Starbucks is giving its food menu a major makeover, teaming up with a famous French pastry chef from La Boulange in San Francisco.
The new treats were introduced to the public here in B.C. and pedestrians in Downtown Vancouver got a little taste test today.
If you're a Starbucks regular, you might be wondering what the difference is. The pastries look the same as before, but all the menu items have been revamped, made with things like 100 per cent organic Canadian flour, cage free eggs, butter, and locally sourced ingredients.
Starbucks decided to up its game after getting lukewarm customer reviews.
"We've been told that our food hasn't been as good as our coffee. One in three customers only purchase food and so today with the launch of La Boulange, we have premium, quality, wholesome ingredients in all of our food items, so our customers can enjoy the same quality as they do with our coffee," said Caroline Ternes, Starbucks regional vice president.
The good news is, many of the menu items have fewer calories than they did before. The founder of La Boulange is in Vancouver overseeing the new menu launch. He says the focus was on creating a product that tastes good and is good for you too.
"It's pure butter coming from a dairy that we know, it's the flour coming from a place that we know, the blueberry coming from British Columbia, the maple coming from Canada," said Pascal Rigo, La Boulange founder and Starbucks VP of Food.
In 2013, Starbucks purchased La Boulange for $100 million.
You can expect to see new menu items with a B.C. flair in the near future, like smoked salmon for your bagel. And soon you'll be able to wash that bagel down with a glass of wine. Starbucks is trying to work out the licensing requirements right now and hopes to be adding wine to the menu at Vancouver Starbucks later this year.
