99 Fun Facts About Starbucks

At which famous Seattle public market was Starbucks founded in 1971?

Pike Place Market has housed the '1912 Pike Place' store since 1976; the 1971 original stood a block away, and the market shop kept the original brown logo.

What did the original Starbucks sell for its first decade?

'Whole beans and equipment' were the stock: the shop roasted and sold beans alongside grinders and brewers, offering only free tasting samples, and did not pour espresso drinks until 1984.

Which novel supplied the name Starbucks, via its chief mate?

Moby-Dick supplied the name: Starbuck is the Pequod's first mate in Melville's 1851 novel, and co-founder Gordon Bowker later admitted the link to the book was 'only coincidental'.

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

Alfred Peet, the Dutch-born roaster who opened his Berkeley shop in 1966, taught the founders to roast and supplied their beans until 1973, then helped train their own roastmaster.

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

A siren is the figure: a twin-tailed mermaid from Greek mythology, shown bare-breasted in the 1971 brown logo and covered up when the company changed hands in 1987.

In which year did Starbucks drop the words 'Starbucks Coffee' from its logo ring?

2011: for its 40th anniversary Starbucks removed the outer ring and the words 'Starbucks Coffee', leaving the green figure alone, a change unveiled in January and rolled out in March.

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

Howard Schultz, hired as marketing director in 1982, came back from Milan convinced Americans would buy espresso by the cup; the owners refused, so he left in 1985 to open his own bars.

What was the name of the coffee-bar chain the future owner founded in 1985 before buying Starbucks?

In 1987 the original owners sold him the Starbucks chain and he rebranded Il Giornale's outlets under the older name.

Starbucks opened its first stores outside Seattle in 1987 in Chicago and which Canadian city?

Vancouver got its Waterfront Station store in 1987, the year the chain changed hands, and by 1989 the company had 46 stores.

How many outlets did Starbucks have at its June 1992 IPO?

140 outlets: the June 1992 Nasdaq listing valued the company at about $271 million on revenue of $73.5 million, and the 12 percent float raised roughly $25 million.

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

The Coffee Connection, George Howell's Boston-area chain, invented the blended drink and trademarked the name; Starbucks bought the company in 1994 and launched the Frappuccino nationally in 1995.

The word Frappuccino blends 'cappuccino' with which New England term?

'Frappe, a thick milkshake' is the Boston term, pronounced 'frap'; the bottled Frappuccino launched in 1996 as the first product of Starbucks' joint venture with PepsiCo.

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

Unicorn Frappuccino ran for five days from 19 April, starting pink and mango-sweet and turning purple and sour with a swirl; it spawned novelties such as that Halloween's Zombie Frappuccino.

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

Tokyo's Ginza district got the store in August 1996 through a joint venture with the retailer Sazaby; Singapore followed that December, and Japan became one of the chain's biggest markets.

What is the name of Starbucks' largest cup size, introduced in January 2011, holding 31 US ounces?

Venti means twenty in Italian; Trenta means thirty, though the cup holds a little more.

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

The Forbidden City outlet had operated since 2000; a 2007 online campaign led by CCTV anchor Rui Chenggang called it an insult to Chinese culture and it closed that July.

In July 2008 Starbucks announced it was closing how many underperforming US stores amid the recession?

600 stores, about 70 percent of them opened since 2006, were marked for closure on 1 July 2008, costing roughly 12,000 jobs; another 300 closures followed in January 2009.

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

Australia never took to the chain: after the 2008 cull of 61 stores the remainder were sold in 2014 to the Withers family, owners of 7-Eleven Australia; the first store had opened in Sydney in 2000.

Which chain, bought in 2003 with Torrefazione Italia for $72 million, gave Starbucks a hometown rival brand?

Seattle's Best came from AFC Enterprises, the Popeyes owner, and the deal added about 150 cafés plus a large wholesale and licensing business that put the brand in Borders bookshops.

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 San Bernardino cold-pressed juice maker, cost $30 million; Starbucks opened the first Evolution Fresh juice bar in Bellevue, Washington, in March 2012 to take on Jamba Juice.

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

Ethos Water, bought by Starbucks in 2005, sends five cents from each bottle to the Ethos Water Fund for clean-water projects; critics say the label makes a for-profit brand look like a charity.

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

VIA Ready Brew went on sale in Seattle and Chicago in March 2009 and nationwide that September, using microground coffee so that it dissolved like instant but tasted closer to brewed.

In which year did the Shanghai Starbucks Reserve Roastery, the first outside the US, open?

2017: the Shanghai Reserve Roastery opened on 6 December 2017 on West Nanjing Road, at about 30,000 square feet the company's largest store at the time.

Starbucks opened its first store in Italy, the country that inspired the whole idea, in which year?

2018: the Milan Reserve Roastery in the Piazza Cordusio post office building opened on 7 September 2018, 35 years after the 1983 Milan trip that inspired the espresso-bar idea.

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

Race Together, launched in March 2015, asked baristas to write the phrase on cups and talk about race with customers; after a week of ridicule the cup-writing was dropped.

Which Starbucks CEO apologised after two Black men were arrested in a Philadelphia store in 2018?

Kevin Johnson flew to Philadelphia to apologise in person that April, and on 29 May the company closed about 8,000 US stores for an afternoon of racial-bias training.

