Starbucks Japan is celebrating Halloween with its fiery Mela Mela Frappuccino and a spooky malassada pastry. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
This year, Starbucks Japan’s drink and dessert holiday specials evoke a spooky, fiery Halloween.
Under a theme of Magical Fire Halloween, Starbucks introduced a Frappuccino that looks like a mysteriously lit blue-and-red fire under a magical spell, and a cocoa-infused Halloween Malassada pastry that’s darkly sweet.
The drink is called Mela Mela — the Japanese term for flaring fire.
Blue and red powders, with blueberry and raspberry flavors, combine with slushy, white condensed milk to give the drink the appearance of a swirling flame. The Mela Mela is topped with whipped cream; a mixed raspberry-, blueberry- and strawberry-flavored sauce; and crunchy chocolate.
Starbucks Japan is celebrating Halloween with its fiery Mela Mela Frappuccino and a spooky malassada pastry. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
You can get extra magical with Pachi Pachi topping to sprinkle on top of the Frappuccino. Similar to Pop Rocks candy, Pachi Pachi pops in your month and adds extra color and texture to your Frappuccino. It is available for additional 110 yen and either comes in red, blue and orange. You won’t know what color you’ll get until you open the package.
The Halloween Frappucino projects an impressively spooky aura. My drink had just the right amount of blueberry and raspberry powders, a nice variation of sweet and sour against the slushy milk.
My colleague found the drink to be less satisfying, overwhelmed by condensed milk that was much too sweet.
But we agreed that the chocolate crunch on top added a different texture and bitterness to the beverage.
We were also divided on the malassada, a Portuguese dessert made of fried dough coated with granulated sugar.
Starbucks’ Malasada Halloween Raspberry and Blueberry is black, not golden like ordinary malassada. The color comes from cocoa mixed in the dough.
Unlike ordinary malasada, which is fried, this dough is fluffy, with powdered sugar sprinkled on one side. Inside, there are two kinds of flavored cream: raspberry and blueberry.
Starbucks Japan is celebrating Halloween with its fiery Mela Mela Frappuccino and a spooky malassada pastry. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
My colleague liked that the malasada was soft, not fried. She also liked that the filling was not too sweet.
However, I didn’t care for the unfried dough and found it not sweet enough. But I did like the filling. It reminded me of jelly-filled doughnuts, which are not so popular in Japan and hard to find.
The Frappuccino and malasada together put you in the mood for Halloween with their photogenic looks. My colleague and I agreed that they are worth trying.
The Mela Mela Frappuccino comes only in tall size and is 678 yen, or about $4.51, for takeout and 690 yen for dine-in, tax included.
Malasada Halloween Raspberry and Blueberry is 324 yen for takeout and 330 yen for eat-in, tax included. Both are available until Oct. 31.
Starbucks Halloween specials
Location: Available at Starbucks locations throughout Japan.
Prices: 678 yen for the Mela Mela Frappucino takeout and 324 yen for the Malasada Halloween Raspberry and Blueberry.
Dress: Casual
Information: Online: starbucks.co.jp