Starbucks unveiled three limited-edition drinks Monday, all on the menu through Valentine’s Day, all featuring a word you hear squealed a lot this time of year: Chocolate!
The molten chocolate latte, available hot or iced, is espresso and mocha-infused steamed milk with chocolate chips melted into it.
Subtract the espresso from that and you have drink two, the molten hot chocolate.
Drink three is the molten chocolate Frappuccino: coffee, mocha-infused milk and chocolate chips blended with ice.
Chocolate!
Sarcasm about the cliches of Valentine’s Day aside, the Molten Chocolate Trio, as it’s Very Seriously called, is one of the better things Starbucks has introduced in years. This is coming from someone who cringes at the chain’s seasonal drinks, most of which taste like a Mack truck carrying sugar crashed, the back door of the trailer opened and the entire contents spilled directly into my mouth.
The molten hot chocolate is still pretty sweet, but a slightly bitter backbone makes it more adult. This is especially nice compared with the regular Starbucks hot chocolate, which makes me feel like I need to find the closest bathroom and brush my teeth. (Just don’t compare it with these hot chocolates, because it’s no contest.)
Chocolate is a lovely accent to a latte; this was my favorite of the trio. Then, I tasted it against some of the best new bean-to-bar chocolate and it was a reminder that this is still Starbucks, where baristas are obviously not using $11-a-bar chocolate in your $4.25 drink. (It’s also still a Starbucks latte; if you don’t like how they brew their coffee, you won’t like this.) I’d get it again, but I’m also eager to try the melt-chocolate-into-coffee formula at home with a rich, super-bitter dark chocolate.
The Frappuccino is nearing Mack truck territory, and not really discernable in taste from the longstanding chocolate chip Frappuccino, except for an important X factor: espresso-infused whipped cream, which is unequivocally delicious. You can also get this on the hot chocolate and latte. I say: Load ‘er up.
mconrad@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @marissa_conrad
