam Latte, we genuinely felt it was one of the best Starbucks drinks ever to come out and a must-try for coffee fans. If you’ve felt that Starbucks beverages are always too sweet, then these two drinks should make for a pleasant surprise.

The Crafted Coffee Jelly Frappuccino will be available until March 19 and the Tokyo Roast Moussed Foam Latte until April 10, so make sure to try them while you can!

Reference: Starbucks Japan website
Photos: © SoraNews24

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