Final limited-edition drink for cherry blossom season is giving traditional Japanese sweet vibes.

Every year, Starbucks gives us not one but two limited-edition Frappuccinos in the lead-up to cherry blossom season, and this year is no different, with the White Peach and Sakura Warabi Mochi Frappuccino released on 15 February and the Matcha and Sakura Warabi Mochi Frappuccino released on 28 February.

After being delighted by the first cherry blossom offering, our resident Starbucks expert K. Masami hotfooted it down to her nearest branch to get a taste of the new, and final, sakura Frappuccino of the year.

▼ The chain recommends soy milk so highly for this particular drink that it’s offering the normally 50-yen (US$0.33) customisation for free, so Masami took advantage of the offer.

As a diehard matcha fan, Masami took advantage of some other free customisations, namely extra matcha powder, no syrup, and for it to be served in a glass, so she could fully enjoy the inner beauty of the drink, all for 690 yen.

Holding it up to the light allowed Masami to get a good look at the different layers, with sakura warabi mochi (a jelly-like bracken starch confection) in the base, whipped cream with a saucy pink drizzle up top, and a rich green body of matcha in between.

▼ The pink sauce contains strawberry and sakura flavours, and is accented with a sprinkling of strawberry and raspberry powder.

It looked like a very Japanese beverage, and when she tried a spoonful containing all the different components, she found it tasted like one too. Somehow, the fruity accents made it even seem somewhat celebratory. The sweetness and mild bitterness of the matcha powder, along with the perfect compatibility of the chewy warabi mochi, was simply perfect.

Masami describes it as a flavour that feels both familiar and unfamiliar, seemingly traditional yet not quite so. It’s like meeting an old friend after a long time, but feeling as if you can converse as naturally as always, to the point where it doesn’t even feel like you’ve ever been apart.

For a drink to conjure up such emotion is high praise, and Masami says it’s even better than the first sakura Frappuccino, so she highly recommends trying it while it’s on the menu until 11 March.

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