Cherry blossom tea dessert drinks will reward the taste buds of those who make the trip.
Starbucks, having fully adapted to the Japanese food and beverage scene, makes sure to offer a lineup of cherry blossom-flavored food and drink every year in the runup to sakura season. But while two of those drinks are available at the chain’s hundreds of branches across the country, Starbucks has just added two more sakura beverages to its menu that you can get at only three places in all of Japan.
These special drinks are offered through the Starbucks Tea and Cafe sub-branded locations, and both make use of the company’s Teavana tea. Specifically, they’re made with the Peach Tranquility blend, a peach-infused chamomile tea. With “white peaches” being the dominant variety in Japan, the color pink is closely associated with the fruit in the minds of Japanese people, just like it is with cherry blossoms, which has led to the creation of the sakura-enhanced Peach Tranquility Tea Frappuccino.
This is a Peach Tranquility tea latte-based Frappuccino with pieces of peach and strawberry. The finishing touch is what makes it really special, though, as sakura powder is scattered across the top for you to mix in as you sip.
On the other hand, for those who love cherry blossoms but aren’t so crazy about blended ice, there’s the Peach Tranquility Mousse Latte, which also forgoes the fruit pieces. They’re replaced by a top layer of peach tea mousse which also gets a sakura powder finisher across the top.
▼ The Peach Tranquility Mousse Latte can be ordered either hot or cold.
As for where you can track them down, the three Starbucks branches are:
● Roppongi Hills Metro Hat/Hollywood Plaza (Tokyo)
● Kiririna Keio Kichijoji (Tokyo)
● Lucua 2nd floor (Osaka, opens February 25)
Both drinks went on sale Tuesday and are served only as tall sizes, with the latte priced at 638 yen (US$5.55) and the Frappuccino 736 yen. Starbucks projects the Peach Tranquility Mousse Latte will be around until April 24, provided ingredient supplies last, but lists “while supplies last” alone for the Frappuccino (sakura are, after all, very fickle flowers).
Related: Starbucks Japan location finder
Source, images: Starbucks Japan
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[ Read in Japanese ]