The beverage was actually introduced in 1993 in Santa Monica, when a group of baristas decided to make an iced coffee beverage, but it wasn't until 1995 that the Frappuccio was introduced at Starbucks' then-500 stores throughout the United States and Canada.
Starbucks, by the way, inherited the strange name after buying Boston-based The Coffee Connection. Their version of the Frappuccino didn't stick, but the powers that be at Starbucks kept the name and married it to their version of a frozen, blended coffee drink. Thus, a beverage was born.
Today, the Frappuccino is all grown up, with its own website, Twitter handle, and Instagram, where people and unicorns share selfies with their drinks:
According to Starbucks,the drink has 36,000 possible variations, with websites like Starbuckssecretmenu.com offering hundreds of ways to drive your barista insane with recipes for freaky combos like the cotton candy Frappuccino, the Kit Kat Frappuccino, and the Ariana Grande Frappuccino (a vanilla bean Frappuccino with raspberry syrup, mocha syrup, mocha chips, and whipped cream and a caramel drizzle).
This week, though, Starbucks is offering a special, limited-edition Frappuccino to celebrate the big 2-0. The Birthday Cake Frappuccino is a blend of vanilla bean and hazelnut, topped with raspberry-infused whipped cream. We're not sure if it comes with a candle.
In any event, the special B-Day beverage is only available March 26-30, so get thee to a Starbucks to celebrate. Ariana Grande will understand.
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