Starbucks’s New Pink Frappuccino Is Just a Strawberry Milkshake

Don’t call it millennial pink: Starbucks’s newest Frappuccino is magenta. The hot-pink drink, available now, sounds a lot like a strawberry milkshake. Baristas will be layering strawberry puree and a blend of ice, milk, and something the coffee company calls its “strawberry infusion blend” in the clear plastic cup; the whole thing then gets a dollop of vanilla whipped cream. The magenta frapp is the newest addition to Starbucks’s permanent menu, and will cost between $4.95 and $5.45 depending on the market.

In its announcement of the drink, Starbucks noted that it was taking a page from the runway by including a link to a Glamour magazine article from earlier this year that called “magenta... one of the most wearable trends from New York fashion week...”

“Millennial pink has matured (and turned the saturation all the way up) for fall 2018, with designers making ample use of darker shades of magenta in their latest collection,” Glamour announced.

In reading up on forthcoming fashion trends — magenta isn’t technically in yet, but allegedly will be come fall 2018 — Starbucks might be onto something.

The largest American coffee seller’s pulse on trends has seemed somewhat behind the times in recent years. In 2016, the coffee brand announced it was serving its splashy new barrel-aged cold brew in mason jars — timing that seemed about a decade past its prime.

Don’t forget, too, that this isn’t Starbucks’s first pink drink: Exactly two summers ago, Starbucks fans hacked their way to a pink iced tea drink that was so popular the company eventually adopted it as official — a year after it had already been the drink of the previous summer.

Meanwhile, food companies have been glomming onto the fashion world in droves. In the past year, dozens of brands have put out fashion-forward merch, including: Taco Bell’s partnership with Forever 21, and McDonald’s just-announced collaboration with Joe Fresh.