94 Fun Facts About Starbucks

Where in Seattle is the so-called original Starbucks store?

Pike Place Market has housed the shop since the 1970s; the true first store opened in 1971 nearby and moved when its building was due to be torn down.

What did the original Starbucks sell for its first decade?

Whole beans and equipment were the trade: brewed coffee was only handed out as free samples to keep browsers in the shop, and no espresso bar opened until 1984.

Starbucks shares its name with Starbuck, the chief mate in which classic novel?

Moby-Dick is the book: Starbuck is the Pequod's first mate, though co-founder Gordon Bowker later called the link to the novel 'only coincidental'.

Which coffee pioneer, whose Berkeley company supplied the beans, taught the Starbucks founders to roast?

Alfred Peet, a Dutch-born roaster, sold the founders their first beans and taught them his dark-roast style; in 1984 the pupils bought their teacher's company.

What is the twin-tailed figure in the Starbucks logo?

A siren it is: she was bare-breasted on the brown 1971 logo, and her flowing hair was redrawn to cover her when the logo turned green in 1987.

What did Starbucks drop from its logo in 2011?

All its words went, leaving only the green figure: Starbucks said it might one day sell products 'with our name on it and no coffee in it'.

Which Starbucks marketing director was inspired by a 1983 trip to Milan to bring espresso bars to America?

Howard Schultz, hired in 1982, talked the owners into a trial espresso bar in 1984; when they declined to roll the idea out, he soon left to start his own.

What was the name of the coffee-bar chain Starbucks' future owner started after leaving the company?

Il Giornale started with Starbucks itself as an investor; in 1987 its founder bought Starbucks and put that name on his own shops.

Starbucks opened its first store outside the United States in 1987 in which Canadian city?

Vancouver was the new owner's first step abroad, opened in 1987 just as his own coffee bars were taking the Starbucks name.

On which stock exchange did Starbucks first sell shares to the public in June 1992?

Nasdaq trading began in June 1992; selling about an eighth of the company raised some $25 million, enough to double its number of stores within two years.

Starbucks acquired the rights to the Frappuccino by buying which Boston-area chain in 1994?

The Coffee Connection, George Howell's chain, sold a blended drink its marketing manager had named Frappuccino; Starbucks bought the company in 1994 and relaunched the drink a year later with its own recipe.

The 'frap' in Frappuccino comes from frappe, a New England word for which treat?

A thick milkshake is a frappe in New England, pronounced 'frap'; the marketing manager of a Boston coffee chain crossed the word with cappuccino to name its new iced blend.

Which limited-edition Frappuccino, launched in April 2017, changed colour and flavour as you stirred it?

Unicorn Frappuccino started purple and fruity, then turned pink and tangy as a sour blue drizzle was stirred through it, a trick made to be shared on social media.

Starbucks opened its first store outside North America in 1996 in which city?

Tokyo's Ginza district got the store in 1996 through a joint venture with the retailer Sazaby, which knew how to find scarce shop space in Japan's crowded cities.

What is the name of Starbucks' largest cup size, introduced in 2011 for iced drinks?

Trenta, Italian for thirty, went on sale first in 14 southern and south-western states and reached every US store that May.

A Starbucks inside which Beijing landmark closed in 2007 after protests?

The Forbidden City outlet had served palace visitors since 2000; an online campaign accusing it of trampling on Chinese culture gathered force, and it shut in July 2007.

Starbucks co-founder Gordon Bowker went on to help start Redhook, a pioneering Seattle company of what kind?

A craft brewery: Redhook later merged with Portland's Widmer Brothers, was bought out by Anheuser-Busch and sold on to Tilray in 2023.

In which country did Starbucks close 61 of its 84 stores in 2008?

Australia already had a deep-rooted café culture, built by mid-century migrants from southern Europe, when Starbucks arrived in 2000; the 2008 cull left it with just 23 stores.

Which rival chain did Starbucks buy from the owner of Popeyes for $72 million in 2003?

Seattle's Best came with only about 150 cafés across two brands; the real prize was the wholesale arm, which supplied fast-food chains, cruise lines and national parks.

Starbucks paid $620 million in 2012 for which tea retailer, then closed all its shops by 2018?

