We try the newest Japanese Frappuccino, with a name so long that even Starbucks’ own employees can’t remember it.
With over 1,400 branches across Japan, and more than 300 in Tokyo alone, Starbucks Japan knows it can be hard to pick which exact one of its coffee houses to go to. So to make that decision a little earlier, on March 29 the company kicked off its Our Store’s Coffee promotion, in which every single location creates and offers a special customized drink of its own.
While these aren’t necessarily exclusive to each branch, they’re representations of what the individual branch thinks its local customers will like, and some are so complex that we’d never have thought of them by ourselves. For example, our ace reporter Mr. Sato was recently drawn to the Starbucks on the first floor of the Yurakucho Building, near Tokyo’s fancy Ginza neighborhood, to try their Our Store’s Coffee, which is a concoction whose mouthwatering allure is matched only by its staggeringly long name.
The branch has a convenient signboard set up at its entrance trumpeting the special drink, and its name, when handwritten, occupies six lines of text.
So what’s it called?
Double Ristretto Nonfat Breve Non-vanilla Mocha Non-whip Extra Chocolate Sauce Vanilla Frappuccino
And if you think that’s a mouthful, the relative lack of consonant blends in the Japanese language means it gets even more syllables in Japanese, where it becomes:
Daburu Risutoretto Nonfatto Burebo Nonbanira Moka Nonhoippu Ekusutora Chocoreto Sosu Banira Furpechino
Being the suave customer that he is, Mr. Sato was determined to fire off his order free of stutters or tongue-tiedness. He strode up to the counter, where the young cashier greeted him with “Welcome to Starbucks! What can I get you?”, to which our reporter replied:
“Yes, I would like a Double Ristretto…Non-bubble…Nonstop…”
Luckily, as Mr. Sato’s words and consciousness began to trail off into the void, the young lady working the register smiled reassuringly and said, “Ah, that’s OK, I understand what you want.” Mr. Sato breathed a sigh of relief at this act of mercy from his personal coffee angel, who soothed his damaged ego by telling him “Even those of us who work here can’t quite remember the full name off the top of our heads.”
The special tall-size drink costs 691 yen (US$6.20), which Mr. Sato confirmed by looking at his receipt, which he was disappointed to see did not list the drink’s full name, but only the base beverage of “Vanilla Cream Frappuccino” along with extra notations for “shot,” “breve,” and “branch customization.”
But Mr. Sato stopped caring about his receipt as soon as he had his drink in front of him.
It definitely looked complex, with a variety of colors and textures throughout and atop the drink.
But how does it taste?
Amazing. From the very first sip, the sweetness of the steamed half-and-half cream of the breve combines with that of the chocolate sauce for an intense burst of flavor and heavy mouth feel. This transitions to a remarkably clean and light finish, though, perhaps due to the use of nonfat milk, which prevents the aftertaste from becoming oily.
▼ Sweet Sato satisfaction
So yes, the Double Ristretto Nonfat Breve Non-vanilla Mocha Non-whip Extra Chocolate Sauce Vanilla Frappuccino is definitely worth drinking, and while you could ask the barista at other branches to make one for you, we recommend going to the Tokyo branch that we did, since it saves you the trouble (and time) of saying the drink’s full name.
Cafe information
Starbucks(Yurakucho Building 1st floor branch) / スターバックス（有楽町ビル1階店）
Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Yurakucho 1-10-1, Yurakucho Building 1st floor
東京都 千代田区 有楽町1-10-1 有楽町ビル 1階
Open 7 a.m.-10 p.m. (weekdays), 9 a.m.-10 p.m. (Saturdays), 9 a.m.-9 p.m. (Sundays, holidays)
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