This Is How Long You Have To Try The Midnight Mint Mocha Frappuccino

When Starbucks goes all out, the company really goes all out, right? Even with the tantalizing heap of beverages already available on the menu, the new Midnight Mint Mocha Frappuccino truly goes above and beyond in the realm of coffee-fueled treats. If you're a mint enthusiast like me, you'll probably want to know when the Starbucks Midnight Mint Mocha Frappuccino is available — and the great news is that you've got all summer to get your tastebuds wrapped around this refreshing new drink. Hurrah!

Starbucks switch up their menu so regularly, I do wonder where and how they get their ideas. Sometimes they turn to their customers to see what they're clamoring for the most; Starbucks' executive chairman Howard Schultz launched My Starbucks Idea in 2008 to shift the company’s focus even more towards the customers' needs. The crowd-sourcing-like section of the Starbucks website gives customers insight into what the company is doing and allows them to suggest new ways to improve the Starbucks experience, including coming up with new flavors and beverage blends.

With the Midnight Mint Mocha Frappuccino, however, the inspiration actually came from a rather simple and natural idea: The season of summer, in fact. "Summer evenings" were the inspo, according to a press release from the coffee company. Jennica Robinson from the Starbucks beverage development team revealed that the company was "inspired by thoughts of dark starry nights, looking up at the sky with a cool summer breeze" — which is confirmation enough for me that this latest addition to the menu will be nothing short of delicious. The drink is available in the United States and Canada from today, May 2, and will be available throughout the summer or while supplies last.

What exactly is in the Midnight Mint Mocha Frappuccino, you ask? The deep, dark new addition to the Frapp family features blended coffee, extra-dark cocoa, sweet mint crystals, milk, and ice, giving it a distinctive, refreshing edge. There's also a layer of whipped cream in there too, as well as a topping of more whipped cream and dark cocoa. The new beverage also taps into the dark food trend sweeping social media right now, seen in such out-there treats as black macarons and charcoal ice cream.

With more than 12,000 locations in the States, Starbucks is adept at keeping things fresh and interesting to maintain a huge stream of customers — and the strategy seems to working, judging from the collective internet freakout which ensued following the release of the infamous Unicorn Frappuccino last month. More is on the way, too: Frappuccino Happy Hour is making its return this week, for example, meaning that from May 5 to May 14, all Frappuccino blended beverages are half price at participating stores from 3 to 6 p.m. local time. Excitingly, this includes the Midnight Mint Mocha Frapp, as well as the S'mores Frappuccino, which is also making a triumphant comeback for 2017.

Looks like it's shaping up to be a good summer!