The Frappuccino is a Starbucks staple, despite packing enough sugar to kill a small horse. That's not a jab, it's just the truth—the Frap is the definition of indulgence, a kids drink gussied up for the on-the-go adult. No shame, sweet enthusiasts.
This week, the thick, blended beverage clocks 20 years of diet shattering. To celebrate, Starbucks has added a new flavor to its Frappuccino arsenal: Birthday Cake. Grab a pillow for your cubicle, it's sugar coma time. The curious can pick up the Birthday Cake Frappuccino — a vanilla bean and hazelnut blend, topped with raspberry-infused whipped cream – between March 26–30 at any Starbucks store in the U.S. and Canada.
The Frappuccino's origin story is what you might expect from a company that commercialized and franchised the Mom & Pop coffee shop templates. By 1993, Starbucks had opened locations in Los Angeles and the company's employees were hot as hell. Dina Campion, a 20-year partner of the company who managed the district of Southern California's 10 stores at the time, took notice of cool alternatives springing up in independent shops. "We noticed there were some smaller coffee shops that did some sort of blended coffee beverage," Campion said in Starbucks' official history press release. "A couple of store managers and I felt there was a huge opportunity for Starbucks."
So they took the idea and ran with it. By the next summer, Starbucks's Los Angeles locations served blended drinks. When the company acquired Boston's Coffee Connection in Boston, they inherited a name for slushy drinks made with soft-serve ice cream. Starbucks applied "frappuccino" to its own blended drinks. 20 years later, we have a version that tastes like birthday cake.
