Taste-testing the Joyful Medley Tea Frappuccino and its companion latte.

With last Friday being October 31, the time came to say goodbye to Starbucks Japan’s Halloween black cat Frappuccino. But the coffeehouse chain wasted no time bringing out a new seasonal dessert drink, as the Strawberry and Joyful Medley Tea Frappuccino went on sale the very next day, November 1.

Joyful Medley is Starbucks’ special winter tea, a mixture of black, oolong, and jasmine teas flavored with apricot and, in this year’s version, mirabelle plum. Though we’re still in late autumn, the Christmas mood starts getting stirred up early in Japan, and so this is technically the kickoff for Starbucks Japan’s holiday season Frappuccinos, with the new drink’s red-and-white color scheme evoking thoughts of Christmas decorations.

The blended ice base is a mixture of Joyful Medley and milk, and sitting at the bottom of the cup are large strawberry slices. Up top you get a swirl of whipped cream dusted with freeze-dried strawberries, and for an extra 55 yen (US$0.35) on top of the 700-yen base price you also get a cute holiday-themed cookie, either a ribbon, snowman, teddy bear, or doll.

Obviously we splurged for the cookie, and the randomly granted design we got was the ribbon, making this drink feel even more like a present we were buying for ourselves.

Taste-testing duties fell to our resident Frappuccino expert K. Masami, who quickly learned that all that fruit at the base of the glass provides a foundation of sweet and tart juicy flavor. The flavors of the Joyful Medley are all still given room to shine too, from the sophisticated mix of the three varieties of tea to their two fruit enhancements.

Masami wondered if mixing everything together with a spoon might upset the flavor balance, but it did nothing of the sort. Whether sipped as-is or after stirring, all of the components really do come together in a “joyful medley” in which they all work wonderfully with one another, leading to a clean finish of tea notes.

When Starbucks releases a new Frappuccino, they often bring out a new latte with similar flavors. That’s happened once again here, as on the same day as the Strawberry and Joyful Medley Tea Frappuccino went on sale they also began offering the Strawberry Mousse and Joyful Medley Tea Latte. This 580-yen latte can be ordered either hot or cold, and with a chill in the air finally appearing in Japan, Masami opted for a hot. Like with the Frappuccino, the drink’s base is a mix of Joyful Medley tea and milk, but the latte allows you to make milk substitutions if you’d like, so Masami asked for hers with soy milk (which is a free substitution).

The extra-special ingredient here is the strawberry mousse topping, which is enhanced with a sprinkling of freeze-dried strawberries. The balance is tipped a little more towards sweetness here, but that’s not a complaint, as the gentle tart sensation comes across as an especially cozy and comforting accent, especially when it’s part of a warm, creamy package.

Masami thinks the new Frappuccino and Latte are tasty enough to be deserving of permanent-menu status, but also realizes that, given their connection to the seasonal Joyful Medley Tea, that’s not going to happen. But while Christmas comes but once a year, thankfully she’ll have time to go back for seconds on these before their limited-but-unspecified availability ends.

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