Starting as a tiny coffee shop in Seattle that didn't even offer brewed coffee, Starbucks
has come a long way in 50 years. But it's only been recently that the Starbucks menu
has evolved to include game-changing products. Find out what Starbucks' menu looked like
the year you were born.
If you're looking for Starbucks' menu when you were born, and you were born before 1982,
you're out of luck. When Starbucks first opened in Seattle in 1971, the store was a far cry
from the Starbucks experience you get today. While the store sold coffee beans, tea and
spices — along with a selection of coffee makers and grinders — they only brewed coffee
as samples.
Still, it was a formula that worked for the brand — eventually. During the first nine
months, the store only grossed approximately $47,000. But Starbucks went on to open multiple
locations regardless, and began roasting its own beans.
The dedication to the brand paid off. Even then, Starbucks didn't offer any sort of menu
— the business was focused on roasting and selling its own beans and the various coffee
paraphernalia the average bean aficionado might want at home.
In 1982, something monumental happened for the Starbucks brand. Their fifth store in
Seattle featured something unprecedented: a coffee bar.
The menu was limited, and sold only plain, brewed coffee, but it was something. If you
still enjoy a fresh, hot cup of Starbucks coffee black, ordered at the counter amidst
a range of other sugar- and dairy-laden requests, you know the pure joy that comes from such
a simple thing.
It was the first step Starbucks would make toward what it's become today, but there was
still one missing piece of the puzzle: Howard Schultz. Schultz became the director of marketing
in 1983.
"Their aspiration at the time was to expand to Portland, Oregon. I somewhat persuaded
them that perhaps Starucks' opportunity was bigger."
And when Starbucks sent Schultz to Italy, he came back full of ideas for the brand,
proclaiming that espresso-based drinks and Italy's longstanding cafe culture were the
way of the future.
The sixth Starbucks store opened in Seattle, and it included the very first Starbucks espresso
bar, where, again, the menu was limited compared to what the Starbucks menu is today. But it
also included one key item that you can still order: the Caffe Latte.
Incredibly simple, the Starbucks Caffe Latte is a hot, basic coffee drink, with dark, rich
espresso, steamed milk, and a layer of foam. A tall, 12-ounce, Caffe Latte includes one
shot of espresso and is made with two percent milk, though today you have a whole swathe
of other milk alternatives to choose from.
Possibly feeling a little emboldened by his successful changes at Starbucks, Schultz left
the company to found his own coffee shop company.
"Over a period of two years I left Starbucks to start my own chain of Italian coffee bars."
In 1986, barista Dave Olsen threw together a few ingredients to create Starbucks' very
first handcrafted holiday beverage, the eggnog latte. Up until the addition of the eggnog
latte to the Starbucks menu, the only holiday-esque offering that the brand had was its Christmas
Blend coffee, which was only sold as beans and grounds for use at home.
The eggnog latte is made with steamed eggnog, espresso, and a dusting of nutmeg, and it
has gained an international following. The eggnog latte was the first of a long line
of seasonal, holiday menu items for the brand, which continues to expand and evolve.
In 1987, Starbucks' future began to look a little grim again, with cash flow not where
it needed to be. The founders decided to sell and focus on their other ventures, including
Red Hook Brewery and Peet's Coffee, and Howard Schultz came calling. He purchased Starbucks,
with the help of investors, for $3.8 million and rebranded Il Giornale under the Starbucks
name.
Schultz incorporated some of Il Giornale's distinctive touches into the Starbucks menu.
Most significantly, he swapped out Starbucks' small, medium, and large sizes for the tall,
grande, and venti sizes that you still see today.
"The real business and the opportunity was the integration of the beverage to creating
a destination and sense of community in the store."
Schultz quickly grew the Starbucks brand, with rapid expansion in the years following
the acquisition, until he had 53 locations in 1992, when the Starbucks brand went public
at $17 per share. By 1993, there were nearly 300 locations across the U.S. and Canada.
