Are those obnoxious-looking, sugar-filled, experimental drinks by Starbucks actually good? We took manners in our hands and decided to try the latest offering by the chain: The Halloween-themed Zombie Frappuccino.
Ringing it at $5.45 plus tax, the blended concoction is available today through October 31 and us lucky folks got our hands on the second one ever made at our local Starbucks (that is, if we're not counting the ones made and enjoyed by the staff itself. Their reaction? "It tasted a hell of a lot better than that unicorn rainbow thing we had to make a few months ago").
Before our reactions, a few basic facts: The drink is made with whole milk, caramelized apple powder, whipped cream with seven pumps of vanilla and rose powder, (to make it pink!) plus red mocha sauce (mocha chocolate with rose powder). Here are our thoughts:
"At first it tastes like rancid cotton candy. Then it dies down" —Alyson Penn, Assistant Food and Drink Editor
"It tastes like frosting. No, it tastes like generic grocery store frosting. No, here's what it tastes like: It tastes like pancake batter! It tastes like boxed, Aunt Jemima, just-add-water pancake batter." —Clayton Guse, Digital Editor
[She sniffs, she runs away]. —Jennifer Picht, Things to Do Editor
"I never want to drink this ever again." —Anna Ben Yehuda, National Digital Content Editor
"It's not good." —Lacey Budd, Head of Audience Development
"I don't know, it's strange. I kind of hate it and love it at the same time." —Robyn Cohen, Production Manager
"I think the purple is messing with my head: My first taste was grape lollipop and then burned coffee [editor's note: there is no coffee in the drink]." [Goes in for a second sip] "The 'zombieness' is it has an afterlife on my tongue that's kind of relentless, it's not going away." [Takes a third sip:] "It's doing things that food shouldn't do. If candy could sweat, it's like they wiped that off and put it in the cup." —Richard Morgan, Food and Drink Editor
"It's way too sweet, this is too much sugar. No one needs that much sugar in a drink in the morning." —Tom Hislop, Creative Director
"Oh, no." —Dana Trunk, Freelance Producer
"Oh my, it's so weird but like... I wanna go back a little bit." —Aashna Shah, Junior Designer
"It's really weird." —Gabrielle Rancourt, Associate Production Manager
"It's cloying with a really weird after taste, like sandal soap." —Howard Halle, Art/Editor-at-Large
"F**k, that's disgusting. How do people eat that?" —Rachel Cohen, Senior Creative Strategist