In honor of the 20th anniversary of the frappuccino, Starbucks released six fan favorite flavors. When I went to Starbucks today, there was no sign of the new flavors. I asked if the barista if they had them, and he said yes. I had seen them listed on the Starbucks website and in an online article, so I excitedly ordered a Lemon Bar Frappuccino. I’m a huge lemon fan, and the idea of frosty, caffeinated lemon goodness had me pretty excited.
I hadn’t slept much at all the night before, which is perhaps why I thought that “caffeinated lemon” made sense. Starbucks is capable of crafting liquidy goodness that keeps me going, right? At the start of this review of the Starbucks Lemon Bar Frappuccino, let me say that there is no caffeine in the drink.
The beverage is technically a “Lemon Bar Crème Frappuccino® Blended Crème.” Blended Crème is code for “this will do absolutely nothing to keep you awake and if you’re lucky you’ll get a sugar rush but then you’ll have to deal with the following crash and that will suck.” Do you hear the sad trombones?
If there are any typos in this post, it is because there was no caffeine. (And because I didn’t do my homework or ask the right questions or think it through, but let’s forget about that.)
In fact, my defense, however, on the Starbucks website, they are listed as a group all identified as Frappuccinos. No distinction is given to the Blended Cremes unless you click through on each individual one. Only Caramel Cocoa Cluster and Cinnamon Roll have caffeine.
As for the drink itself? Well, I’ve described Blended Crèmes to friends as being rather like a milkshake, and this lemon milkshake was a tasty one. There’s a very nice amount of lemon flavor. It’s definitely there, but not overpowering.
Starbucks describes the Lemon Bar Frappuccino on its website as “A sweet and sour mix that brings lemonade and vanilla together. Finished perfectly with whipped cream and a caramel sugar sprinkle. When life gives you lemons, sip this… upside-down?”
It is a nice blend of tart and sweet. This beverage does not have a lot of pucker power, and that’s fine by me. There’s just enough to make it not cloyingly sweet like the S’mores Frappuccino.
It’s perfectly creamy, but still light. The caramel sugar on top reminded me of graham cracker crumbs at first, or until I read the description on the Starbucks website. (Again, I failed on the research front.) I realy did not taste caramel.
It’s over 90 degrees here today, the hottest day of our summer so far, and I wouldn’t want anything heavy on such a hot day. This was a perfect cool way to refresh if you have kiddos who wants something from Starbucks and you don’t want them to have caffeine.
This is not exactly health food. A grande is 350 calories with 13 grams of fat and 55 grams of sugar. In terms of sugar, the Lemon Bar has the least of the six special flavors, according to Yahoo. You can find full nutrition information from Starbucks here.
The lemon Frappuccino is available for a limited time.
(And while I know there are real problems in this world, I’d like to humbly suggest that Starbucks differentiate more clearly between Blended Cremes and Frappuccinos to make life easier on the tired among us.)
You May Also Like: Review of Starbucks’ Tiramisu Latte
Prior Post: 13 fun facts about Donald Duck in honor of his birthday
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