News Blog

Since its introduction in April, Starbucks Energy Refreshers are resonating with customers in the afternoon, offering the ability to tailor caffeine levels while meeting demand for refreshing options beyond the morning coffee occasion. The beverages continue to account for a growing share of the platform, reflecting strong customer adoption.

Contributing to that momentum, the new Tropical Butterfly Refresher, introduced May 12 as part of the summer menu, is also off to a promising start just weeks after launch. Inspired by vibrant tropical flavors, the beverage features bright citrus notes and a layered color that evolves as it is stirred, delivering a refreshing boost and a visually distinctive experience for customers. 

Starbucks is also drawing in afternoon customers with an expanded food menu. which now features the Chicken Caesar Wrap and Sesame Ginger Chicken Wrap. Both new wraps, available at select coffeehouses in California and Washington state, offer fresh and satisfying options designed perfectly for the afternoon. These additions, along with the buzzworthy Unicorn Cake Pop, expand choice and pair perfectly with both hot and cold drinks.

Creating a distinct afternoon experience 

Mornings continue to be a strong foundation for Starbucks. From updated digital menu boards to curated music, Starbucks is creating a coffeehouse experience that feels just as relevant in the afternoon, whether customers are stopping in briefly or staying a little longer. What is emerging is something additive with more occasions, more ways to visit and more reasons to come in throughout the day. All together, the company is creating a holistic experience that feels natural to customers, one that fits into how they already move through their day, with Starbucks along the way.

¹Data reflects the last 90 days (February 15 to May 16) at U.S. coffeehouses. 

Turning opportunity into degrees — and careers

About 13% of our U.S. workforce is participating in SCAP — six times the Fortune 500 average — and is up 60% over the past five years, demonstrating the value in continuing to offer a college benefit that creates economic opportunity for our partners.

Even more meaningful is what happens next – real impact and growth for partners:

1. 80% graduation rate – 16 points higher than the national average for full-time bachelor’s degree seeking students
2. More than 20% of coffeehouse leadership roles and 13% of Starbucks early-career corporate roles are filled by SCAP scholars and graduates
3. 66% of partners who have graduated say they likely would not have earned their degree without SCAP
4. 75% report career growth after earning their degree
5. Nearly 30% of ASU’s Barrett Honors College online students are SCAP scholars

SCAP also expands access through Pathway to Admission, created because 1 in 5 partners were not initially academically admissible. More than 6,000 partners have earned admission to ASU who may not have previously seen college as an option.

Delivering the best job in retail

By investing in partners and their education, we’re helping them build the skills, confidence and experience to grow at Starbucks and beyond. Alongside Bean Stock, up to 18 weeks of paid parental leave and our commitment to fill 90% of retail leadership from within, SCAP reflects what’s possible when we put people first with truly life‑changing benefits.

To our graduating partners: Congratulations on this extraordinary achievement! Your determination and ambition inspire us.

In addition to our Military Family Coffeehouse expansion, we will be honoring service through stories. In partnership with Blue Star Families, Starbucks will help launch a national storytelling activation called BlueStar250 Stories, inviting people to share personal and family connections to U.S. military service. These stories honor the everyday Americans who serve and the families who stand beside them. Stories will be preserved through Blue Star Families and shared thoughtfully to expand their reach and inspire generations to come.

As in past years, we are encouraging our customers to support military families through purposeful giving. Throughout May, customers can purchase a Military Appreciation Month eGift through the Starbucks app and eGift site. For every military eGift purchased in May, Starbucks will donate $5 to Blue Star Families to support their ongoing work with military communities, with a goal of raising $250,000.

Starbucks support for those who serve, Veterans and their families extend beyond a single month or announcement. Through unique benefits and services, mental health resources and community investments, Starbucks continues to take action in ways that matter. The expansion of Military Family Coffeehouses, the launch of BlueStar250 Stories and our Military Appreciation Month eGift campaign underpins our belief that this community – many of whom we call partners – provide invaluable contributions. They aren’t only part of our workforce and neighborhoods; they’re part of our story.

Through a Global Community Impact Grant from The Starbucks Foundation, and in partnership with Fundación Alsea and Fundación Marisa, Starbucks Mexico is launching the initiative Autonomy Is Sweet Too. It will support more than 1,000 women in Jalisco with training and personal development programs designed to strengthen pathways to long‑term economic independence. A portion of every purchase at Casa de las Sirenas — up to 7% of store sales — will directly support this work.

The coffeehouse itself tells a story of women’s leadership and creativity. From murals by local artist Alejandra Poiré that were shaped by conversations with women in the community to hand‑crafted tile by women‑led studio LOFA and custom lighting produced with local artisans at Filamento, the design reflects resilience, shared identity and local pride.

Casa de las Sirenas is a place where community, culture and opportunity meet and where neighbors can gather, connect and help shape a more inclusive future together. 

