60 free Starbucks trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 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 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01At which famous Seattle public market was Starbucks founded in 1971?
Pike Place
The first store sold only beans and equipment at 2000 Western Avenue before moving to its famous Pike Place Market address in 1976.
Q 02What did the original Starbucks sell for its first decade?
Whole beans and equipment
The three founders met at the University of San Francisco and learned roasting from a Berkeley coffee pioneer, whose company supplied their beans until 1973.
Q 03Which novel supplied the name Starbucks, via its chief mate?
Moby-Dick
The founders had shortlisted 'Starbo' from a Cascade mining town; co-founder Bowker admitted the Melville link was 'only coincidental'.
Q 04Which coffee pioneer, whose Berkeley company supplied the beans, taught the Starbucks founders to roast?
Alfred Peet
Peet stopped supplying them in 1973 but helped train their new roastmaster; in 1984 the Starbucks owners bought Peet's outright.
Q 05What is the twin-tailed figure in the Starbucks logo?
A siren
A spokeswoman described her in 2006 as a twin-tailed mermaid or siren from Greek mythology; the first version was topless.
Q 06When the logo went from brown to green in 1987, the colour was said to be a nod to what?
The founders' university, USF
The 1987-92 version also covered the siren's breasts with her hair; her navel disappeared in 1992.
Q 07Which marketing director was inspired by a 1983 trip to Milan to bring espresso bars to America?
Howard Schultz
The owners resisted, so he left to open his own chain, Il Giornale, in 1985.
Q 08What was the name of the coffee-bar chain the future owner founded in 1985 before buying Starbucks?
Il Giornale
In 1987 the original owners sold him the Starbucks chain and he rebranded Il Giornale's outlets under the older name.
Q 09Starbucks opened its first stores outside Seattle in 1987 in Chicago and which Canadian city?
Vancouver
The Waterfront Station store came the same year Schultz took over; by 1989 there were 46 stores.
Q 10How many outlets did Starbucks have at its June 1992 IPO?
140
Revenue was $73.5 million, market value $271 million, and the 12% float raised about $25 million under the ticker SBUX.
Q 11Starbucks acquired the rights to the Frappuccino by buying which Boston-area chain in 1994?
The Coffee Connection
George Howell's marketing director Andrew Frank coined the name from 'frappe', New England's word for a thick milkshake, and 'cappuccino'.
Q 12The word Frappuccino blends 'cappuccino' with which New England term?
Frappe, a thick milkshake
By 2012 Frappuccino sales topped $2 billion a year; the bottled version was the first product of Starbucks' joint venture with PepsiCo.
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
It planned a chain of juice bars starting in San Bernardino, taking on Jamba.
Q 22What is Starbucks' bottled water brand that donates five cents a bottle to clean-water projects?
Ethos
Critics say the labelling makes a for-profit brand look like a charity; it has raised over $6.2 million.
Q 23What was the name of the instant coffee line Starbucks launched in March 2009?
VIA Ready Brew
Verismo was the 2012 single-serve pod machine, discontinued at the end of 2020.
It kicked off a run of novelty drinks including the Zombie and Red Velvet Cake Cream Frappuccinos.
Q 14Starbucks opened its first store outside North America in July 1996 in which city?
Tokyo
Singapore followed in December 1996; by 2003 Japan alone had 466 stores.
Q 15What is the name of Starbucks' largest cup size, introduced in January 2011, holding 31 US ounces?
Trenta
Venti means twenty in Italian; Trenta means thirty, though the cup holds a little more.
Q 16A Starbucks inside which Beijing landmark closed in 2007 after protests?
The Forbidden City
China is now the company's second-largest market; a 2026 joint venture hands up to 60% of the business there to Boyu Capital.
Q 17In July 2008 Starbucks announced it was closing how many underperforming US stores amid the recession?
600
Another 300 closures followed in January 2009; some 18,400 US jobs went in a year, and Schultz cut his own salary.
Q 18In which country did Starbucks close 61 of its 84 stores in 2008?
Australia
The remaining stores were sold to the Withers family in 2014; the first Australian store had opened in Sydney in 2000.
Q 19Which chain, bought in 2003 with Torrefazione Italia for $72 million, gave Starbucks a hometown rival brand?
Seattle's Best
The deal added only 150 stores but a large wholesale business.
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.
Q 24In which year did the Shanghai Starbucks Reserve Roastery, the first outside the US, open?
2017
Milan, New York, Tokyo and Chicago followed by 2019 before the plan for 20 roasteries was scaled back.
Q 25Starbucks opened its first store in Italy, the country that inspired the whole idea, in which year?
2018
The Milan roastery opened on 6 September 2018, by which point the chain was already in 78 countries.
Q 26Which 2015 campaign had baristas write a phrase on cups to spark a national conversation, and drew backlash?
Race Together
It joined the annual red-cup design rows and the 2018 Philadelphia arrests among the brand's PR crises.
Q 27Which Starbucks CEO apologised after two Black men were arrested in a Philadelphia store in 2018?
Kevin Johnson
The company later closed its US stores for an afternoon of racial-bias training and dropped its purchase requirement, a policy reversed in 2025.
Q 28Which Buffalo store became the first unionised company-owned Starbucks in the US in December 2021?
Elmwood Avenue
Starbucks Workers United went on to certify unions at over 200 stores within a year; the Camp Road store voted no.
Q 29Which annual promotional day in November 2022 saw workers at over 100 unionised stores walk out?
Red Cup Day
Strikers wanted higher staffing and consistent schedules; a further strike in June 2023 concerned Pride decorations.
Q 30Who became CEO in October 2022 and famously trained as a barista to work a half-day a month?
Laxman Narasimhan
He was ousted in August 2024 after less than 18 months.