The Presidential Inauguration is expected to be attended by a million people and millions more around the world will be watching this event via the airwaves. Starbucks will be streaming the Inauguration event in select stores in New York, San Francisco and Seattle that have the Now Playing screens. This is the first time that we’ll air a live broadcast along with audio, so the usual music you’re used to will be replaced with this historic event from 10 – 2 p.m. Eastern and 7 – 11 a.m. Pacific. If you are looking for a place to view the Inauguration in these cities, visit your neighborhood Starbucks and watch it with us over a great cup of coffee! See the attachment below … more »

Hi Friends, I’d like to thank you all for your continued interest and requests for additional sugar-free options at Starbucks. We are considering alternate sweeteners and optimizing our current syrup line-up. Currently, we carry Sugar-free Caramel, Hazelnut, and Vanilla. We are working on a couple of new products we hope to share with you this spring. Keep the ideas coming! In the meantime, I want to share some new ways to try the sugar-free syrups we have available right now. Sugar-free syrups can be a great addition to a variety of drinks on our menu including lattes, which many of you have already tried. Following are some of my favorite ways to use our three sugar-free syrups (Caramel … more »

President-elect Obama recently announced the creation of the Renew America Together Initiative, a call for community service headed by General Colin Powell, www.usaservice.org . I’m pleased to report that Starbucks is partnering with the HandsOn Network to make it easy to participate in the President’s call for national service. Together, we will aim to raise over one million hours of community service by offering our stores across the nation as a place to make a pledge of community service in the new year. More detail on our efforts is imminent. Check out http://pledge5.starbucks.com . This is going to be a very cool experience in our stores. While volunteering and commitment to … more »

Tuesday, January 13 @ 2:00 is tea time at Starbucks. All company-operated stores will be sampling the new Tazo® Tea Lattes and Tea Infusions along with some tasty food. Tazo® Tea Lattes • Black Tea Latte . It’s a blend of black teas from India and Sri Lanka combined with freshly steamed milk and sweetened to perfection. • London Fog Tea Latte , a blend of Earl Grey (the traditional bergamot-scented black tea) accented with a hint of French lavender, sweetened with vanilla and combined with steamed milk. • Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte , a tantalizing elixir of South African caffeine-free rooibos (sometimes called “red tea”), Tahitian vanilla, apple and peach … more »

Hi everyone, Thanks for the plentiful feedback and suggestions on my December 18th post regarding the (RED) Starbucks Card. Kudos to Trisha Joy for tracking me down. It’s pretty crazy around here during the holidays, and I appreciate her perseverance in getting your comments to the top of my e-mail queue. She’s a great advocate for MSI. So where should I start: Well, first, thank you for your response to Starbucks partnership with (RED). I am excited about the difference we can make to help save lives. I respect the comments and viewpoints about potentially different routes we could have taken with regard to this program. They are all valid, and I think we should consider alternatives … more »

After enjoying our tasty holiday treats, we are ready to jump into the New Year, full of fresh ideas. One popular idea is for Starbucks to offer more gluten-free options. We’ve started doing some operational testing in a select number of our stores and the baristas & customers who participated were psyched about the idea. One barista shared, “Out of all the tests we’ve done, this one feels like we’re doing the most for the customer!” Before we continue moving forward, we would love some feedback from you about what you want to see in gluten-free offerings. Here are a few questions we have for you: • What specific gluten-free products would you like to see … more »

Some ideas we’ve seen on the site are around learning more about the people who grow coffee. I thought you would be interested in a story about a coffee farmer from Rwanda shared with me by David Browning of TechnoServe, an organization that helps entrepreneurial men and women in poor rural areas of the developing world to build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and their countries. http://www.technoserve.org/ Athanasie (pronounced A-ta-na-zee) is a coffee farmer, one of over three thousand Rwandan farmers that TechnoServe has assisted to produce specialty-grade coffee. Athanasie was 20 years old and eight months pregnant … more »