Starbucks’ Black Cat Frappuccino launches October 22 and tastes like chocolate mousse

Starbucks is rolling out a Halloween drink that actually earns its costume. The Black Cat Frappuccino, teased back in September, hits menus on October 22 — a chocolate cake-flavored crème Frappuccino topped with whipped cream and two chocolate cat ears. There is no coffee in the base, so the chocolate gets to be the main event.

Delish taste-tester Megan Schaltegger went in with low expectations. Tasting everything on the menu is literally part of her job, but she has always been a Frappuccino skeptic, sticking mostly to cold brew, espresso and matcha. A drink named after a black cat was still enough to get her attention, she writes — she wanted to know whether it lived up to the Halloween hype or was “mostly tricks and no treats.”

What it actually tastes like

The look sells it first: an inky black drink with chocolate ears perched on a cloud of whipped cream. But Schaltegger says the flavor, not the presentation, is what won her over. Because the base is a crème Frappuccino, nothing competes with the chocolate.

“It’s rich and decadent without teetering into sickeningly sweet territory,” she writes. She braced for the sugar rush of too much Halloween candy and instead found something closer to chocolate mousse or flourless cake, just sippable and dressed up for the season.

The ears aren’t pure decoration, either. Schaltegger compares them to the olives in a dirty martini: a little chocolate snack on top that ties the whole drink together. After one sip, she admits, she was officially under its spell.

The Black Cat Frappuccino arrives as Starbucks gets ready to roll out its 2026 holiday menu, which the chain announced earlier this month and which officially launches November 5. That gives the cat a short, spooky run — so the window to try it opens October 22 and closes with Halloween. If you miss it, the full holiday menu lands two weeks later.