Starbucks decided to jump on the Halloween bandwagon with the release of its new limited edition drink available until Oct. 31, the Zombie frappuccino. The drink is advertised with the promise that “You’ll lose your mind” but the only thing lost in purchasing this drink is time and money.
The drink consists of a green caramel apple base with a dark mocha drizzle and pink whip “brains” to top off the undead creation. Like most drinks, it does not exactly resemble the advertised masterpiece, as the whipped topping was not as thick as the picture portrayed it to be.
The base tastes like a normal cream frappuccino without any hints of a unique flavor, which was quite disappointing as the specialty drink was supposed to taste like classic Halloween flavors like caramel apple. The texture is grainy, as like all frappuccinos it is just a combination of finely crushed ice with a sweetened milk and syrup flavoring mixture.
When the pink whip is mixed into the drink, it creates a new flavor, but not a good one as the drink becomes even sweeter than it was before. But when the caramel is mixed into the drink, the sweetness from the caramel balances out the blandness of the whipped cream. The combination of all three flavors saw the milk base taking over the main taste of the drink. The pink whipped cream “brain” that tops off the drink is nothing special, it just tastes like whipped cream and is quite disappointing. The dark mocha drizzle also did not have much to offer, as it only made the drink sweeter and did not have much flavor.
After tasting the drink it was rated based on presentation, taste and how it lived up to its advertisement. It had a clean presentation (though this may depend on the barista) and looked very similar to the advertised picture especially considering it was a done by one person fulfilling orders on their own. Before the drink’s flavors where mixed together it received three out of ten zombies. After the flavors where mixed the drink received four out of ten zombies. When fully mixed, there was a noticeable but small improvement. The drink looked how it was advertised but the limited period of availability may be for a good reason, as the drink does not live up to its hype.
The Zombie frappuccino was an interesting concept but one that could be significantly improved.
3.5/10
Katelyn Payne // A&E Editor and Copy Editor
Mitchell Miller // Staff Writer
