Starbucks Launches Pearl Coffee?! Starbucks Coffee Too Sweet Criticized by Netizens

Bubble tea is certainly no stranger to most people. Since its introduction in Taiwan in the 1980s, the practice of adding tapioca pearls to milk tea has been deeply loved by people in China. As milk tea culture continues to spread globally, bubble tea has rapidly gained popularity in Japan, South Korea, and even European and American countries in recent years.

When bubble tea first arrived in America, local consumers seemed uninterested in this product. People were unfamiliar with tapioca pearls and hesitant to try them. However, with social media users sharing and promoting bubble tea, people suddenly broke through their "psychological barriers" and flocked to try this novel product. The ability to chew on bouncy tapioca pearls while drinking milk tea created a wonderful experience that captivated more and more Americans, making bubble tea a favorite among young people in the United States.

If pearls can be added to milk tea and consumers love chewing pearls while drinking beverages, then adding pearls to coffee should be popular too! With this idea in mind, Starbucks' beverage development team couldn't sit still... However, adding bouncy tapioca pearls to coffee was indeed somewhat strange, so they began developing "coffee popping pearls." They added sodium alginate to caramel coffee liquid, stirred it evenly, and then dripped the coffee solution into calcium lactate solution, forming individual coffee pearls.

Unlike traditional tapioca pearls, coffee pearls made this way burst with a single squeeze, allowing coffee drinkers to experience the joy of biting into pearls while not affecting the beverage's texture. After developing coffee popping pearls in 2019, Starbucks Frappuccinos with coffee popping pearls were released in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, but sales were average. Customers complained that the coffee popping pearls were too sweet, and Frappuccinos themselves were already very sweet...

Seeing how Americans have loved "pearls" in recent years and their fondness for sweets, caramel coffee popping pearls should be tested in the American market. Learning from the experience of widespread but mediocre sales in Asia in 2019, Starbucks USA recently applied the same coffee popping pearls to iced chai tea lattes and a cold brew coffee beverage (coffee popping pearls can only be used in cold drinks), and only tested them at two franchised stores in California and Washington.

The local Starbucks near home introduced coffee popping pearls?! This immediately attracted locals to try them, with many people sharing photos of these two popping pearl beverages on social platforms, but reviews were still average... Some internet users said, "I like both bubble tea and coffee, but adding coffee popping pearls to coffee just feels wrong somehow, and the straw is too thin - I can't suck up the pearls!" Some milk tea fans commented, "This is completely different from boba pearls. The texture is really not good. It's sticky after the coffee liquid bursts out..." Some coffee enthusiasts said, "These popping pearls are not impressive. They taste sickeningly sweet with a salty aftertaste, which really affects the coffee's flavor..." Of course, some internet users liked the texture of coffee popping pearls but hoped the coffee flavor inside the pearls could be improved.

Well... I can only say that some things are just not meant to be together, and you can't force it~

Image source: Internet, Social media platforms

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