Starbucks' management began to notice a trend on the coffee beverage scene: blended coffee
beverages. While corporate was conducting R&D, Starbucks meanwhile purchased a Boston
brand called The Coffee Connection, along with a Coffee Connection product called the
"frappuccino," which the brand made using a soft-serve ice cream machine.
Starbucks rolled out the Frappuccino across all U.S. and Canadian locations in the summer
of 1995. At first, the only Frappuccino flavors available were coffee and mocha, and the drink
looked a bit different from what it is today. There was no whipped cream, for one, but it
was met with instant success.
The Starbucks Frappuccino craze continued throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In 1999, Starbucks created the iconic green straw and domed lid for the Frappuccino, making
it easier for patrons to enjoy their sugary coffee drinks complete with whipped cream.
The new cup design debuted at the same time that Starbucks' introduced the Caramel Frappuccino.
To this day, the Caramel Frappuccino is one of Starbucks' best-selling Frappuccino flavors.
The beverage is made with coffee, milk, and ice. These ingredients are blended and then
topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce. Today, you can order the Caramel Frappuccino
affogato-style, which simply means that the barista adds a hot espresso shot to the top
of the drink.
A big year for Starbucks, in 2002, the brand continued to expand its flavored drink menu.
The very first blended beverages without coffee or tea as an ingredient appeared in the summer
of 2002, with the introduction of yet another Frappuccino option.
The Frappuccino Crème premiered with four flavors — vanilla bean, strawberries and
cream, double chocolate chip, and chai crème. According to a prior Starbucks barista, the
crème line of Frappuccinos is by default made with milk, a crème base, ice, and flavoring.
The new menu items didn't end in summer 2002. For the Christmas season, Starbucks introduced
its new peppermint mocha. The beverage quickly became the most popular holiday drink in Starbucks
history.
Starbucks debuted a menu item in 2003 that would change the face of food culture: the
pumpkin spice latte.
"It's a pumpkin-y swirl onto a beautiful, beautiful beverage. I love it. I love this
time of year. I love pumpkin spice latte."
After the drink was initially tested in 100 stores in Vancouver and Washington, D.C.,
sales records were exceeded, and so the pumpkin spice latte went nationwide the next year.
CNBC estimates that as of 2019, Starbucks has sold 424 million pumpkin spice lattes.
That wasn't the only monumental menu change in 2003. Starbucks also began testing hot
foods, with its breakfast sandwiches, which are still around today. The first available
hot sandwich was a toasty egg and cheese. It was followed in 2006 by a bacon and ham
sandwich and English muffin sandwiches.
By 2004, the Frappuccino, in all its calorific glory, had been a success for more than a
decade. And in 2008, Starbucks introduced its "skinny" drinks. By ordering drinks "skinny,"
customers essentially asked baristas to use sugar-free flavored syrups in their drinks
of choice, rather than the full-sugar variants.
The launch of skinny options also included the introduction of a new syrup flavor: sugar-free
mocha. A tall, skinny caffe mocha or caffe latte came out to only 90 calories.
"Can I get a grande drip, and a decaf, triple grande, nonfat, extra-hot, stirred, no-foam
Caramel Macchiato, with whipped cream, extra caramel."
In 2009, Starbucks introduced a new seasonal drink, the caramel brulee latte, which became
an instant hit and fan favorite.
Buttery, creamy, super sweet, and decadent, the latte is made with a shot of espresso,
steamed milk, and caramel brulee sauce, then topped with whipped cream and some caramel
brulee bits.
Since Starbucks realized it had another hit on its hands, the brand sold a caramel brulee
latte kit, which included Starbucks' Christmas Blend Espresso Roast coffee and a caramel
brulee sauce.
2010 introduced the world to the first However-You-Want-It Frappuccino. The menu addition allows customers
to choose their own milk option, like soy, their own type of coffee, whatever syrup they
want, and an array of toppings.
Starbucks announced that this menu change allowed for thousands of new Frappuccinos
to be made, ordered however customers liked.
