Two companies from Seattle go head-to-head in Japan. 

With meteorological autumn finally here, sweet potato products are starting to appear in stores. This popular seasonal vegetable is often featured in autumnal sweets in Japan, and this year it’s the star ingredient in two limited-edition drinks at two of the country’s top coffeehouse chains, Starbucks and Tully’s.

Over at Starbucks, we have the “Hojicha-Scented Baked Sweet Potato Mousse Tea Latte“, and at Tully’s we have the “Comforting Caramel Oimo Latte“, with “oimo” meaning “sweet potato“. Both of them sound like a delicious way to welcome in the cooler months, and are perfectly primed for a comparison, so that’s what we decided to do, heading out to try them both as soon as they were released.

First up, the Starbucks drink is surprising in that it’s a latte and not a Frappuccino, the latter of which the chain is well known for. With a base of hojicha (roasted green tea) and milk, the drink has baked sweet potato-flavored sauce at the bottom of the cup, and baked sweet potato-flavored mousse and sweet potato powder on top.

▼ This beverage is on the menu at 640 yen (US$4.32) for dine-in.

The baked sweet potato-flavoured mousse is particularly special as it’s a first for Starbucks, and when we tried it, we found that it perfectly captured the sweet, soft texture unique to sweet potatoes. Diving deeper into the drink, the baked sweet potato sauce perfectly complemented the hojicha, creating an elegantly autumn flavour that allows you to fully enjoy the flavour of sweet potato from the first sip to the very last.

▼ Every detail is finely crafted, in that unmistakable Starbucks way.

So what about the drink at Tully’s, the chain that tends to sit in Starbucks’ shadow? At 630 yen, it’s slightly cheaper than Starbucks, and it’s also coffee-based, as opposed to tea-based. Released on 3 September, the same date as the Starbucks latte, this beverage combines coffee with a caramel-flavoured sweet potato sauce, and tops it all off with sweet potato whipped cream and caramel chips.

Starbucks only offers the latte iced in a tall size, but Tully’s sells theirs both hot and iced, in short through to grande sizes, giving you a greater variety of options when purchasing. Tully’s has released so-called “Oimo Latte” drinks around this time in previous years as well, suggesting Starbucks might actually be the copycat here, catering to a crowd that Tully’s has long known existed.

Giving it a good stir, the flavour of this drink seems more comforting than the one at Starbucks, despite its higher caffeine content. The coffee base actually gives it a slight bitterness that balances the sweetness of the sauce nicely, while the whipped cream is richly sweet, with the crunchy chips providing great texture.

The latte base itself tastes familiar, but the addition of sweet potato toppings creates a comforting yet subtly different flavour experience, making it our favourite pick amongst the two. Still, in saying that, you won’t be disappointed with either of these drinks, only tea lovers will likely want to opt for the Starbucks offering while coffee enthusiasts will likely prefer the Tully’s latte.

Either way, both are limited-time drinks and will end as soon as the ingredients for them run out, so you’ll want to get in quick to try them before they disappear… much like the leaves on the trees this season.

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