Starbucks, having seen the success of ice cream menu offerings at its high-end Seattle Roastery store, will start serving ice cream at more than 100 store locations.
Starting Wednesday, the Roastery Affogato menu — based on the Italian espresso-poured-over-ice cream dessert and tested first at the Seattle Roastery — will begin rolling out in Starbucks stores that include Reserve bars. Reserve bars use Starbucks’ high-end, small-lot Reserve coffee beans; there are currently 18 stores with Reserve bars nationwide, including in Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago.
Also starting Wednesday, an “inspired by the Roastery” affogato menu will launch at 100 traditional Starbucks stores. Because those traditional stores don’t use Starbucks’ premium Reserve coffee beans, the ice cream desserts there will incorporate its regular Espresso Roast and Narino 70 cold brew.
These ice cream menu test runs are an example of how Starbucks’ Seattle Roastery is serving as an innovation pipeline for the Seattle-based company.
The affogato menu launched at the Seattle Roastery in June last year and has been among the top five bestsellers there since, according to a company spokesperson.
That menu, which uses ice cream from Mora Iced Creamery, includes affogato, cold brew float and cold brew malted shake.
The menu items launching Wednesday all will use ice cream from Mora Iced Creamery.
Starbucks plans to see how well customers respond to the menu before deciding whether to expand it elsewhere. The ice cream test run was reported earlier by Business Insider.
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