On this day in vegan history · June 23, 2020
Starbucks Puts Plant-Based Sausage on the Breakfast Menu
The biggest coffee chain in America decided pork was optional for breakfast, and 22 grams of protein came from a soy patty instead.
The facts
- Date
- June 23, 2020
- Ingredients
- Impossible plant-based sausage patty, cage-free fried egg, aged cheddar cheese, ciabatta roll
- Protein
- 22 grams
- Reach
- Most Starbucks locations across the United States
On June 23, 2020, Starbucks began selling the Impossible Breakfast Sandwich in most of its US stores, a cage-free egg and aged cheddar sandwich built around Impossible Foods' plant-based sausage instead of pork. It was the first plant-based meat Starbucks had ever put on its US menu. The company framed the move as an extension of a pattern it had already run with milk: Starbucks chief sustainability officer Michael Kobori pointed to the earlier rollout of soy, coconut, almond, and oat milk as the model for expanding into food. The sandwich still had eggs and cheese in it, so it wasn't vegan, but a chain that size deciding a meat option belonged at breakfast was its own kind of signal about where the category was headed.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
-
Over the years, in response to customer interest, we have added plant-based milk alternatives such as soy, coconut, almond, and oat milk. We are thrilled to expand our plant-based menu into food with this new breakfast sandwich.
Michael Kobori, Starbucks chief sustainability officer, June 2020
Source: Green Matters -
Starbucks' commitment to add more plant-based ingredients to its menu is a new benchmark for large corporations.
Dr. Patrick O. Brown, founder and CEO of Impossible Foods, June 2020
Source: Green Matters
Why it still matters
Starbucks doesn't experiment at the edges of a menu, it moves the center of the category. Once the country's biggest coffee chain served plant-based sausage at breakfast, ordering it stopped being a statement and started being just another option.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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