This summer marks the 30th birthday of the iconic Frappuccino® blended beverage and Starbucks coffeehouses across Latin America and the Caribbean are celebrating in a big way.
Starting tomorrow (July 1) through July 20, customers can enjoy the Happy Berry Birthday Frappuccino® blended beverage and the Happy Choco Birthday Frappuccino® blended beverage, available at Starbucks coffeehouses across Latin America and the Caribbean for a limited time, while supplies last.
The Happy Berry Birthday Frappuccino® blended beverage is a fruity, vibrant blend that combines strawberry, dragonfruit, and white mocha for a perfectly balanced sweetness. Finished with a touch of charm, it’s topped with whipped cream and pink confetti sprinkles to make every sip a celebration.
The Happy Choco Birthday Frappuccino® blended beverage is a decadent blend of chocolate ganache, dulce de leche and rich coffee, for a celebration of flavors in every sip. The beverage is finished with whipped cream and swirls of chocolate ganache and dulce de leche.
Customers can also find special-edition drink tumblers and merchandise and in-store events.
A Look Back at 30 Years
How did Frappuccino® become an icon? It’s hard to imagine Starbucks now, but in the 90s, most beverages sold at Starbucks were hot – and the only cold beverages served in Starbucks coffeehouses were iced coffees and teas. In 1993, a district manager in Southern California saw an opportunity for a blended beverage that would appeal to customers on warmer days and started a test at a single store in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. It was an instant hit.
By the following summer, 10 Southern California stores were serving blended coffee beverages to enthusiastic customers looking for refreshment. Meanwhile Starbucks acquired The Coffee Connection in Boston, along with one of their products called “frappuccino,” a cold, slushy drink made using a soft-serve machine. Starbucks applied the name to its new blended beverage and decided to quickly ramp up a company-wide launch for the following summer.
The Birth of an Icon
In the summer of 1995, Starbucks brought Frappuccino® blended beverages across all of its stores in the United States and Canada. The only two flavors were Coffee and Mocha, made from ice double-strength brewed Italian Roast coffee brewed in stores. There was not even whipped cream. Frappuccino® blended beverages changed the trajectory of the company by bringing in new customers who were not normally coffee drinkers, and filling its stores in afternoons and during warm weather when coffee business was typically slow. Frappuccino® blended beverages accounted for 11 percent of its summer sales and helped push Starbucks stock to an all-time high.
Evolution of Frappuccino®
After the resounding success of Frappuccino® blended beverages, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz suggested the idea of a bottled Frappuccino® blended beverage in a meeting with Pepsi executives. By summer of 1996, Starbucks® bottled Frappuccino® chilled coffee drinks were arriving in grocery stores.
“We were so confident of our product that we didn’t even test-market it,” said Schultz in his book, Pour Your Heart Into It. “Pepsi ramped up production as quickly as possible, but even then we could supply only West Coast supermarkets for the summer of 1996. We couldn’t make it fast enough.”
Starbucks continued to innovate with new flavors to meet growing demand. In 1999, Starbucks introduced Caramel Frappuccino® blended beverage with whipped cream and caramel drizzle – served with a green straw and domed lid for the first time.
Celebrating 30 Years
Today, Starbucks serves locally relevant Frappuccino® blended beverages all across the globe and offers a variety of flavor combinations including limited-time beverages like the Rockmance Frappuccino®, Lavendar White Mocha Frappuccino® and White Chocolate Macadamia Frappuccino® across Latin America and the Caribbean.
In his book, Schultz underscored the impact Frappuccino® blended beverage has made in Starbucks history. “Its story epitomizes the enterprising spirit we still have at Starbucks,” he said “It’s experimental. It’s adventurous. It fires people up and engages their imagination.”
