Starbucks Coffee, Bean-to-Cup
The cup of Starbucks coffee you hold in your hand is more than just a drink.
The cup of Starbucks coffee you hold in your hand is more than just a drink. It’s an expertly handcrafted beverage, a daily ritual, the final step in an incredible, global, coffee-production story connecting you to farmers, agronomists, roasters, buyers, engineers, Green Apron baristas and more.
Woven into our communities
Starbucks began as a single retail store in Seattle in 1971, selling whole-bean coffee, tea and spices. We’re now 40,000 stores strong, in 88 markets around the world, supported by five roasting, manufacturing and distribution plants in the U.S. – and others internationally in the Netherlands, India and China. We have a network of master roasters, six immersive Starbucks Reserve Roasteries (in Milan, Shanghai, Tokyo, New York City, Chicago and Seattle) with premium coffee experiences, and a Coffee Innovation Park in China that opened last year.
At our stores, you’ll find both espresso classics and innovative beverages, like the Iced Shaken Espresso, Cold Brew poured from a nitro tap and Cold Foams. Starbucks is also a leader in innovative brewing, with new equipment like the award-winning Clover Vertica, the fastest bean-to-cup brewer in the industry, designed to enhance the coffee experience, and the Mastrena II, which can deliver up to three shots of three different espressos.
Most importantly, we’re woven into the communities we serve. Our stores are gathering spaces for conversations, connection and joy, where our Green Apron baristas share their love of coffee with customers every single day – remembering their regulars’ orders, making meaningful connections with their communities and delivering that much-needed pick-me-up to start your day, customized how you want. And some are really talented: if you see a barista wearing a Black Apron, it’s the mark of a Coffee Master. And there are others who’ve competed in Global Barista Championships or visited coffee farms through the Starbucks Origin Experience.
Starbucks was founded on a love for high-quality coffee. Coffee is our heart. We invite you to learn about our story – the coffee fields to your stores, the many hands that nurture the coffee along the way, the incredible journey of a little bean that ends in your cup.
Our coffee, our why
Starbucks proudly sources 100% arabica coffee from more than 450,000 farmers in 30 markets along “The Coffee Belt” – in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa. Our buyers, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, scour the globe for the finest coffees, including our premium, single-origin Reserve selections.
Given the stressors on coffee and agriculture, including rapid climate change, we feel the responsibility and urgency to help and protect – not only farmer livelihoods but the human connections inherent to coffee. Which is why Starbucks is focused squarely on improving coffee productivity, profitability and climate resilience.
How we help coffee farmers
We have a research and innovation farm, Hacienda Alsacia, on the slopes of Volcano Poás in Costa Rica, the hub for our open-source agronomy initiatives and global research and development efforts. The team there manages the Starbucks core coffee collection – more than 600 coffee hybrids and varietals – to find those with the elusive combination of good taste, high productivity and natural resistance to disease and climate change. The most climate resistant seeds and seedlings are distributed, for free, to farmers around the world.
We test, learn and innovate at our network of research farms, like Hacienda Alsacia, and our two new farms in Guatemala and Costa Rica, with future farm investments in Africa and Asia. World-class agronomists share the latest in best practices at our 10 Farmer Support Centers, located in the heart of coffee-growing regions. And we put our solutions into action at more than 70 smallholder “model farms” in our supply chain, where other farmers, whether they sell to Starbucks or not, can see for themselves what works.
Committed to the coffee industry
We’re proud of how we’ve led and supported the coffee industry. In 2004, in collaboration with Conservation International, we developed Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, one of the coffee industry’s first ethical sourcing guidelines. C.A.F.E. Practices is a set of more than 200 checkpoints in categories like economic transparency, social responsibility, environmental leadership and quality – all audited through a third-party independent verification process.
Other commitments: a $50M Global Coffee Farmer Fund, which provides financing to coffee farmers, and a pledge to donate 100M climate-resilient trees to farmers around the world by 2025. The Starbucks Foundation also has a goal to positively impact 100M women and girls in coffee-growing communities, through grants focused on creating economic opportunities and expanding access to clean water and sanitation.
“We must set out aspirations that are bold, to take the path that can create a better future for those that grow coffee and their families, and to ensure that the beauty and art and ritual that’s coffee remains in all of our cultures, for decades to come.”
Michelle Burns, Starbucks executive vice president of Global Coffee and Sustainability
