Starbucks Trivia
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94 free Starbucks trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
49 free Starbucks trivia questions with answers. Starbucks sold nothing but beans for its first ten years, took its name from a mining town before anyone thought of Moby-Dick, and turned green because of a university. This quiz covers the whole story of the world's largest coffeehouse chain: the 1971 Pike Place founding, Alfred Peet, the siren and her redesigns, Howard Schultz's Milan epiphany and Il Giornale, the 1992 IPO, the Frappuccino it bought from Boston, Trenta and the other cup sizes, Tokyo, the Forbidden City, the roasteries, the 2008 crisis, Teavana and Evolution Fresh, Race Together, Buffalo and the union drive, and the run of CEOs from Schultz to Brian Niccol. Questions range from easy (where was it founded, what is on the logo) to hard (which store voted 19-8, what Hammarplast made). Good for a coffee-break quiz, a business-class icebreaker or a barista's night off. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the company, its people and products, and each question shows its source.
30 of 94 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Where in Seattle is the so-called original Starbucks store?
Pike Place
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.
Q 02What did the original Starbucks sell for its first decade?
Whole beans and equipment
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.
Q 03Starbucks shares its name with Starbuck, the chief mate in which classic novel?
Moby-Dick
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'.
Q 04Which coffee pioneer, whose Berkeley company supplied the beans, taught the Starbucks founders to roast?
Alfred Peet
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.
Q 05What is the twin-tailed figure in the Starbucks logo?
A siren
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.
Q 06What did Starbucks drop from its logo in 2011?
All its words
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'.
Q 07Which Starbucks marketing director was inspired by a 1983 trip to Milan to bring espresso bars to America?
Howard Schultz
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.
Q 08What was the name of the coffee-bar chain Starbucks' future owner started after leaving the company?
Il Giornale
Il Giornale started with Starbucks itself as an investor; in 1987 its founder bought Starbucks and put that name on his own shops.
Q 09Starbucks opened its first store outside the United States in 1987 in which Canadian city?
Vancouver
Vancouver was the new owner's first step abroad, opened in 1987 just as his own coffee bars were taking the Starbucks name.
Q 10On which stock exchange did Starbucks first sell shares to the public in June 1992?
Nasdaq
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.
Q 11Starbucks acquired the rights to the Frappuccino by buying which Boston-area chain in 1994?
The Coffee Connection
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.
Q 12The 'frap' in Frappuccino comes from frappe, a New England word for which treat?
A thick milkshake
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.
Q 13Which limited-edition Frappuccino, launched in April 2017, changed colour and flavour as you stirred it?
Unicorn
Q 21Which juice company did Starbucks buy for $30 million in November 2011?
Evolution Fresh
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.
Q 22What is Starbucks' bottled water brand that donates five cents a bottle to clean-water projects?
Ethos
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.
Q 23What was the name of the instant coffee line Starbucks launched in March 2009?
VIA Ready Brew
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.
Q 14Starbucks opened its first store outside North America in 1996 in which city?
Tokyo
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.
Q 15What is the name of Starbucks' largest cup size, introduced in 2011 for iced drinks?
Trenta
Trenta, Italian for thirty, went on sale first in 14 southern and south-western states and reached every US store that May.
Q 16A Starbucks inside which Beijing landmark closed in 2007 after protests?
The Forbidden City
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.
Q 17Starbucks co-founder Gordon Bowker went on to help start Redhook, a pioneering Seattle company of what kind?
A craft brewery
A craft brewery: Redhook later merged with Portland's Widmer Brothers, was bought out by Anheuser-Busch and sold on to Tilray in 2023.
Q 18In which country did Starbucks close 61 of its 84 stores in 2008?
Australia
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.
Q 19Which rival chain did Starbucks buy from the owner of Popeyes for $72 million in 2003?
Seattle's Best
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.
Q 20Starbucks paid $620 million in 2012 for which tea retailer, then closed all its shops by 2018?
Teavana
Mall landlord Simon Property Group won a court order forcing some Teavana stores to stay open temporarily.
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.
Q 24The first Starbucks Reserve Roastery outside the United States opened in 2017 in which city?
Shanghai
Shanghai's roastery was the second after Seattle's 2014 original; when that one closed in 2025, Shanghai's became the oldest still running.
Q 25Which 2015 Starbucks campaign had baristas write a phrase on cups to spark a national conversation, and drew backlash?
Race Together
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.
Q 26After a 2018 arrest scandal in Philadelphia, Starbucks temporarily shut about 8,000 US stores to hold what?
Racial-bias training
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.
Q 27Which annual Starbucks promotional day in November 2022 saw workers at over 100 unionised stores walk out?
Red Cup Day
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'.
Q 28Before becoming Starbucks CEO in 2023, Laxman Narasimhan spent months doing what?
Working as a barista
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.
Q 29Brian Niccol, named Starbucks CEO in August 2024, had run which chain since 2018?
Chipotle
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.
Q 30What did Starbucks end in January 2025 under a new code of conduct for its cafés?
Its open-door policy
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.