Mall landlord Simon Property Group won a court order forcing some Teavana stores to stay open temporarily.

Which juice company did Starbucks buy for $30 million in November 2011?

Evolution Fresh, a small California juice maker, cost $30 million in cash; Starbucks wanted it as the base for a chain of juice bars to rival Jamba Juice.

What is Starbucks' bottled water brand that donates five cents a bottle to clean-water projects?

Ethos began after consultant Peter Thum worked in South African communities without safe water and decided a bottled-water brand could help pay for it; Starbucks later bought the company.

What was the name of the instant coffee line Starbucks launched in March 2009?

VIA Ready Brew was pushed with a blind taste challenge in stores, daring customers to tell the instant from a cup made the usual way.

The first Starbucks Reserve Roastery outside the United States opened in 2017 in which city?

Shanghai's roastery was the second after Seattle's 2014 original; when that one closed in 2025, Shanghai's became the oldest still running.

Which 2015 Starbucks campaign had baristas write a phrase on cups to spark a national conversation, and drew backlash?

Race Together asked baristas to hand-write the phrase on cups to get customers talking about race relations; it was mocked online, though basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar praised the attempt.

After a 2018 arrest scandal in Philadelphia, Starbucks temporarily shut about 8,000 US stores to hold what?

Racial-bias training followed the arrest of two Black men who were waiting for a business associate and had not yet ordered; the chief executive apologised and no charges were filed.

Which annual Starbucks promotional day in November 2022 saw workers at over 100 unionised stores walk out?

Red Cup Day, when free reusable holiday cups make for one of the chain's busiest days, was chosen for exactly that reason; the union called its walkout the 'Red Cup Rebellion'.

Before becoming Starbucks CEO in 2023, Laxman Narasimhan spent months doing what?

Working as a barista meant 40 hours of training and months behind the counter in a green apron, and he promised to keep doing a half-day shift in stores every month.

Brian Niccol, named Starbucks CEO in August 2024, had run which chain since 2018?

Chipotle hired him from Taco Bell in 2018, sending its shares up 12 percent in a day; he then moved the burrito chain's headquarters from Denver to Newport Beach, California.

What did Starbucks end in January 2025 under a new code of conduct for its cafés?

Its open-door policy dated from 2018, when Starbucks said anyone could sit in its cafés and use the restrooms without buying; the new rules reserve both for paying customers.

Which pro sports team did the Starbucks boss own from 2001 to 2006?

Seattle SuperSonics were bought by a group led by the Starbucks chief in 2001 and sold for $350 million in 2006 after the push for a new arena failed; the team became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.

In January 2019 the former Starbucks chairman said he might run for president as what?

An independent bid 'outside of the two-party system' was the plan he gave 60 Minutes, a surprise from a self-described lifelong Democrat; he never declared.

Before joining Starbucks, its future boss sold the shop what for the Swedish firm Hammarplast?

Drip coffee makers were his line, and the Seattle shop ordered so many that he came out in 1981 to see why; impressed, he joined it the next year.

Starbucks' Seattle headquarters is an old warehouse built for which retailer's catalogue business?

Sears, Roebuck ran its Northwest catalogue trade from the building for seven decades; Starbucks made it its headquarters in 1997, and a Sears shop kept trading there until 2014.

Starbucks Entertainment made its film debut in 2006 by backing which spelling-bee drama?

Akeelah and the Bee was the coffee chain's first venture into film: its cafés advertised the movie before it opened and later sold the DVD over the counter.

Which non-dairy milk did Starbucks offer first in its US stores?

Soy arrived in 1997, almost two decades before coconut and almond milk; in November 2024 the chain finally stopped charging extra for any of them.

Starbucks' 2023 Oleato drinks, discontinued in 2024, were infused with what?

Olive oil, a spoonful of Sicilian extra-virgin in every cup, defined Oleato; the chief executive of the day had picked up the habit of a daily spoonful from a producer on the island.

Which CEO ran the company from 2005 to 2008 before the previous boss returned?

Jim Donald, a former Walmart and Pathmark executive, was chief executive from April 2005 until January 2008, when the board pushed him out and the founder-figure returned to the job.

On returning as chief executive in 2008, Starbucks' longtime boss briefly closed every US store to do what?

