Review: Starbucks - Fruitcake Frappuccino

Starbucks' Fruitcake Frappuccino features a Hazelnut Creme Frappuccino base blended with dried fruit and cinnamon, then topped with whipped cream, a matcha sprinkle, and caramel sauce.

A 16-oz. Grande cost me $4.95.

The very limited-time drink seeks to capture the flavor of the infamous holiday dessert filled with candied fruit and nuts.

Because I bought mine on Ugly National Sweater Day, I got a cute little ugly sweater cozy for my drink. It's surprisingly effective at shielding your hand from the cold cup and wicks away the condensation while remaining mysteriously dry.

As a disclaimer, I'm not a fan of fruitcake or other Christmas breads. The Fruitcake Frappuccino does eerily taste very similar to fruitcake, however, so it's definitely successful on that front. Where it wasn't successful for me was more so in execution.

The dried fruit seems to be taken from their oatmeal offering and consists mostly of raisins and cranberries, as far as I can tell. The blender they use for the Frappuccino doesn't successfully dice the dried fruit into small enough pieces, so I found myself struggling to drink it through the straw quite frequently.

When I did manage to suck up the fruit bits, I just felt overall confused by what was happening in my mouth. The Hazelnut Creme Frappuccino base mixed with the cinnamon tastes fantastic and a bit like the holidays--rich and cozy. The dried fruit just seemed to get in the way of that for me and didn't mesh well with the nutty flavor.

The toppings appear to be purely for presentation's sake and to call to mind the different colors of the candied fruit in a fruitcake. The matcha and caramel combo actually tasted really pleasant when scooped up from the top of the whipped cream, but became indistinguishable from the rest of the drink when mixed it.

Overall, Starbucks' Fruitcake Frappuccino was a bit of a miss for me. It was interesting and I'd definitely recommend it more for curiosity than anything else (unless you really like fruitcake). I really wasn't a fan of the dried fruit inclusion. The combination of the Hazelnut Creme Frappuccino with cinnamon was a delicious sip of the holidays, however, and I'll definitely order that again in the future.

By Renee.