Caffeine fiends of America, listen up. The Queen (or rather, Siren?) of coffee has decided to offer coconut milk in all of her stores.
Providing a non-dairy alternative to dairy and soy is one of the most requested customer idea of all time on MyStarbucksIdea.com, generating more than 84,000 votes. At last, Starbucks has responded.
Beginning February 17, the new option will kill a few birds with one stone: It's paleo-friendly, vegan-friendly, and lactose-free. The milk is made from single-origin coconuts from the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
But why no almond milk, you ask? After extensive research, the coffee chain decided against offering it because of the prevalence of tree nut allergies in the population.
"Delivering the options our customers want is always the highlight of my day," said Christine Barone, vice president of brewed espresso at Starbucks, in a press release. "We have a high bar for anything we pair with our high quality espresso and this coconut milk is smooth and perfectly complements the coffee. I personally love it in an iced vanilla latte. We are excited to hear back what further customer and partner customization coconut milk inspires."
The company has already been testing coconut milk in Portland, Cleveland, and Los Angeles, and it seems customers are pretty pleased with the results.
We're impressed with how eager Starbucks is to address the diverse needs of its avid following. Plus, we already know how well that creamy goodness works swirled in a cup of joe.
Photo courtesy of Starbucks
Emi Boscamp is the former News Editor at mindbodygreen. She received a BA in English and minors in Spanish and Art History from Cornell University. She's a writer living in Manhattan and enjoys cooking, eating, traveling, and writing about all three of those things. She loves anything pickled. And anything punny. (She's kind of a big dill.)