This one is currently off the official menu at S-bucks now, but I guess they had enough of the raw materials lying around to make me this Halloween-themed beverage. I remember seeing the picture for it back in October and they had a menacing-looking witch with a wart on her nose, who for some reason was beseeching me to purchase this drink. I held off, but then I got a blog request (other bloggers will understand, I assume) to review it and so off to Starbucks I went.
Full disclosure: I’m not a guy who generally likes overly sweet drinks, so for my palate this drink wasn’t great. But perhaps surprisingly it wasn’t that bad, either. If Starbucks drinks were national tragedies, then the Juniper Latte would be 9/11—an event that is still to this day seared into the consciousness of millions of Americans—and Witch’s Brew would be more like that time Cory Monteith died. Yes, both events are tragic in their own way, but one precipitated a war in Afghanistan that continues even today and the other was commemorated via a special tribute episode of Glee. So although I didn’t like this one, I can easily see a person enjoying it, much like that tribute episode of Glee, which I’m told was rather touching.
But back to Witch’s brew! First, the taste: it’s counter-intuitive. The drink is purple and before taking a sip one expects a grape or perhaps blueberry flavour. It’s not like that at all, however. The taste is more like orange cream and if you liked orange creamsicles as a kid, there’s a good chance you'll like this one. They add some chia seeds for some reason I’m pretty sure no one on earth understands, but thankfully the chia seeds don’t take away from the beverage. I wouldn’t say they enhance it, either, but no one ever adds Chia seeds to anything expecting them to improve things, so that is totally fine. Finally, they top the drink with whipped cream and some sort of green dust. I don’t know what the green dust is. I’m sure it’s supposed to represent frog warts or something, but I’m a middle-aged dude and to me it’s just a distraction.
Anyway, after the Juniper latte fiasco, it was great to be surprised (in a good way) by this one. No, I wouldn’t drink it again, but I can definitely say that it will appeal to a reasonably large segment of the population.
Verdict: surprisingly drinkable but a bit on the sweet side.
Score: Four stars and 3.5 bucks out of 10.
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