Starbucks Plant-Based Food in Japan

*The same content is also available on Spotify (Japanese only).

In connection with my current interest in food tech, I would like to introduce you to Starbucks’ plant-based foods that I have tried so far at my favorite Japanese Starbucks.

Starbucks plant-based foods are free of so-called animal products, meat, seafood, eggs, dairy products, and honey in their main ingredients.

The first Starbucks plant-based food I tried was a spinach corn & soy patty English muffin, which is not very common these days, but I tried the English muffin, whose patties are made of so-called soy meat, at lunch time with coffee.

The taste itself was very good, but perhaps it was my imagination, but after eating it, I felt a little indigestion, and I thought it was probably because I am not good with onions and leeks, which are known to be very bad for me.

Then, last summer, I tried the Keema Curry Stone Kiln Fuirone and the Teiramisu.

Keema Curry Filone

Teiramis

The Keema Curry Filone was just plain delicious, and if you weren’t told that it was a plant-based food, you wouldn’t even notice it. On the other hand, I thought the tiramisu might not taste like the tiramisu I am used to in Italian restaurants. I analyzed that it was probably because the taste of soy milk came to the forefront a little.

Pizza Toast with Semi-dried Tomatoes

I also tried the semi-dried tomato pizza toast. In my opinion, this is one of Starbucks’ best plant-based foods. The gentle but rich flavor of the plant-based cheese and soy white sauce matched the semi-dried tomatoes perfectly, and if you see this dish at Starbucks, I highly recommend you try it.

Rice-flour Matcha Roll Cake

Other sweets I tried were the rice flour green tea roll cake. I remember being very surprised by the richness of the whipped cream here, or rather, the full creaminess of it. Of course, people feel differently that this is a cream made entirely from vegetable matter, but I felt like I wouldn’t have known unless I was told so.

Chocolate rice flour muffins

Recently, I also tried something called chocolate rice flour muffins. It happened to be stored poorly in the showcase and was a bit dry, but the taste was just as good.

Banana rice flour muffin

Speaking of Starbucks’ plant-based food rice flour muffins, I also had the banana rice flour muffin, which I thought was an easy muffin to eat, as it did not feel particularly dry and had a gentle taste.