Starbucks is testing something pretty unique: It’s a layered Frappuccino. The bottom layer is a semi-frozen fruit, such as pineapple, mango, or mixed berry, the middle layer is a fruity-mousse layer, and the last layer is a blended Coffee Frappuccino with Coconut Syrup blended in. The whipped cream is citrus infused. This is a very small test in only a handful of stores in San Diego County. Still, it looks so intriguing that I want to shine a spotlight on it.
There are three test flavors of this new Frappuccino: The Maui Pineapple Paradise, the Copacobana Berry Breeze, and the South Beach Mango Passion.
The test began on April 29, 2014, and will run into the summer.
One thing about this beverage, right off the bat, it looks like it would be some work to construct. I certainly don’t know if that’s true or not, but since only the top one-third of the drink is blended, it looks like it might take more steps to put this Frappuccino together.
If you’ve tried this Frappuccino or have any thoughts on it, please weigh in.
Thank you to the reader who sent in these great images!
If you like reading about things Starbucks tests, there are many more of these kinds of articles here.
Edit on May 8, 2014: Following very strong interest via Facebook and emails, I’m including the address of the Starbucks location featured in this article: 635 Saturn Blvd., San Diego, California.
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Sounds a bit gross to me. Also seems more like a desert than a drink.
Oh boy…as if the mocha cookie crumble and caramel ribbon crunch don’t contain enough steps, now this?!?! I’m very sorry to say, I hope this test doesn’t end well! Lol
As a customer it sounds like something I would try, as a shift supervisor “ain’t no body got,time for that!”
🙂
Thanks for once again sharing Starbucks news I would have otherwise missed!!
As a barista who for many years has fielded the “why are my frappuccinos taking so long” questions, I think we are getting a bit out of our league introducing something like this. We have many customers who believe that we just pour them from a machine like McDonalds and just top them with whatever. Trying to explain over and over why our drinks take more time to craft and that the heinous wait time (in the customer’s view) during Happy Hour is because we have 50 drinks and two blenders. I’m hoping the test market for those drinks is in the mid-west and New England. They may sell here in the South but I’m not holding my breath.
It’s as if they love making drinks tedious to make. Someone somewhere must say “what can we do to make partner’s hate frappuccinos even more”.
Coffee and fruit, not sure if it will go well or not….
Say what you want, they look delicious! These are my tastes, believe me. My favourite fruit is mango, and a real Frappuccino with coffee (not Mango Blended Juilce Drink) would be a real bless for me. Nevertheless other tastes sound yummy! I would defenitely try all of them, if only I could (I have a looooong way to San Diego). However they are VERY caloric I noticed, shame – they could be promoted as fit beverages.
Meanwhile, no surprises in Poland for the beginning of Frappuccino season: Mocha Cookie Crumble is reintroduced, followed by Coconut Mocha Frappuccino (which is new – coconut syrup was unavaiable for long time here). Espresso Frappuccino has been added silently to the menuboards, no promotion whatsoever (it’s like standard Coffee Frappuccino, but with extra shot of hot Espresso – no whip).
These drinks sound too complicated to make and am not sure if they will pass the customer approval across all regions. Just curious one how do they decide what region becomes a test region for a particular drink? They must do some market research? Certainly, my area has never been a test region. And two – where is the kitchen that tests these drinks to begin with? In Seattle?
@Purple1 – Very generally speaking (there’s exceptions and variations) the way that Starbucks testing works is like this:
Someone at the headquarters right here in the SODO neighborhood of Seattle has a beverage or food idea. They do some initial work on the idea in a lab/ kitchen in the Starbucks headquarters. There are probably a zillion meetings about it along the way.
Often, the earliest prelimary testing is done just north of Seattle, in Snohomish County. Isolated stores will try early testing of things like carbonated drinks, new marshmallow mocha, and so on … I have no doubt, that I miss A LOT of what’s going on in Snohomish County. There are lots of stores, and they don’t always use the same stores and sometimes it just a tiny number of Sno County Starbucks stores.
After that, if the earliest testing looks good, they’ll move the test to other regions. Cold beverage testing is often done in places like Dallas/ San Diego/ and more. Food testing, for some reason, is often in Arizona. Sometimes Portland, Oregon gets a test.
If that testing goes well, it sometimes expands to a much larger test, and now is sometimes considered out of the test phase and into the “regional launch” phase. For example, the carbonation testing continues to go well, and some warmer climate places will add carbonation this summer on June 25th. I wish it would be in Seattle everywhere by then, but that’s another story.
And then finally, if something is still 1) Selling well 2) is practical deliver (no bottlenecks in logistics, labor, supplies) and 3) profitable then it makes it to a national launch – which is exactly what happened with the Refreshers.
Ok since this is a Frappucino thread, I feel justified in the rant I’m going to go off on now.. What is up with Starbucks giving skinny regular straws with Frappuccinos now? This single thing annoys me and makes me m ore visibly angry than anything else because 1) It sucks and is completely inappropriate for use on a thick frozen drink and 2) It is emblematic to me of how theyre actvely cheapening the product and brand for an already overpriced $5 drink! Along with the new paired down logo (won’t get into that) this one just drves me batty.
This seems like it would be delicious! I love anything mango so this is exciting to me. I don’t think this would be tedious to make, however it just may feel that way since we do get lots of request to layer drinks in my store, customers love it! And hey would love this since it’s so hot here in summer in SoCal.
I seriously doubt that I would even go there with this drink…. BUT I have selfish reasons why I want it to succeed. Did someone mention coconut syrup? I know that some markets carry coconut year-round–but I’m missing my mocha coconut combination over here.
Sounds like a drive thru nightmare. I’d support this if they made it an in store only drink so the drive thru doesn’t get backed up. Hopefully they will still have these in July when I am in San Diego so I can try!
do you have a list of which stores in San Diego are in the pilot test? Sounds like a road trip
I think these would be good if they were creme fraps, but the coffee and fruit thing sounds kind of gross to me.
I had the berry one and it was fabulous. I wouldn’t call it a drink it was more of a dessert, I ate it with a spoon.
Didn’t Jello already do this in the 1960s with the 1-2-3? 😉
Honestly, I don’t like fruit with my coffee, but more power to them.
I’d like to try them each but I am not in the area where they are being tested. they sound intereresting
As someone who never gets Frappuccinos (WAY too many calories for a drink), I’m against anything that takes even MORE time to prepare. I can’t even count how many times I’ve waited ages for an iced coffee because there are 5 people in front of me all getting Frappuccinos.
Heading down to San Diego this holiday weekend for a camping trip with the family. I am looking forward to trying these new drinks. Thank you melody for all of the info you provide. Only started going regularly to starbucks this past november … now I’m hooked partly due to your website.
@Sam – Thank you! And I just published a book! I hope you’ll pick up a copy. There are links in several places to the book. You can use the tab “Buy the Book” too. Thanks! Let us know how you like this Frappuccino!