'Retrain baristas on espresso' was the point of the shutdown, part of a turnaround in which he also replaced top executives and closed hundreds of weak stores.

Starbucks began offering free Wi-Fi in all US and Canadian stores on what date?

1 July 2010 ended the two-hour limit and the AT&T/Starbucks Card sign-in for Wi-Fi in US company-operated stores, making the connection free and unlimited for everyone.

In which country did Starbucks' former cafés reopen in 2022 as the look-alike chain Stars Coffee?

Russia lost Starbucks after the invasion of Ukraine; a rapper and a restaurateur bought the shops and swapped the crown on the logo's figure for a kokoshnik, a traditional headdress.

Where did Starbucks open its largest store ever in November 2019?

Chicago's Michigan Avenue roastery took over a five-storey former Crate & Barrel store, taking the title of biggest Starbucks from a roastery opened only months earlier.

A 2012 Reuters investigation embarrassed Starbucks in Britain by showing how little it had paid of what?

Corporation tax of just £8.6 million in 14 years, on UK sales of about £3 billion, was the finding; facing boycott threats, Starbucks offered to pay some £20 million more over two years.

Which nickname stuck to the unbranded cafés Starbucks tested in Seattle in 2009?

Stealth Starbucks became the tag after the chain took its name off a Capitol Hill shop and reopened it as 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea; in 2011 the shop went back to being an ordinary Starbucks.

In June 2013 Starbucks began posting what on the menu boards of all its US stores?

Calorie counts went up beside every drink and pastry, five years after the chain had launched a 'skinny' line for customers watching what they drank.

Which alcoholic option did some US Starbucks serve under the 'Evenings' programme from 2010?

Beer and wine were first tried in 2009 at an experimental Seattle café, then poured in ordinary stores alongside snacks such as bacon-wrapped dates and truffle mac and cheese.

Two of the three founders of Seattle's Starbucks first met as university students in which other city?

San Francisco is where Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker met, queuing for a university dorm that turned out to be full, so they went off and rented a flat together.

On what Seattle street was the very first Starbucks store located from 1971 to 1976?

Western Avenue, at number 2000, held the original shop from 30 March 1971 until 1976, when it moved a block to the market address where tourists now queue.

Which drink, launched in 2003, became Starbucks' most popular seasonal beverage?

Pumpkin Spice Latte contained no pumpkin at all for its first twelve years: the recipe, worked out by tasting pumpkin pie with espresso, only gained the real thing in 2015.

Under what brand did Starbucks experiment with restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999?

Circadia opened in San Francisco in 1999 as a restaurant-style coffee house with a full menu, live music and internet access; the same year Starbucks bought the Pasqua Coffee chain.

Starbucks entered India in 2012 in a 50:50 joint venture with which conglomerate?

Tata brought more than money: its estates in southern India supply the beans, roasted at a plant in Coorg, for the Indian stores, after a first attempt at the market stalled in 2007.

What was the name of the single-serve pod coffee machine Starbucks launched in 2012?

Verismo, launched in autumn 2012 and built on the K-fee pod system, brewed Starbucks espresso and drip-style coffee at home; the company stopped making its pods at the end of 2020.

Roughly how many countries had Starbucks locations as of February 2023?

83 countries: about 61 percent of its stores at the time were in just two of them, the United States and China.

What is the Starbucks stock ticker symbol?

SBUX debuted at $17 a share in June 1992; the stock has since split two-for-one six times, so each of those first shares has become 64.

A stray coffee cup widely mistaken for a Starbucks one appeared in a feast scene of which fantasy series in 2019?

Game of Thrones handed Starbucks free publicity that one marketing boss valued at $2.3 billion, even though the cup turned out not to be a Starbucks one at all.

Which movie villain, thawed out in a 1999 comedy sequel, learns his company grew rich by investing in Starbucks?

Dr. Evil hears it from his deputy Number 2 in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me: while the boss was frozen, their firm Virtucon had bought into the coffee chain.

The original 1971 Starbucks logo was printed in which colour before green took over in 1987?

Brown suited the coffee-coloured woodcut look of the first logo, and Starbucks briefly brought that design back on its paper cups in 2006 and 2008.