Which Buffalo store became the first unionised company-owned Starbucks in the US in December 2021?

Elmwood Avenue voted 19 to 8 for Starbucks Workers United on 9 December 2021; the Camp Road store voted no that day, and more than 200 stores had unionised within a year.

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

Red Cup Day, 17 November 2022, when free reusable red cups bring the year's busiest crowds, saw more than 100 unionised stores walk out in the 'Red Cup Rebellion' over staffing and schedules.

Who took over as CEO in March 2023 after months training as a barista?

Laxman Narasimhan joined as incoming chief in October 2022, trained as a barista, took over as CEO on 20 March 2023 and was ousted in August 2024 after about 17 months.

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

Chipotle made Niccol chief executive in March of that year, after he had run Taco Bell from 2015; he started at Starbucks on 9 September 2024.

What did Starbucks end in January 2025, again requiring a purchase to use restrooms and seating?

'Its open-door policy', adopted after the Philadelphia arrests, let anyone use cafés and restrooms without buying; the January 2025 code of conduct reversed it.

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?

'A centrist independent' was his label: on 60 Minutes in January 2019 he said he was seriously considering a run, and he abandoned the idea that September.

The future CEO was US general manager for which Swedish kitchenware maker before visiting the company in 1981?

Hammarplast, a Swedish maker of plastic housewares, had him selling drip coffee-makers, and a Seattle retailer ordering unusual numbers of them sent him to investigate in 1981; before that he sold for Xerox.

Which neighbourhood houses the Starbucks Center headquarters, a former Sears mail-order warehouse?

SODO, south of downtown, holds the Starbucks Center at 2401 Utah Avenue South, a former Sears catalogue warehouse the company moved into in 1997, topped by a clock tower bearing the logo.

As of 2022, roughly how many Starbucks stores were there worldwide?

About 36,000: the company counted 35,711 stores at the end of fiscal 2022, roughly 15,900 of them in the United States and more than 6,000 in China.

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

Soy came years before the rest: coconut milk arrived in 2015, almond in 2016 and oat went national in 2021, and the non-dairy surcharge was dropped in November 2024.

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

Olive oil, a spoonful of Partanna extra-virgin per drink, defined Oleato, launched in Milan in February 2023 after the founder adopted a daily dose of it on a Sicilian trip.

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 his 2008 return as CEO, the founder-figure temporarily closed all US stores to do what?

'Retrain baristas on espresso' was the goal: on 26 February 2008 about 7,100 US stores shut for three hours so staff could practise pulling shots and steaming milk.

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.

Starbucks sold its Russian stores in 2022 to which local celebrity?

The rapper Timati and restaurateur Anton Pinskiy bought the 130 stores in July 2022 and reopened them as Stars Coffee; the chain had entered Russia in 2007.

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

Chicago's Michigan Avenue Reserve Roastery, five floors and about 35,000 square feet in the former Crate and Barrel flagship, opened on 15 November 2019 with a curved escalator and a 17-metre copper cask.

Which 2012 Reuters investigation finding embarrassed Starbucks in Britain?

'It paid only £8.6m UK corporation tax in 14 years' on sales above £3 billion, Reuters found in October 2012, partly because royalties flowed to a Dutch unit; Starbucks then volunteered £20 million over two years.

What did Schultz call the unbranded cafés like 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea opened in 2009?

They served beer and wine and hosted live music, testing the local-coffee-house look the chain later adopted store by store.

Starbucks began posting calorie counts for drinks and pastries in all US stores in which year?

2013: calorie counts went onto menu boards in every US company-operated store from 25 June 2013, ahead of the federal menu-labelling rule; the 'skinny' drinks line had launched in January 2008.

Which financial firm agreed to take up to 60% of Starbucks' China retail business?

Boyu Capital, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, agreed to take up to 60 percent of a joint venture running Starbucks' China stores, with Starbucks keeping the rest and its brand licence.

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

Beer and wine were poured from October 2010 at Seattle's Olive Way store under 'Starbucks Evenings', which spread to more than 400 stores before the programme was scrapped.

Where did the three Starbucks founders first meet?

'At the University of San Francisco' is where Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker met as students; they opened their first shop on 30 March 1971 selling roasted beans.

The founders' shortlist of 'st' words first produced what brand name, a misreading of a mining town?

Starbo came from an old map of Mount Rainier showing a mining camp of that name; partner Terry Heckler believed words beginning with 'st' were powerful, and Starbo led on to Starbuck.

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.

In which year did the Pumpkin Spice Latte first appear at Starbucks?

2003 saw the Pumpkin Spice Latte tested in about 100 stores before its national rollout in autumn 2004; it became the chain's best-selling seasonal drink.

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.

How much did Starbucks pay for the Tazo tea brand in 1999?

$8.1 million bought Tazo, the Portland, Oregon tea company founded by Steven Smith in 1994; Starbucks later sold the brand to Unilever for $384 million.

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

Tata Starbucks opened the first Indian store at Horniman Circle, Mumbai, on 19 October 2012, after an earlier attempt to enter the market had been abandoned 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 went on the Nasdaq in June 1992 at $17 a share, when annual revenue was $73.5 million.

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.