Starbucks’ Unicorn Frappuccino Proves Looks can be Deceiving- Unless You’re Looking at the Nutrition Label

Editor’s Note: The following is an opinion article. The opinions presented are the writer’s own and are not representative of the Trailblazer newspaper staff or Pascack Hills High School.

Photo by Google.

Photo by Google.

You enter the car after a long week of school. You’re tired, weak, and in need of a snack break, perhaps at the Starbucks three miles away selling the limited edition Unicorn Frappuccino.

That’s when your mother asks if you heard about the new Starbucks drink, the one with all the sugar. You reply “yes,” and that the Unicorn Frappuccino is its  proper name.

This conversation is concerning for two reasons. One: Your mother is on some form of social media, beware; and two: You were really looking forward to trying it, but now you cannot since your mother knows.

The drink was sold April 19 to April 23, in participating stores throughout the United States , Mexico, and Canada, while supplies lasted.

The beverage starts off sweet and fruity, but when given a stir, it turns sour, and changes color. While that may confuse the customer’s taste buds, it also sends them on a flavorful roller coaster ride. Too bad some people hate roller coasters.

In addition, the drink contains mango syrup, frappuccino crème, pink powder (that’s rather specific), sour blue drizzle (because sour blue is now a flavor), whipped cream (fine, that’s normal), and sweet pink and powder blue topping (again, colors now have flavors!)

“Although as a sweet tasting drink and the fact that it looked like unicorn barf were both good qualities, I was otherwise disappointed because it was too sour and it wasn’t what I imagined as a unicorn frappe,” said Isabella Rossi, a freshman at Pascack Hills, who taste-tested the drink.

If the 39, 59, and 76 grams of sugar (depending on size) found in the artificially-flavored aesthetically-pleasing “slurpee” isn’t bad enough, perhaps you should seek the list of what’s really inside the Frappe. There has to be some sort of nutritional concern when attempting to pronounce the ingredients is equivalent to trying to flawlessly speak Shakespearean English.

Instead of sipping on a venti-sized Unicorn Frappuccino, you could literally eat a whole box of Hostess powdered donuts and still consume less sugar (only one gram, but one is better than none). If chocolate is more up your alley, you can attempt to eat 29 Hershey’s kisses and still consume less sugar. Or better yet: mix the two together to make chocolate powdered donuts! Yummy!  

Too bad that 39 grams of sugar, found in the tall size, is 1.5 times the amount of sugar recommended for your body per day. Even if math isn’t your thing, it’s pretty obvious that is all goes downhill from there, and with each size increase, so does the amount of sugar.

Although the drink looks pretty (well, as pretty as unicorn barf can look) and matches any Instagram theme, it is impossible to consume the drink guilt- free, even if you eat nothing but lettuce for the rest of the day. Also, it should be mentioned that since the modern world is driven by social media, tons of people heard about the drink weeks prior to its release, and wanted the limited edition Frappuccino.

In fact, so many people wanted to try the sugary Unicorn barf- I mean frappe, it overwhelmed some employees at the popular chain coffee store. Starbucks barista Braden Burson rants about the stress and tedious process that goes into the making of a Unicorn Frappuccino.

The drink proves that customers should think before they drink.  

Furthermore, 49.3 percent of 67 Pascack Hills students have agreed that the nutritional facts turn them away from the limited edition drink.

“I went to two Starbucks in one day to get the drink everyone was talking about,” said Sofia Papadopoulos, Pascack Hills freshman. “It was sold out in both stores when the barista mentioned how much sugar was put into the drink. 59 grams. That’s how many grams of sugar I almost consumed if almost all the syrups were sold out. I don’t need to drink 59 grams of sugar and lose around five dollars because a drink looks cool.