While a lot of the world is still feeling the chilling effects of winter, spring is rapidly approaching here in South Korea.
With the weather being so nice on the first day of the Lunar New Year here, I decided to go for a walk now that the coffee shops had reopened for sitting customers after a lockdown period.
The warm sun, clear blue sky, and the wonderful tree outside the local Starbucks was very enticing and so I decided to go in and see what they had that was new on the menu.
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Starbucks Korea has put on their menu three drinks that are heavy on the strawberries.
The one I decided to try today was the Strawberry Lime Shaken Tea. All the three of the drinks are only served cold (and only in Grande size!) they were quite pricey at almost 7,000 won each ($6 US) and that’s why I got only one of the special ones as well as a short Café Latte to add some warmth to my order.
While waiting for my drink order, I looked around the shop as I always do, just to see what sort of new merchandise they have that I think is interesting.
This time, they had a few items to celebrate Valentine’s Day, although not as many as advertised.
There were also some big Bear-istas dressed in traditional Korean Hanboks, which I thought were super cute!
After my order was ready, I went up to the seating area and found a nice, isolated seat to enjoy my drinks.
The Strawberry Lime Shaken Tea is made with strawberries, limes, lemons, and a little bit of matcha tea to give it a caffeinated boost.
Before mixing it, the colors of the different fresh fruit juices were easy to see, but after a quick stir with the paper straw it became quite red, reflecting the strawberries in it.
The drink was quite good! It was a little bit sour, but not too much because of the sweet nature of the strawberries. There were actual pieces of fruit in the drink which really helped to emphasize the fresh nature of the drink.
The only problem I have is that the drink was almost 50% ice. Given that you don’t really want to be crunching on ice cubes for a while, it was a bit disappointing.
The Café Latte that I had was actually a little bit different than what I’ve had from Starbucks in the past, as it was not bitter or acidic at all, and had a nice mellow blend with a soft taste.
I am considering going back to try a different one of Starbucks’ new Valentine’s day drinks, and hopefully it will be a bit more substantial compared to the Strawberry Lime Shaken Tea.