After a successful test run at 1,300 locations in the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin) in January 2020, Starbucks will be launching an oat milk dairy alternative at all US locations in Spring 2021. The company also currently offers oat milk at stores across Canada.
Starbucks is committed to practicing sustainability and verifies that all coffees are ethically sourced through their partnership with Conservation International. In order to boost their environmentally friendly initiatives, Starbucks has begun innovating their plant-based menu, adding items like a fully vegan breakfast sandwich (mung bean-based egg, plant-based sausage patty, and dairy-free cheese on an English muffin) which was released at a location in Issaquah, WA in October 2019. The company also added an Impossible Breakfast Sandwich to the menu at the majority of its US stores (the sandwich is vegetarian and cannot be ordered vegan), marking the first time the chain has offered plant-based meat in the US. The addition of oat milk is another step towards the company’s goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and waste production in half by 2030.