Starbucks heritage meets Italian culture at the Milan Roastery 

Starbucks celebrated Italian design and its shared language of craft, design and culture with its new exhibition, “Inspired by Italy,” at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Milano.  

Two new design elements of the Starbucks coffeehouse experience took center stage in the exhibition: an elegant new lounge chair and stylish ceramic mugs.   

• The soft and generously comfortable Viola lounge chair (“viola” means purple in Italian) was inspired by the iconic purple chair found in Starbucks coffeehouses in the 1990s, offering an invitation to sit, stay and connect. It became a symbol of Starbucks as a welcoming third place. 

• The new Starbucks ceramic for-here mug is designed for moments worth lingering over. Inspired by Italian café culture, its porcelain body features a wider opening to enhance foam and aroma and a naturally balanced handle, finished in white or deep green.  

Both the chair and the mugs are part of Starbucks coffeehouse uplifts, which began rolling out last year in the United States. Over the past 18 months, Starbucks has been reaffirming its role as a community coffeehouse, elevating the in-store experience and restoring the warmth and comfort customers value most.  

Uplifted Starbucks coffeehouses feature softer seating, richer textures, warmer color palettes, thoughtful lighting, improved acoustics, ceramic cups and locally inspired details. Through the experience, guests saw how thoughtful design helps coffeehouses feel welcoming, human and designed for connection 

 Starbucks connects coffee, fashion and film through “The Devil Wears Prada 2” in Milan 

In the center of Milan, Starbucks stepped into the world of fashion through a dynamic partnership with Rinascente, the city’s legendary high-end department store.  

The store featured window displays recreating the fictional Runway magazine offices seen in “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” In the displays, Starbucks cups are on the desks of Runway boss Miranda Priestly and other characters from the movie, a nod to a scene from the first movie where Priestly sends her assistant Andy out to get her Starbucks order each morning.  

Starbucks was also part of the Italian premiere of “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” where fashion leaders, editors and tastemakers gathered on Rinascente’s rooftop, sipping Starbucks coffee while celebrating the intersection of film, fashion and culture. The premiere also featured a recreation of the Runway offices, including Starbucks cups on some of the desks.  

 How Starbucks turned used coffee grounds into sustainable design  

Just steps away from the San Babila theater in Milan, Starbucks commitment to sustainability took center stage through the SLIDE Design Project, an installation that transformed used coffee grounds into something entirely new. 

There, at the Starbucks coffeehouse in the Durini Design District of Milan, visitors could sit in chairs made of a new compound using coffee grounds from Starbucks cafes in Milan and Bergamo. After the coffee grounds were collected, they were transferred to Krill Design, which converted the organic waste into second-life raw material used for the chairs. 

Anchoring the installation was a 10-foot-tall sculpture, made of the same materials, of a barista wearing the Starbucks green apron 

The furniture and sculpture served as a tangible expression of Starbucks broader sustainability ambitions, proving that thoughtful design using materials often considered waste can play a role in building a more resilient future. 

Culture and connection 

Across Milan, Starbucks activations shared a common thread: bringing people together through coffee, creativity and connection. Whether inside the Roastery, above the city skyline or within a design studio setting, Starbucks continues to explore new ways to show up at the intersection of culture and community.  

We’ve also continued to invest in industry-leading benefits and competitive pay, delivering record high partner retention. Turnover is now nearly half the industry average.

Expanded benefits – including paid parental leave now up to 18 weeks – alongside competitive pay are driving partner stability and career growth. For hourly partners working an average of 20 or more hours per week, total pay and benefits are valued at more than $30 per hour, including healthcare, stock awards, a paid college degree and flexible leave.

A culture of performance

Investments in our partners are paying off: improving the partner experience, strengthening leader and partner stability and driving more consistent service for customers. Here’s what we’re seeing:

• Today, 80% of Starbucks highest‑performing coffeehouses have a leader who has been in role for more than one year, highlighting that stability is tied to results.
• The share of U.S. company-operated coffeehouses meeting our highest-performing standards increased by more than 30 percent.
• Approximately 80% of U.S. company-operated coffeehouses delivered cafe orders in four minutes or less.

This is what a culture of performance looks like: consistent leadership, clear standards and partners who are set up to succeed.

More customers visiting Starbucks

Led by our coffeehouse partners, improved execution contributed to a stronger Q2. North America comparable store sales grew, transactions increased and revenue rose.

That performance is creating more room for growth and opportunity. This month, Starbucks launched a shared-success model that includes a new quarterly reward program for baristas and shift supervisors tied to store performance, along with expanded digital tipping and weekly pay.*

Delivering the best job in retail is good for partners – and fuels opportunity for Starbucks.

*This program, at the approximately 5% of U.S. locations where partners have a union, will be subject to collective bargaining as required by federal law. 

Cultural relevance isn’t a marketing tactic, a brand expression or a set of partnerships, it’s a core operating principle. This is why continuing our work of getting Back to Starbucks means infusing culture into every part of the business. 

