Starbucks is the latest franchise to get on the fake-meat bandwagon, according to an announcement from the company on Thursday. The coffee chain will source its plant-based meat from Beyond Meat, the same company supplying meat-free patties to McDonald's and select other restaurants. Starbucks will first offer its plant-based food items in Canada starting later this spring season.
If you're craving a Starbucks coffee but don't want to drive to the nearest store, you'll soon have another option: Uber Eats. The ride-sharing company's food delivery service previously teamed with Starbucks on a pilot to test coffee delivery in Miami. That test was apparently successful, as Starbucks has announced plans to expand its delivery to multiple major US cities.
Starbucks has announced plans to phase out single-use straws, helping address the issue of plastic waste impacting the environment. The ban won't take place until 2020, after which point Starbucks stores will switch to a type of plastic lid that has a built-in spout. The new straw-less lids are recyclable and will contribute to the elimination of more than a billion plastic straws annually.
Starbucks is back with two new Frappuccino drinks for summer, and while they're no doubt tasty, you'd be well-advised to consult the nutrition label before indulging. Called the Ultra Caramel and Triple Mocha Frappuccinos, both are layered, blended beverages offering the maker's coffee with a variety of sweet (and salty) ingredients for a proper desert.
A Starbucks store located in Buenos Aires was recently caught mining cryptocurrency using visitors' laptops that were connected to its public WiFi network. The mining was the result of malware, which Starbucks has since taken care of. The issue was made known by Noah Dinkin, who alerted Starbucks and the public to the mining via a tweet.
Starbucks has updated its iPhone app to version 4.3.4, adding multiple changes including the addition of a new iMessage gift card option. Those who use iMessage can now send their friends or family members a Starbucks gift card directly within the app, eliminating the need to toggle between apps or purchase a card in-store. Joining this are improvements to Mobile Order & Pay and more.
You can already place your Starbucks orders using your smartphone, but today we're seeing the massive coffee company expand on that functionality by rolling out a voice ordering feature. For the moment, the feature is only available on iOS through the Starbucks mobile app, and only a select number of customers will have access to it at first. In other words, this is a small-scale beta test before a larger launch later in the year.
Starting this afternoon, approximately 7,800 Starbucks stores will begin to roll with all-out Pokemon GO madness. In this case it means Starbucks - almost every location in the United States - will be transformed into a PokeStop or Pokemon GO Gym. Each Starbucks will remain named "Starbucks" on the Pokemon GO map in-game for mobile devices of all sorts.
This morning Pokemon GO's Starbucks sponsorship deal has been spilled in its entirety - and it's an exciting one. This is more exciting than the newest Pokemon GO song remix, more exciting than finding a Pikachu, and more exciting than a pack full of Pokemon GO Memes. This is a sponsorship deal between Starbucks and Pokemon GO that'll last well into the future, and will start with an event-styled launch on the 8th of December, 2016.
Caffeine is serious business, and if you're anything like me then coffee - and plenty of it - is your delivery mechanism of choice. Over the years we've seen a growing number of ways to bring not only brewed coffee but cafe favorites like lattes and cappuccinos into the kitchen, some more straightforward than others. Now, Starbucks has arrived with its new Verismo system, with redesigned pods and all-new brewers.
Lyft has partnered with Starbucks to offer physical gift cards for the ridesharing service. The gift cards would ordinarily only be worth grabbing if you’re giving someone a gift, but Starbucks is tossing its own perk into the mix: a $5 gift card as a bonus when buying a $20 gift card. That’s enough to get a coffee or two for your morning commute, and may be reason enough to get a physical card instead of using your bank card.
Want to meet with an associate over a prospective partnership, meet up with classmates to work on a project, or get together with a group of friends for a game of cards? There’s a good chance you’re considering Starbucks as your meeting location of choice. To make getting together there easier, Microsoft has launched a new Outlook add-on called Starbucks for Outlook, and it simplifies the scheduling process.