Which rock legend left his longtime label EMI in 2007 to become the first artist signed to Starbucks' Hear Music?

Paul McCartney released Memory Almost Full through the coffee chain's new label, which sold the album in its shops alongside the lattes.

Starbucks marketers pitched its cafés as a 'third place' sitting between which two other places in daily life?

Home and work are the first and second places in sociologist Ray Oldenburg's 1989 idea of the third place, a public hangout that Starbucks adopted as its brand positioning.

Starbucks pledged to drop which single-use plastic item from every store worldwide by 2020, citing harm to sea turtles?

Straws gave way to a strawless sipping lid on most cold drinks, while Frappuccinos were promised paper or compostable alternatives.

Which fast-food chain's coffee did Consumer Reports rank ahead of Starbucks in a widely reported 2007 taste test?

McDonald's Premium Roast beat Starbucks in the magazine's comparison, which described the Seattle chain's coffee as strong but burnt and bitter.

Under a programme begun in 1999, what do many Starbucks stores give away free to customers for composting?

Used coffee grounds are bagged for anyone who asks under the Grounds for Your Garden scheme, though not every store or region takes part.

The man who bought Starbucks in 1987 grew up in public housing projects in which New York City borough?

Brooklyn's Canarsie projects were his neighbourhood, and he graduated from Canarsie High School in 1971, the same year Starbucks opened its first shop.

Starbucks' limited-edition barrel-aged coffee was made by ageing Sulawesi beans in barrels used for which spirit?

Whiskey barrels sourced in Washington were hand-filled with unroasted Reserve beans at the company's Seattle roastery for the two speciality drinks.

In which 2021 sequel is it revealed that Starbucks turned the heroes' old Manhattan headquarters into a coffeehouse?

Ghostbusters: Afterlife has Ray Stantz explain that the old firehouse became a Starbucks after the team went bust, until Winston Zeddemore bought it back.

Which soft-drink giant has sold bottled Starbucks Frappuccino in supermarkets through a joint venture formed in 1994?

PepsiCo and Starbucks named the venture the North American Coffee Partnership, and the first bottled Frappuccino followed two years later.

Which food giant paid $7.15 billion for the right to sell Starbucks packaged coffee in shops around the world?

Nestlé also won the right to put Starbucks blends into its own single-serve capsule machines under the distribution deal.

Which American bookstore chain is among the licensees that run Starbucks cafés inside their own stores?

Barnes & Noble staffs and operates its Starbucks counters itself, as do Target and supermarket groups such as Albertsons and Publix.

Which US senator quizzed the longtime Starbucks chief about a labour judge's ruling at a 2023 Senate hearing?

Bernie Sanders asked whether he would follow the decision that labour-board judge Michael Rosas had made about the unionising of Starbucks stores.

Under its longtime chief, Starbucks became known for extending which benefit to part-time baristas?

Health coverage for part-timers, along with staff stock options, was why Fortune named the Starbucks boss the most generous chief executive of 2015.

Starbucks arrived in which European country in 1998 by buying the 56-outlet Seattle Coffee Company?

The United Kingdom chain, started in London by two Seattle expats, cost $83 million, and every shop was rebranded as Starbucks.

Starbucks opened its first Latin American store in 2002 in which national capital?

Mexico City came first, and Mexico grew to more than 500 Starbucks stores by 2016; South America followed a year later with a shop in Lima.

Starbucks hired Scott Bedbury as marketing chief in 1995 from which sportswear giant, where he ran advertising?

Nike had employed Bedbury as advertising director for seven years; in his first year at Starbucks he helped launch the Frappuccino.

Sean Penn plays a Starbucks barista fighting to keep custody of his daughter in which 2001 drama?

I Am Sam earned Penn an Academy Award nomination and launched the career of Dakota Fanning, who was seven when she played his daughter.

Which homegrown rival overtook Starbucks as China's largest café chain by revenue and store count?

Luckin Coffee won with app-based ordering and aggressive pricing, and Starbucks' share of the Chinese market fell from a 42% peak to 14% by 2024.

The man who built Starbucks into a global chain started out in 1976 as a salesman for which copier maker?

