From the bright colors of spring to the legendary red holiday cups and, of course, the world-famous pumpkin spice latte, it’s not a holiday if Starbucks isn’t serving up some appropriately themed seasonal offerings — and Halloween is no exception.
Starbucks has just announced that the walking dead are invading ... in the form of bright green Zombie Frappuccinos hitting coffee chain locations in the US and Canada Oct. 26.
I visited my local Starbucks in Brooklyn, New York this morning to give it a try. This drink is probably going to be a hit with anyone who likes to get their Halloween fright in the form of lots of sugar. But there's also surprisingly tart taste of a green apple.
According to the chain, the new blended beverage has a “ghastly” green body made with Frappuccino Crème infused with flavors of apple and caramel and topped with a red mocha drizzle and pink whipped cream aka “zombie brains”.
Like many of Starbucks' seasonal sweet treats, I found the drink to be quite heavy and filling, so go for the tall size if you get one. But I wasn't even able to finish that.
Of course, the new drink is another made-for-Instagram type of beverage, just like the Unicorn and Rainbow drinks last spring. As this sugar bomb is also a blanket of calories (a grande Zombie Frappuccino has almost 300 calories), so it's probably a good thing it's only around for one week.
“When brainstorming a new Frappuccino flavor for this Halloween, we started by thinking about a Halloween party and monster mash,” Jennica Robinson of Starbucks beverage development team, said in a statement.
“We had already invited Frankenstein and vampires to the party, so we came up with another monster that could join the bash.”
This limited-edition beverage is already stirring up excitement across Twitter.
This isn’t the first Halloween-themed drink that Starbucks has launched. In 2014, the chain introduced the world to the Franken Frappuccino in 2014. The vampire-themed Frappula Frappuccino came out in 2015 and 2016. More recently, there was, of course, the Vampire Frappuccino released in London.
The Zombie Frappuccino will be available through Halloween, Oct. 31.