Starbucks new lavender drinks offer a taste of spring for everyone
Starbucks is adding a touch of lavender to its lineup this season with the Iced Lavender Cream Oatmilk Matcha and Iced Lavender Oatmilk Latte, giving both coffee and tea-drinkers something new to love.
When you’re on the Starbucks beverage development team, inspiration can come from anywhere – sometimes even when you’re dodging bees.
For Patrick Penny, a lead beverage developer, a trip to a lavender farm in Washington state helped inspire the development of the new iced lavender beverages arriving in U.S. Starbucks stores today, Mar. 7.
Last summer, Penny and members of the Starbucks beverage development team took a ferry from Starbucks headquarters in Seattle to Sequim, Washington – also known as the “Lavender Capital of North America.” They spent the sunny day walking through neat rows of fragrant purple lavender plants as part of what the team calls a “trek,” a special experience or outing that can help spark the creative process.
“We have an abundance of lavender farms in Washington state; it’s a really beautiful floral and it smells amazing,” he said. “We were in the fields cutting various stalks of lavender, smelling different varietals, looking at the flowers … trying not to get stung by bees.”
Soon after the trip, Penny began developing Starbucks new lavender flavor, which had been a popular request from Starbucks partners (employees) and at the original store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market and other nearby Heritage Market stores where they served a specialty Market Latte with a lavender honey syrup created by store partners in 2023.
The new beverages, Iced Lavender Cream Oatmilk Matcha and Iced Lavender Oatmilk Latte, are made with proprietary lavender powder. He said, “We found a powder to be the best expression of the subtle sweetness of lavender. It reminds me of lavender ice cream because of the light and soft vanilla flavor.”
Penny is looking forward to seeing reactions to the new beverages. “It was so cool to take that experience in the lavender field and turn it into different Starbucks beverages that I hope both our partners and customers will love.”
“Partners have been asking us to introduce lavender, and it’s a concept we’ve been working on for some time now,” he said. “We’re hoping to have captured the feeling of springtime with this flavor.”
Iced Lavender Cream Oatmilk Matcha
Iced Lavender Cream Oatmilk Matcha features smooth and creamy matcha served with oatmilk over ice, topped with unexpected, sweet and subtle floral notes of lavender cream* cold foam.
“When creating the new Iced Lavender Cream Oatmilk Matcha, we wanted to capture the uplifting energy of spring in a cup,” Penny shared. “The vibrant green matcha topped with lavender-hued cold foam delivers a delightfully colorful and unexpectedly delicious flavor combination.”
Iced Lavender Oatmilk Latte
Iced Lavender Oatmilk Latte is made with Starbucks® Blonde Espresso Roast, creamy oatmilk, ice and the sweet and subtly floral notes of lavender. Also available hot.
“We aimed to create a really balanced, delicious beverage,” Penny said. “The oatmilk and the Blonde Espresso make a lovely pairing, providing a smooth, well-rounded profile that is complemented by the floral and vanilla flavors of lavender.”
*Lavender Cream Cold Foam contains dairy.