Xerox employed him in New York; by 1981 he was selling coffee makers, and an order for plastic cone filters took him to Seattle to see Starbucks for himself.

The first Starbucks at sea opened aboard a giant ship belonging to which cruise line?

Royal Caribbean hosted the shop on Allure of the Seas, which had just entered service as the largest passenger ship in the world.

Hacienda Alsacia, the first coffee farm Starbucks ever bought, lies in which Central American country?

Costa Rica's Hacienda Alsacia also inspired the terrarium inside the New York Reserve Roastery, which is planted to resemble the farm.

Starbucks' first Italian store, a Reserve Roastery on Milan's Piazza Cordusio, occupies what kind of historic building?

A former post office, the Palazzo Broggi, also once housed Milan's stock exchange; the roastery opened as the largest Starbucks in Europe.

Starbucks sold its Tazo tea brand for $384 million to which consumer-goods giant?

Unilever later sold most of its tea business, Tazo included, to a private-equity firm, and the new company was named Lipton Teas and Infusions.

Starbucks opened just six of a planned 80 stores in which Middle Eastern country before quitting it entirely?

Israel proved a rare retreat: facing fierce local competition, Starbucks and its partner Delek shut all six shops after losing about $6 million.

Which Swedish brand of oat milk did Starbucks begin pouring in all its US stores in spring 2021?

Oatly joined a non-dairy line-up that had added coconut milk in 2015 and almond milk in 2016, and in late 2024 Starbucks scrapped its surcharge for milk alternatives.

Starbucks' College Achievement Plan, launched in 2014, pays staff tuition for online degrees at which university?

Arizona State first offered partial scholarships to juniors and seniors; a year later the plan grew to full tuition reimbursement for eligible baristas.

Which cable news breakfast show took Starbucks as its headline sponsor in 2009, a deal mocked on The Daily Show?

Morning Joe's hosts had already been drinking Starbucks on air for free; the paid deal put the sponsor's logo inside the show's own and lasted four years.

Which rock veteran attacked Starbucks in a 2015 protest song on the album The Monsanto Years?

Neil Young blamed Starbucks for efforts to block a Vermont law requiring labels on GMO foods; the company replied that it had taken no position on labelling.

Starbucks' logo for its 2000 debut in Saudi Arabia removed the female figure and kept only which element?

Her crown was all that remained until a Pulitzer-winning Washington Post column drew attention to it; three months later Starbucks restored its international logo there.

Oxfam accused Starbucks in 2006 of blocking which African nation's attempt to trademark its famous coffee names?

Ethiopia wanted ownership of names such as Sidamo and Harrar, and in 2007 the two sides signed a licensing and marketing deal that ended the row.

An arbitrator ordered Starbucks to pay about $2.8 billion for quitting a grocery deal with which food company?

Kraft had turned down $750 million to end the deal; Starbucks wanted out because the contract tied its coffee pods to Kraft's Tassimo machines.

Starbucks paid $100 million in 2012 for which French-style bakery chain founded by baker Pascal Rigo?

La Boulange's own cafés lasted only three more years: Starbucks announced in 2015 that it would close them all, and Rigo then planned to reopen six under a new name.

Which Ariel Investments boss chaired the Starbucks board of directors from 2021 until 2024?

Mellody Hobson had been vice chair before the promotion; away from the boardroom she married Star Wars creator George Lucas at his Skywalker Ranch.

Starbucks co-founder Gordon Bowker went on to co-found which Seattle craft brewery in 1981?

Redhook was not his only side venture: Bowker, a writer by trade, also helped fund the launch of the Seattle Weekly newspaper.

The first Starbucks Reserve Roastery opened in December 2014 in which Seattle neighbourhood?

Capitol Hill's roastery reportedly cost about $20 million and listed its roasts on a railway-style split-flap board, but Starbucks closed it in 2025.

Starbucks bought the Coffee Equipment Company in 2008 to get which single-cup brewing machine?

Clover made each cup to order, and Starbucks began testing the machines in stores in Seattle, California, New York and Boston.

Which soul legend's Grammy-winning album of duets became the biggest seller for Starbucks' Hear Music brand?

Ray Charles's Genius Loves Company won eight Grammys, and Starbucks shops accounted for at least a quarter of its American sales.