Well, I think it’s official, South Korea has decided to follow the Western trend of starting the promotion period of a major holiday before the current season is even finished.
Starbucks Korea is an excellent example of this new trend. Halloween hadn’t taken place when they started promoting their Christmas line-up of drinks, desserts, and merchandise.
While many of the drinks are the same as last year, including the ever popular Toffee Nut Latte line up, and the Pink Chamomile Relaxer, there is a new drink this year that I haven’t tried. This new drink, the Golden Wish Latte, looked very luxurious from the website, so I decided to head down on a quiet Saturday morning before Halloween to check it out.
The door to the local Starbucks was already decorated with Christmas trees, and Christmas music was playing on the music system. I guess South Korea is just like other countries now.
I ordered a hot Golden Wish Latte, and also one of the new cakes for the holiday season, the Santa Velvet Checker Cake.
Then, it was time to wait, and of course, check out all the new merchandise for the Christmas season.
There are lots of new tumblers and travel cups…
And mugs for drinking at home…
And of course, Starbucks Christmas blend for 2021, available in more than one way to enjoy.
As the shop was almost empty, the order didn’t take long, and I headed to the second floor to look at the ocean and try out these new items.
The Golden Wish Latte actually is a black tea base, not coffee, so I guessed the flavor would be quite different.
The Santa Velvet Checker Cake is supposed to be a red velvet and white cake mix, with a cream cheese frosting and a cute little Santa Bear chocolate cookie on top.
The first thing I tried was the Golden Wish Latte.
This drink was actually very tasty and had a wide range of flavors.
The first thing I noticed was the sweetness of the caramel drizzle on top, which was quite strong. Next, there was a very noticeable flavor of sour cream, which is indeed mentioned in the description of the drink. This was very prevalent in the foam on top, and this also had a hint of sweet potato in the foam as well.
Finally, after getting past the foam, there was a strong taste of black tea. I really liked this unique blend of flavors, because it almost felt like I was getting three drinks for the price of one.
I turned to the Santa Velvet Checker Cake next.
The cake was less impressive than the Golden Wish Latte. The cake itself didn’t have a whole lot of flavor and was mostly just lightly sweet, with no real chocolate noticeable. The cream cheese frosting was fine, but this is nothing I haven’t had before, and Starbucks Korea includes it on a number of cakes that they sell.
However, the Santa Bear Chocolate cookie on top was a revelation. The chocolate was actually loaded with gingerbread style taste, or a Lotus ginger cookie. It was SO delicious. Usually, the Starbucks chocolates that they use for decoration are not special at all, but this was definitely something new, and tasty!
To sum up, the Golden Wish Latte was very good, the cake was okay, but that Santa Bear chocolate cookie was excellent! I think Starbucks is anticipating running out of the Santa Bear chocolate, because there is already a disclaimer on their website that the chocolate can be substituted for something else if they don’t have any in stock.
That means if you really want to try this interesting cookie with the cake, you’d better head to your local Starbucks Korea fast, before they are all gone.