Where would we be today without the infamous Starbucks Frappuccino to cheer us up on hot, gloomy days? Or for us Floridians, on a daily basis.
To commemorate this iconic beverage’s 20th birthday, Starbucks is offering a limited-time Birthday Cake Frappuccino blended beverage from Thurs. Mar. 26 to Mon. Mar. 30! What’s not to love about vanilla bean and hazelnut topped with raspberry-infused whipped cream?
The story goes that the notorious drink was invented thanks to the creative efforts of one barista in California with a blender. It started off with the options of either mocha or coffee flavors without even the pleasure of whipped cream, can you imagine? Now, Starbucks offers nearly 36,000 flavors to choose from. The top five bflavors in the U.S. are Caramel, Mocha, Vanilla Bean, Java Chip and Double Chocolatey Chip, according to the Starbucks Newsroom at Starbucks.com.
In the summer of 1995, Starbucks brought Frappuccino 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.
“The first week of launch we were tracking sales, and it was something like 200,000 drinks the first week – when we were hoping for 100,000,” Moore said. “The next week it was 400,000 and the next it was 800,000. We had figured it would do well in Southern California – but it sold just as well in Chicago, Vancouver B.C. and Boston. It was huge.”
Frappuccino 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 accounted for 11 percent of its summer sales, and helped push Starbucks stock to an all-time high.
“When you think about it, 20 years ago, the business, Starbucks hadn’t launched into a whole host of warm weather markets. We were reliant on the holiday season,” Campion said. “With Frappuccino, we were able to level out the dips in store traffic in the summer.”
For more information on the beloved Frappuccino, click here.
