We Tried The Black Cat Frappuccino (And It’s Not A Gimmick)

At long last, the day we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived. That’s right, it’s the release day of Starbucks’ Black Cat Frappuccino. This all-new product has had a lot of hype around it in the leadup to release day, and now the time has finally arrived where we can all go out and taste it for ourselves.

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Not only is it cute and perfectly themed for the upcoming Halloween festivities, but even just last week they announced that the spokesperson (or spokes-cat, shall we say) for the launch is Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch. With all the Halloween representation really being maxed out with his drink already, we knew that there was only one thing left to do when it came time for its official release into stores. Of course, we awoke bright and early to try one of these novelty Frappuccinos for ourselves alongside the brand new cookie that accompanied its launch and are hereto give you all the inside scoop.

Our Thoughts On The Black Cat Frappuccino

The Frappuccino itself is designed to be as close to black as you can naturally in regards to its color, and it’s made with a Creme Frappuccino base with added rich, dark cocoa flavors to give it a brownie-like taste to do so. Other than generalized fall flavors like apple and pumpkin, we don’t really have assigned flavors for Halloween itself. But there’s one thing we can always count on eating a lot of on Halloween: chocolate. So for us, this flavor feels very apt. Not only that, but the drink did taste pretty delicious. It is quite sweet, but that’s not only what we expected from a flavor that was brownie-inspired, but also always expect from Starbucks Frappuccinos anyways. And, aside from the sweetness, it was actually very balanced because of the deep and complex flavor of the cocoa.

The whipped cream was, as we feel is the case with all Starbucks Frappuccinos, a throwaway component of the drink, but we did appreciate what it enabled Starbucks to do with the addition of the black cat ear garnish. The way it just delightfully sticks out of the top of the whipped cream (and the high contrast in color) was not only adorable, but very effective in feeling like an on-theme treat. And, we are delighted to see that the ears themselves were made out of a decent quality dark chocolate. They tasted great.

I think this is the perfect addition to Starbucks menu since it distinctly isolates Halloween as a holiday worth celebrating and gives people a way to enjoy themed treats in more ways than just everything pumpkin or the classic mummy cake pop. The thing we probably appreciate the most about this whole thing is the fact that they didn’t try to keep this drink on the menu for too long. They released it just the week before Halloween so people have time to actually be excited about it and not too much time where it’s lost all of its novelty. It feels exclusive, and thus even more celebratory.

The Black Night Cookie

Beyond the Frappuccino, we are excited to see that the treats got a little Halloween upgrade too. After all, the thing people usually associate with celebrating Halloween is candy and desserts, so it only feels right that they would have something like this available in addition to the Frappuccino. And the cookie wasn’t half bad either. In fact, it was actually one of the better cookies we’ve had from Starbucks in some time. It didn’t have that heavy artificial taste that premade cookies can sometimes have that will keep them gooey for a long time.

Instead, it’s only real flaw was just that it was a tad dry. Otherwise, it was a really balanced cookie having a little touch of salt and a nice complexity from the rich dark cocoa in the dough. I can’t say we really noticed the flavor of the chips mixed into the cookie though, so if that was something you were really looking forward to this cookie you might be a tad disappointed. Regardless, the overall flavor was great, and we’d be happy to get it again ahead of the holiday.