[Korea] 2017 Cherry Blossom Drinks Recap - Starbucks and Coffee Namu

Since I dragged my feet for an entire year posting about cherry blossom cafe drinks, I decided to do a compilation post and to be slightly relevant, I posted it on the first day of spring! (Completely by accident, but it was a happy coincidence!)

Starbucks vs. Coffee Namu

STARBUCKS:

Since Starbucks Korea just announced their cherry blossom drink last week, decided it's finally time to post my 2017 experience...since I'm always on time and relevant, I know.

Every single year, I get tricked by the advertisements. Every year, I think that it will be better this year.

Every single year, the cherry blossom drink at Starbucks Korea tastes like some variation of bathroom potpourri.

I thought, "hmmmmm even though my friend warned me about this drink, the green tea Frappuccino at Starbucks is usually pretty good. And, I had a good experience with the Starbucks Singapore spring drink last week, so maybe Starbucks Korea has a good one this year."

I was wrong.

Drink the Starbucks Korea cherry blossom drink at your own risk.

This one was cherry blossom cream on the bottom layer. The middle layer was the regular green tea Frappuccino. And, it was topped with cherry blossom whipped cream and cherry blossom white chocolate shavings.

It was bad. I tried it and I hope no one else did.

Did I drink it all? Yes. Why? Because it was 6,500 KRW and I don't like wasting food.

If you try this year's concoction, let me know what you think! I am still scarred by this one last year.

COFFEE NAMU:
In addition to cakes, Coffee Namu also sells cafe drinks, including these seasonal cherry blossom drinks.

It's that time of year again. Every cafe in Korea will now sell some sort of cherry blossom drink. Some are hits, some are misses, and some are just okay.

We both had never tried Coffee Namu's cherry blossom drinks before and it was past the time either of us could have caffeine, so we opted to try it out.

On the left is the cherry bossom ade and on the right is the cherry blossom frappe.

Unlike at some other chains, Coffee Namu's drinks don't taste overly perfume-y, nor overly like potpourri, which is a good thing. I really wonder if anyone likes some of the other chains' drinks (*cough* Starbucks cherry blossom Frappuccino *cough*).

That being said, these are DEFINITELY artificial, there's no way around that. I would say they taste more fruity than floral. I made the poor decision and got the cherry blossom frappe and, since I wanted the full experience, I didn't say "no whipped cream, please."

I would say you definitely should try the frappe if you like the strawberries and cream Frappuccino at Starbucks, but wish it was more cream than sugary strawberry. I guess, that would be how I describe it. It was good, but I would definitely never order it again and, if I panicked at the cashier and accidentally ordered it again, I would hope I would tell them to hold the whipped cream. I'm not sure you can see it, but there are shavings of pink white chocolate on top, too. I think it's supposed to be cherry blossom-esque.

The ade was definitely the way to go. It was actually pretty refreshing. However, maybe I just don't like the Korean flavor of cherry blossom (I like Japanese sakura flavor items...so it's strange). It's a unique drink that you should definitely try, especially if you're into pretty pink things. There's also little petals of cherry blossoms floating inside, so maybe it's more natural(?).

It's still refreshing since it's an ade (if you don't know Korean "ade" is basically lemon lime soda mixed with some sort of fruit flavored syrup), but I would probably stick with my go-to grapefruit ade if given the choice.

Overall, these weren't totally a terrible waste of money. They were less than 5,000 KRW (I don't have the exact price written down, sorry). If you see a Coffee Namu, definitely stop in and maybe share one of these unique drinks with a friend and split a more mainstream one, just in case...or, you can always just go for a slice of cake!

VERDICT:

If you want a delicious drink that's cherry blossom themed, but doesn't taste like old lady potpourri, check out All That Sweets! The drinks are so creative and the cakes are so yummy. Also, support a really, really local business.

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