Ode to the Green Tea Frappuccino

Ode to the Green Tea Frappuccino

One of my favorite Starbucks beverages is the green tea Frappuccino. You don't often see it on the menu, particularly now that they have exploded their Frappuccino lineup into a decision tree with, like, ten thousand potential combinations.
The green tea Frappuccino is made on the "crème" base, which is the non-coffee-flavored one. Typically this gets used for strawberries and crème, and other options suitable for children, those who don't drink caffeine, and other people who for whatever reason want a milkshake and decide to go to Starbucks to buy it.
However, the green tea Frappuccino adds matcha green tea to that base, which gives it a decent caffeine kick. (Although not as strong a kick as when you add a shot of espresso to a regular Frappuccino, which is what I usually do with the coffee-flavored drinks. Adds a great taste and a lot of caffeine for a small additional cost. Down side: it makes the drink thaw and separate faster.)
The matcha green tea is also a little on the harsh side, as far as green tea taste goes. And that, in a Frappuccino, is a good thing. I wouldn't want to try and drink the Tazo matcha green tea straight. It's extremely astringent, with strong grassy notes. But when you pair it with the otherwise overwhelming sweetness of the crème base and a whipped cream topping? Delicious!
Starbucks doesn't release statistics on their drinks, but I would be willing to bet that the green tea Frappuccino is one of their worst sellers. Americans do not generally appreciate green tea flavors straight up, as a rule. (We like our green tea flavors to be vague, just the barest nod to green tea-ness.) And these green tea flavors are unusually robust.
I suspect a lot of people may be turned off by the color. I myself adore the color. Frankly, if the green tea Frappuccino was some other color, like beige or brown, I'm not sure if I would like it as much. It isn't the color of green tea (which is very pale). Instead, it's a Martha Stewart shade of pear green, a perfect summertime shade of leafy green. The dollop of bright white whipped cream on top is the perfect color accent.
Visually speaking, the only down side to this Frappuccino is the same problem with all of them. When you get to the bottom, the whipped cream slops around with the melted remains, and the whole thing gets sticky and gross.