The Chain Gang

Starbucks Will Offer Coconut Milk Nationwide Starting This Month

A little island flair for your morning joe.
A little island flair for your morning joe. Photo: Shutterstock

Starbucks is rolling out coconut milk as the chain’s first non-soy dairy alternative for caffeine fiends nationwide. Starbucks Melody has it that the Paleo-friendly, vegan-friendly, lactose-free, many-birds-with-one-stone option launches February 17 and is available for hot or cold drinks. People have really been hounding Starbucks via its My Starbucks Idea online forum to introduce another dairy alternative, so the company started testing coconut milk in Portland and Cleveland over the summer, then added L.A. this fall, and it seems customers are pretty pleased with the results.

Like the soy that Starbucks offers, the coconut milk comes in boxes — they’re labeled “Sumatra Coconut Milk Beverage with Coconut Water from Concentrate” — that partners have been indiscreetly posting to social media all week.

We have coconut milk at starbucks now😏😍 pic.twitter.com/9iLvWxWCy5— Barista Boy (@JustSnHector) January 30, 2015

Coconut milk has arrived at @Starbucks this is a HUGE DEAL pic.twitter.com/243ENUkBD1— babycarrot (@FittiePretty) February 1, 2015

And as one employee reveals, it might not be the only new development in store:

coming to a starbucks near you very soon 👀👀👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/IHJ9gzlfPl— SquidwardTennisballs (@lets_get_tough) January 31, 2015

Of course, the reason many people today drink coconut milk is for the health benefits. Thankfully, Redditors fastidiously tracked the stuff once it hit test markets, and Starbucks’s version appears to be a somewhat-doctored combination of water, coconut cream, sugar, and a variety of emulsifiers like carrageenan and tricalcium phosphate that allow it to froth properly. (“You may as well just heat coconut milk on the stove or in a microwave without those added ingredients because it won’t froth at all,” one adds.)

[Starbucks Melody, Consumerist]

Starbucks Will Offer Coconut Milk Nationwide Starting This Month