With the start of summer a month away, many coffee chains are trying to tap into the period's flavors for its seasonal promotions.
After experimenting with cinnamon and pistachios in past quarters, Starbucks (SBUX) began pouring the Chocolate Java Mint Frappuccino and the White Chocolate Macadamia Cream Cold Brew as their new summer drinks earlier this week.
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To see whether these new takes on popular Starbucks beverages are another marketing trick or truly "elicit nostalgia for our favorite summer treats" like the chain says, our team at TheStreet set out to do the hard and thankless work of testing them.
Veronika Bondarenko
The Latest Starbucks Foam Tastes Like Macadamia Nuts
TheStreet's Dan Kline: When Starbucks first added cold foam to its menu, it seemed like a bit of a gimmick — a sort of lower-calorie whipped cream that integrated reasonably well with the chain's cold brew coffee. It wasn't really part of a cohesive drink, more of an accent like putting sprinkles on your sundae.
The chain has since brought out a lot of cold foam flavors, and none have really broken that mold where the foam went from being a topping to part of the drink in the way that each ingredient makes a cocktail. That changed with the new Starbucks White Chocolate Macadamia Cream Cold Brew. The drink combines the chain's cold brew coffee sweetened with macadamia syrup and is then topped with a white chocolate macadamia cream cold foam and finished with toasted cookie crumbles.
There's nothing particularly white chocolate or macadamia nut about the taste, but the flavor mix combines with the cold brew to create something altogether better than any of the flavors on their own. With most Starbucks cold foam flavors, the best part is licking the pure foam off the lid of your drink. In this case, the coffee company has created a truly integrated beverage where the coffee mixing with the foam creates a perfect sip and the balance of both lasts to the last drop.
Chocolate And Mint Is a Safe (But Delicious) Combination
TheStreet's Veronika Bondarenko: I like chocolate and I like mint, so I set out to try the Chocolate Java Mint Frappuccino. The latest flavor still has the decadent milkshake feel signature to all frapps, while the taste of mint cuts through the richness in a very refreshing way. While I didn't immediately associate the drink with a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream, it hit all the right notes of being at once extremely indulgent and summery (ergo, lighter).
I particularly liked the small bits of cookie that retained their shape among the rest of the blended beverage. The texture change made it fun to drink while the flavor combo is more or less impossible to nitpick. This isn't an experiment or a "so weird you gotta try it" gimmick like the olive-oil-infused coffee launched earlier this spring but a classic dessert combination that almost everyone will like. I think it works better without the whipped cream but that is an adjustment you can easily request when ordering the drink.
I have, in past reviews of Starbucks' seasonal drinks, written about how I don't like the taste of coffee. While this is a dessert and in no way a coffee replacement, it is, as far as coffee-flavored treats go, about as good as it gets.
