Starbucks Review: Strawberry Funnel Cake Frappuccino Plus Chicken & Quinoa with Black Beans and Greens

I stopped into a Starbucks this weekend and picked up a frappuccino and salad — something very healthy and something quite a bit more indulgent.

So, the frappuccino isn’t quite as healthy as my other choice. The air conditioning in my car isn’t working so efficiently, and it’s been hard for me to resist frozen drinks in the hot weather. The strawberry funnel cake flavor seemed to be a seasonal or maybe limited edition flavor, and I often go for novelty, so I thought I would give it a try.

I tasted a lot of strawberry and whipped cream and sweetness but not a lot of coffee flavor. You can see from the photo that the whipped cream and strawberry are both on the bottom of the cup and layered on top. I was wondering how you could really get funnel cake flavor into a coffee drink, but that mostly came from a sprinkling of funnel cake pieces on the top.

It was refreshing, and, if I forgot it was supposed to be a coffee drink, I found it enjoyable like a milkshake or something different. The lack of coffee flavor was disappointing in something that was supposed to be … coffee. I felt the strawberry flavor didn’t blend and seemed to overwhelm the coffee flavor. I probably wouldn’t order it again. The barista behind the counter told me that she had not tried it, but that customers seemed to like it. So, although this is my opinion, you might feel differently.

Above is my salad as it appeared in the case and before opening. Below is how it appeared when I removed the lid.

There were assorted greens, (specifically, lettuce, spinach, tatsoi and chard) with white chicken pieces, cotija cheese, quinoa, black beans, charred corn, grape tomatoes, julienned jicama and a tomato vinaigrette.

Here’s another pic after I added the dressing and mixed everything.

The tomato vinaigrette contains tomato puree and looked thick like a tomato sauce before it was drizzled and stirred in. That was a little surprising.

I liked it. I detected quite a lot of natural sweetness from the corn, tomatoes, jicama and dressing. This was the first time this Northeastern girl tasted jicama, but I liked it. In fact, the ingredient wasn’t listed too prominently on the label, so when I came across it, I took a guess at what it was. I later saw it listed in fine print on the label on the underside of the bowl. The sweetness was balanced with a little tang from the dressing and some of the more bitter greens. The label listed sweet chile in the dressing, which I didn’t detect so much, so the spice level was pretty mild.

The chicken was moist, tender and savory, and it was satisfying to have some protein in the mix. The black beans also added some substance. According to the label, this salad has 420 calories. I would recommend the salad … not so much with the frappuccino.

I’m sharing this with Life This Week.