A more dramatic change came to the menu in 2010: Beer and wine were added to select locations'
menus. According to an LA Times article, a Starbucks spokesperson said that the menu
change was adopted for customers who, quote, "want to relax in the evening."
Is bigger really better? In 2011, Starbucks certainly thought so, as it unleashed its
Trenta option into the world. The largest of Starbucks' available drink sizes, a trenta
drink gives customers 31 ounces of their favorite beverage.
Unfortunately, when the new size was added to the menu, you couldn't order 31 ounces
of your favorite hot coffee to go. Instead, the size was available for iced coffee, iced
tea, and iced tea lemonade only. Previously, Starbucks' largest size was the venti, at
20 ounces.
Despite the additional ten ounces of beverage, Starbucks only increased the price of its
drinks from venti to trenta by about 50 cents, at least upon release.
In 2014, Starbucks made two notable changes to its menu. Around the holidays, it introduced
yet another new holiday drink: the chestnut praline latte.
Many patrons have acknowledged that the latte was a nice change from the other, considerably
sweeter holiday drink options. It's made with espresso, steamed milk, foam, whipped cream,
and spiced praline crumbs.
Cold foam also became available for cold beverages in 2014. A Food Business News article noted:
"The frothy topping falls in line with the trend of cold beverages, which now make up
more than half of U.S. Starbucks beverage sales."
In 2015, coconut milk became an option for non-dairy drinkers for an extra 60 cents per
drink. Starbucks went with its own branded coconut milk, Starbucks Single Origin Sumatra
Coconut Milk, which is vegan and made from single-origin coconuts from — you guessed
it — Sumatra.
A USA Today article announcing the change said that non-soy, non-dairy alternatives
were the second-most-requested customer ideas submitted to Starbucks at the time.
Starbucks also began selling hot brewed teas in-store in 2015. The new Teavana hot teas
included ten varieties, such as jade citrus mint, Emperor's Clouds & Mist, Oprah Chai,
Youthberry, and English breakfast.
Prepared with just hot water and tea sachets, there's still nothing necessarily exciting
or groundbreaking about Starbucks' tea selections, but the menu addition makes sense for the
clientele, and the tea options have continued to increase and evolve over the years.
However, one of the biggest menu additions was that of cold brew. Steeped using cold
water, Starbucks explained the difference between its iced coffee, which has a stronger,
roastier flavor, and its new cold brew, which it described as smooth and rich and refreshing,
with hints chocolate and citrus.
Cold brew first launched in nearly 3,000 locations across the United States and Canada.
Starbucks' cold brew was quickly followed by nitro coffee, or cold brew coffee infused
with nitrogen gas, before the end of 2016.
Mackenzie Karr, a coffee education specialist with Starbucks, told CNBC:
"Nitro coffee has been under development at Starbucks for about a year, and cold brew
was a natural choice given the blend of beans and quality of roast."
"So the end result is this soft citrus flavor with these deep syrupy sweet notes that happens
naturally in the cold brew recipe."
At the same time that Starbucks launched nitro coffee, it also unveiled a new cold brew coffee
drink, the vanilla sweet cream cold brew, served on ice and topped with a cream concoction
made from milk, cream, and vanilla syrup.
If there's one thing you can rely on Starbucks to do, it's to roll out new holiday and seasonal
drink options every few years. In 2017, Starbucks introduced its toasted white chocolate mocha,
and in 2019, it unleashed its Irish cream cold brew.
The former combines the flavors of toasted white chocolate, espresso, whipped cream,
and candied cranberry sugar, and the drink received rave reviews upon its release. The
latter, meanwhile, combines cold brew coffee with Irish cream syrup, ice, vanilla sweet
cream cold foam, and cocoa powder.
Additionally, 2019 also introduced Starbuck patrons to the new pumpkin cream cold brew,
which was the first new pumpkin beverage to land on the menu since the pumpkin spice latte
launched in 2003. Made with cold brew and vanilla, the pumpkin cream cold brew is topped
with a pumpkin cream cold foam and pumpkin spice topping.
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