Now you can have your drink and eat it, too.

It’s no secret that we here at SoraNews24 love to treat ourselves to a Starbucks every now and again. Heck, I’m even sat in a Starbucks as I type this. If there’s a new flavour on the menu, you can bet we’ll be there, mug in hand, ready to try it out. And while there haven’t been a lot of new drinks lately, Starbucks Japan is currently offering a warabi mochi (a jelly-like mochi) topping for any iced drink.

Warabi mochi has made an appearance in Starbucks drinks in the past, but now it can be added as a topping for just 100 yen (US$0.95). And sure, it’s a little odd for them to call it a topping; after all, it just instantly sinks to the bottom of your drink. But there’s no denying the joy you get, sucking at the straw to get the jiggly jelly-like treat.  It’s almost like it’s a drink and dessert in one!

▼ You can see the warabi mochi collected at the bottom.

If there’s one thing we love more than Starbucks though, it’s getting the most bang for your buck. After all, the more money we save, the more money we can spend on more important things. So we decided to test it out — how cost effective is the Starbucks warabi mochi topping? Could we enjoy our order as a drink and a dessert?

As expected of true lovers of scientific experiments like us here at SoraNews24, we carefully prepared our laboratory equipment – a weighing scale, a bowl and a colander. Looks like we’re ready to do some straight-up science!

We poured our drink of choice — an iced Starbucks latte — gently over the colander containing warabi mochi.

And don’t worry; if there’s one thing we love more than getting bang for our buck, it’s not being wasteful so we saved the latte for after the experiment was over.

As you can see from the results, a Starbucks warabi mochi topping will give you roughly 80 grams (2.8 ounces) of jiggly jelly goodness. But is that value for money? Well, for comparison, a packet of brown sugar warabi mochi from Seven-Eleven will set you back 105 yen for just 53 grams. By getting the warabi mochi from Starbucks, you’re not only getting more for less, you’re also getting over 50 percent more, which is a really good deal.

While saving some yen is all very well and good, this whole experiment is worthless if the mochi doesn’t taste good. Well, fear not – the strained warabi mochi was delicious. Once you start slurping it up, you won’t be able to stop!

While this ‘topping’ is available with any iced drink on offer at Starbucks, the staff recommend trying it with Teavana ‘Shaken‘ drinks, or any drink with a distinct Japanese taste, like this Green Tea Frappuccino.

So if you’re in the mood for a drink and a dessert next time you visit Starbucks, try out the warabi mochi topping. It’s a limited-edition topping, though, which means you might want to get in soon to avoid missing out. And maybe with all the money you save on dessert you can pick up a Pegasus mug or two!

Photos ©SoraNews24
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