By Casey Baseel

Copyright soranews24

Starbucks Japan teams up with Gelato Pique for a very unique collaboration.

Starbucks Japan recently announced a collaboration with Gelato Pique, a lifestyle brand that’s especially loved for its roomwear and pajamas (which are sometimes Pokémon-themed). In addition to drinkware and fashion items combining their styles, though, there’s also a new Gelato Pique-themed dessert drink being served up at Starbucks.

Curious to see how this unusual crossover would turn out, we hurried to our local branch to try the Pique Moco Bouquet & Tea Latte, which was added to the Starbucks Japan menu on Monday.

So how do you take the concept of pajamas and interpret that as a drink? By focusing on the eminently fluffy and comforting feel of Gelato Pique’s fabrics. The beverage starts with what Starbucks calls an “Earl grey bouquet tea” base, a blend of powdered Earl Grey tea and milk that results in elegant herbal notes. It’s then topped with whipped cream and Earl Grey-flavored mousse, fluffy like a nice set of PJs, and with the mousse a pastel blue of the sort used in Gelato Pique’s designs. A dusting of sponge cake crumbles helps further connect with Gelato Pique’s soft-knit materials.

And then there’s the most direct connection: the presence of a Pique Bear, Gelato Pique’s mascot character, made out of a mix of milk and white chocolate. Once again, it has a soft, inviting color that wouldn’t be out of place on cozy roomwear, and you can tell that this is a specially created chocolate for the collaboration, as it’s clearly Pique Bear, with a P-marked foot, and not just some generic animal shape.

There are a lot of different ingredients in play here, and things could have gone very badly with numerous combatants fighting for command of your taste buds. But as our taste-testing Japanese-language reporter K, Masami was happy to discover, the individual components are expertly balanced, coming together for a refreshing yet relaxing flavor. She was especially impressed by how well the sweet sponge cake and slightly tart mousse played together.

Honestly, we weren’t sure exactly what to expect from a Gelato Pique-themed Starbucks drink, but as two companies that consistently satisfy their fans, we should have known it’d turn out well. Masami has no complaints, except maybe that the 690-yen (US$4.70) Pique Moco Bouquet & Tea Latte will only be available for a limited time.

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