"frappuccino" news and stories

Starbucks
Deal: Half-price Frappuccinos
Date: Now until May 16
More: Visit a participating Starbucks between 3 and 5 p.m. and enjoy a half-price Frappuccino blended beverage.

When I was but an innocent adolescent – not yet exposed to caffeine-fueled college all-nighters and the pure joy that is espresso – the only coffee I would drink was a Starbucks Frappuccino, delightfully laden with sugar, whipped cream, and occasionally, gobs of caramel syrup. As I stopped growing upward, and extra Frapps had me growing outward, I cut back on the frozen bevies. (Cue the sad string quartet.)

While I'm surely not alone in the conception that Frappuccinos are a "once in awhile" treat, I'm pleased to be the bearer of the good news that your favorite summer sipper can be customized with a slimmed-down makeover. Yes, the Frappuccino Light has been around since 2004, but the pre-mixed base contained part non-fat, part whole dry milk, chemicals and high fructose corn syrup (the regular base contained the corn syrup too), and not a whole lot of natural anything.

On May 4th, when Starbucks rolls out their "However-You-Want-It Frappuccino Blended Beverage," customers will be able to choose from, among other specialized options, four real milks: nonfat, two percent, whole and soy. (Lactose-intolerant folks, I'm talking to you!) It's the first time in 15 years that the popular drink's formula has been changed, and it now heralds back more truly to the original creation.

Homemade candy corn. Photo: NoshWithMe, Flickr.

A few of the best stories spied elsewhere on the Web this week:

Why buy bags of Brach's when you can make your own gorgeous Halloween candy?

A chain of Spanish-American restaurants in Brooklyn and Queens offers seafood-loaded and tequila-spiked "Viagra" soup.

A recent study published in the Journal of Neuroscience is the first to show that eating and drinking act as painkillers by way of distraction.

The new "Hell's Kitchen" Nintendo game requires players to chop food and drop it into pots, but surprisingly does not involve swearing and smoking.

Move over Starbucks, Wolfgang Puck is introducing bottled Culinary Iced Coffees made with organic ingredients.

In the latest Todd English news, his former fiancée, Erica Wang, turned herself in to the police today, after he filed assault charges against her.

Unsnobbycoffee.com sounds like it might be something really good for your dad or uncle who still can't pronounce "grande" and thinks "frappuccino" is a made-up word (and to be fair, "frappuccino" is a made-up word, by Boston's The Coffee Connection chain which was bought by Starbucks).

Actually, unsnobbycoffee.com is the website for McDonalds' new ad campaign.

"McDonald's has made it simple and easy to get the delicious espresso drinks you crave. No crazy names or sizes. No second language required. So hang out and have some fun."

What? McDonald's wants to be a coffee house?

Source

Coffee is hip (actually, it's been that way for several years now), and everyone is drinking it, including kids and teens. When I was a kid, we never drank coffee. It was seen as a "grown-up" thing to do, right up there with having sex, smoking cigarettes, and mortgages. But now you see kids and teens with a Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts cup in their hands, and coffee shoppes are the new malt shoppes.

The Boston Globe's Beth Teitell has an interesting piece on the trend, noting how we try to cut high sugar sodas and fat-filled candy from schools but we're not really thinking about high calorie/high fat/high sugar coffee drinks. Funny how coffee was always seen as an adult thing when soda has caffeine and sugar in it too.