To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Starbucks’ arrival in Japan, a line-up of classic Frappuccinos went on sale starting April 8. Of the total five Frappuccinos, only one variety is available at each store. That naturally makes you want to conquer all five, and I’m surely not the only one who feels that way. So I set out to conquer every Frappuccino on the very first day of sales.
The most efficient, low-risk area to conquer them all is around Tokyo Station!
Starbucks stores in Japan can be found in a variety of locations, but I broadly divide them into three categories: inside commercial facilities, street-facing stores, and locations inside office buildings. In Japan, it is no exaggeration to say that every shopping mall has a Starbucks, but when it comes to “hopping” around to get all five varieties, it’s obvious that a single mall alone won’t be enough.
Street-facing stores are a Starbucks format more often seen in regional areas than in city centers in Japan. They tend to sit along busy roads, and many are equipped with drive-thru lanes. It’s hard to imagine several such roadside Starbucks standing side by side, so they’re not on my radar for a mission to drink all five Frappuccinos. There are a few standalone Starbucks buildings even in urban areas, but they are very much in the minority.
That leaves Starbucks stores inside office buildings as the places for a “Frappuccino hopping” tour. If you are going to “hop,” you want an area dense with office buildings. I chose the “Otemachi–Marunouchi–Yurakucho” area—often abbreviated locally as “Daimaruyu”—near Tokyo Station, the center of Japan’s economy.
In fact, my research turned up other areas where you could theoretically “hop” around to get all five Frappuccinos. However, at some locations Frappuccinos may temporarily sell out or be pulled from sale. As this was the first day of sales, I didn’t encounter that situation, but if you went all the way to a store and found that they didn’t have the Frappuccino you were after, it might be hard to recover from the disappointment.
The area around Tokyo Station helps reduce that “sold out risk.” Based on my research, there are at least several stores within walking distance offering each of the five Frappuccinos. That way, if you can’t get your target Frappuccino at one store, it’s easy to head to another.
Starting from Marunouchi Building, Tokyo’s best-known office tower
At the “Marunouchi Building store,” you can enjoy “THE Frappuccino of Coffee Jelly.” I started my tour in the morning, so there were only a few customers ordering Frappuccinos, and most people around me were ordering regular coffee. Among this special line-up, this one is the most coffee-like Frappuccino, and in that sense it may be the drink that best matches the atmosphere of a crowd ordering coffee (though I doubt many customers actually choose their drink based on that).
The most popular of all? The melon Frappuccino might be the easiest to get
Every year when it goes on sale in Japan, the melon-themed Frappuccino is a huge hit. This time, “THE Frappuccino of Melon of Melon” is offered at many stores, which likely makes it relatively easy to get. I headed to the “Otemachi Building store” to pick mine up. The store sits right along the flow of people transferring between subway lines, and it was impressively busy. Loaded with chunks of melon, this Frappuccino basically turns into a full-fledged dessert, and its popularity is easy to understand.
During a day of “Frappuccino hopping,” you start craving the comfort of roasted stem green tea and warabi mochi
By this point, my “Frappuccino hopping” journey had reached the halfway mark. These Frappuccinos are perhaps designed so that you don’t get tired of drinking several in a single day, and the one whose individuality really stands out is “THE Frappuccino of Kaga Roasted Stem Green Tea.” At the “Otemachi Conference Center store,” I enjoyed a Frappuccino that offers a harmony of roasted stem green tea and warabi mochi—like a traditional Japanese confection in drink form. The store is located right next to the Imperial Palace, in an area known in Tokyo for its abundant greenery.
You expect the cookie to be the star, but it’s the rich milk that really stands out
Moving closer to Tokyo Station, I headed to the “Otemachi Tokyo Sankei Building store” to try “THE Frappuccino of Chunky Cookie.” The visuals, with their strong cookie presence, suggest that the cookie is the main event, but when you take a sip, it’s the rich, creamy milk that really steals your heart. Among all five Frappuccinos, the experience of enjoying a chocolate-flavored milky richness accented by the texture of the cookie was the most unexpected.
Finishing the day with the “yogurt” Frappuccino
The final drink in my “Frappuccino hopping” tour was “THE Frappuccino of Fruits-on-Top Yogurt with Crushed Nuts.” The product name is quite a mouthful, but at the “KDDI Otemachi Building store” I was able to order simply by asking for the “yogurt” Frappuccino. It looks like fruit yogurt and tastes like fruit yogurt, but the crushed nuts add a fun textural accent. Among the Frappuccinos in this hopping tour, this one tasted exactly as I had imagined beforehand, yet the way it layered a sense of “not getting bored of it” onto that expected flavor profile left a strong impression.
Five Frappuccinos in one day is pure fun
For this project, I drank five Frappuccinos in one day. As you might expect, my mouth tasted sweet the entire time. Even so, there’s no doubt that I was able to fully enjoy each Frappuccino’s distinct personality. It was such a satisfying day that I wouldn’t mind repeating each of the Frappuccinos again. Next time, though, I’d like to spread them out over several days and savor each one more slowly.
Notice
This article was generated using automatic translation by GPT-4 API. The translation may not be accurate.
