Secret dessert drink becomes a hit, but it’s only available to those who know how to order it.

Starbucks currently has a limited-edition spring lineup of sakura Frappuccinos and lattes in stores around Japan, but just in case this cherry blossom bonanza isn’t enough, they’re also offering a special “Hanami Dango” customisation that can be added to any drink on the menu.

“Hanami Dango” (“Flower-viewing rice cakes”) is a traditional skewered sweet consisting of three rice cakes — one coloured pink to represent the sakura buds, one coloured white to represent the flowers in full bloom and one coloured green to represent the flowers that remain on the tree once the flowers have fallen.

▼ Hanami Dango

Image: Muscle Plus

Starbucks’ Hanami Dango customisation sees the traditional sweet being miniaturised into even tinier pieces, offering bursts of colour and chewy texture throughout the drink. However, what some customers have found is that the new customisation is actually reminiscent of another hugely popular sweet — Yukimi Daifuku.

▼ Yukimi Daifuku (“Snow-viewing Rice Cakes”) are small ice creams covered in a thin layer of glutinous rice.

These ice creams have a cult following in Japan, so the news that Starbucks is essentially selling a Yukimi Daifuku Frappuccino quickly went viral online.

▼ As soon as we heard the news, we headed out to our nearest branch to see if the drink lived up to the hype.

The fact that this Frappuccino has been making more news online than the official sakura drinks raised our expectations for it, and when we arrived at the store, we saw that it was one of two recommended drinks for the “Hanami Dango Customise” (“花見団子カスタマイズ”).

▼ Matcha Cream Frappuccino ﹢Hanami Dango (top) and Vanilla Cream Frappuccino ﹢Hanami Dango (bottom)

The drink that’s causing a storm right now is the Vanilla Cream Frappuccino with Hanami Dango, but the exact customisation you’ll need to really get the Yukimi Daifuku ice cream flavour is as follows:

  • Vanilla Cream Frappuccino
  • Hanami Dango
  • Change to white mocha syrup
  • Change to Breve Milk
  • Extra whipped cream

▼ The customisation in Japanese, so you can simply show this photo to staff if you run into any language-barrier problems.

The resulting Frappuccino is magnificent in its whiteness, making us feel like we’re viewing snow from the get-go.

▼ The customised drink costs 745 yen (US$4.95).

This is an indulgent beverage that’s undoubtedly a calorie bomb, but it’s not every day you get to drink a mochi ice cream. The whipped cream on top was divine, and after plunging our spoon through it, we unearthed those beautiful little dango pieces.

▼ Snow viewing and flower viewing in one sitting.

Lifting the spoon to our lips, we popped the mixture into our mouth and our taste buds were immediately awakened to the joys of…yukimi daifuku! Though we’d been sceptical at first, the flavour was as spot-on as everyone’s been saying, totally fooling our taste buds into thinking we were drinking a Yukimi Daifuku mochi ice cream!

The intense creaminess of the drink matched the levels of the ice cream perfectly, while the chewiness of the dango pieces had the same softness as the layer of mochi around a Yukimi Daifuku.

Every component was essential to replicating the taste and texture of the iconic ice creams, including the extra fresh cream and the breve milk (a 1:1 blend of milk and fresh cream) which gave it a heavenly richness, so if you’d like to try this drinkable ice cream Frappuccino, you won’t want to skimp on any of the customised ingredients.

It was a mind-blowing experience and one that’s well worth the hype, and the calories, so be sure to try it while the Hanami Dango customisation is available at Starbucks branches around Japan until 12 March. And don’t forget to try the sakura sweets and browse the hanami drinkware collection while you can too!

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