At Starbucks, culture isn’t the job of one specific team, it’s a mindset. It lives in how and where we show up in the world, but also in the ways we design our menu, build technology and empower our partners (employees). It lives in how we listen and respond to customers in real time. It is central to how teams work together, how decisions get made and how quickly we respond to the shifting needs of our customers and our coffeehouses. 

Our strategy is anchored in delivering with both discipline and speed. Our five core seasons set the emotional direction for the year while continuous cultural signals – often shared by our customers and partners – add energy and momentum across a high‑frequency business.  

Culture starts from the inside. Starbucks partners are deeply connected to what’s happening in the world, and when they’re empowered with the right tools, clarity and trust, their instincts lead to innovation that flows directly into the customer experience. The result is a brand that feels human, relevant and consistent across channels, moments and seasons. 

This mindset and the systems we’ve designed also mean that when a cultural moment comes along that resonates – one that aligns naturally with who we are – we’re able to respond authentically without feeling the need to chase every trend. 

And over the years, as Starbucks has grown, so has the potential to do good around the world.

Our scale matters because of what it makes possible – it allows us to help positively impact more people around the world in meaningful ways.

This month, during Global Month of Good, we want to pause to look at the impact that Starbucks partners (employees), The Starbucks Foundation and licensed business operators have on the communities they serve, all year long. It’s about more than just a month but rather creating lasting action that can make a difference for people the world over.

Helping fight hunger, one meal at a time

Hunger is a daily reality for far too many people around the globe. In the United States alone, more than 47 million people, including more than 7 million children, are food insecure, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Starbucks is committed to doing something about that. The Starbucks FoodShare program helps divert unsold food to food banks and community organizations across the United States.

Since the program began in 2016, more than 144 million pounds of surplus food have been donated, helping reduce food waste while getting it to the people in local communities experiencing hunger.

Over the winter holidays, Starbucks partnered with World Food Program USA to roll out a global hunger-relief campaign. Across Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and North America, the campaign provided 12 million meals globally through the World Food Programme’s school meals program.

Creating opportunities for the next generation

Sometimes just getting an opportunity can be life changing.

The Starbucks Foundation and Alshaya Group made a historic investment in youth empowerment in 2024 across the Middle East and Eurasia through the EmpowerME program, in partnership with Habitat Derneği and INJAZ Al-Arab/JA MENA part of JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide.

The impact has been profound with more than 132,000 young people given training and new skills to support career development and advancement.

Helping support coffee farmers around the world

Coffee connects people, from the farmers who grow it to the baristas who serve it and the customers who drink it.

In October 2025, Starbucks Puerto Rico celebrated the 20^th anniversary of the Don’t Let It Fall (No lo Dejes Caer) volunteer initiative. Each harvest season, green apron partners visit local farms during the busy harvest season to support farmers in picking coffee cherries before they fall and go to waste. As part of the celebration, The Starbucks Foundation announced two Global Community Impact Grants to:

• Banco de Alimentos de Puerto Rico, to provide year-round meals on the weekend and nutritional education to young people in Puerto Rico who experience food insecurity.
• PROCAFE, to empower youth across Puerto Rico to partake in community conservation initiatives and hand-on leadership building reaffirming its long-standing commitment to coffee farmers on the island.

In Indonesia, Starbucks Indonesia and the Ministry of Agriculture signed a multiyear memorandum of understanding to help strengthen the country’s coffee ecosystem through support for training, seed and equipment donations, as well as climate-smart farming practices.

The collaboration, running through 2027 across several coffee growing regions, focuses on helping empower smallholder farmers, improving coffee farmer productivity and crop yields, supporting farmer economic opportunity and promoting sustainable farming practices.

Expanding access to clean water and community care

Through its partnership with Planet Water Foundation, The Starbucks Foundation is helping support sustainable access to clean water across Asia Pacific and Latin America.

To date, 97 AquaTower water filtration systems have been installed, helping up to 174,600 people with access to safe drinking water, improved health outcomes and greater resilience for families and schools.

The AquaTowers reflect the power of Starbucks partners and communities coming together. Partners help build each tower and provide education about clean water, handwashing and more. In the Philippines, a Starbucks partner helped build an AquaTower at the very school they once attended.
Starbucks is proud to continue this work, with plans for more AquaTowers, including in Malaysia.

During this month, and all year long, we are proud to continue this work. It reflects who we are at Starbucks — using our scale and our partnerships to create lasting, meaningful change — one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time

Since 2019, nearly 200,000 nominations through The Starbucks Foundation’s Neighborhood Grants and Global Community Impact Grants programs have helped direct almost $30 million to nonprofit organizations and community resources across North America and more than 60 markets worldwide. Together, these programs bring to life the spirit of our Community Coffeehouses and reflect how partners make a positive impact in their own neighborhoods.

From addressing hunger and supporting under-resourced communities to uplifting youth, serving our communities is part of Starbucks ethos.  

Learn more about how Starbucks partners lead through the power of positive contribution, here.