What makes Starbucks so good? Is it the occasional warm smiles from the anxious baristas, the unhinged amounts of syrup they add to your drink, or the breakfast sandwiches that… may or may not… be made of chemicals? All of these things (without thinking about them *too* hard) go into making your morning coffee bomb – and it’s definitely not the ice. But, the chain is throwing their hat in the ring with brand-new nugget ice that brings them up to the same fast food echelon as Sonic, Whataburger, and Chick-fil-A, who also use the satisfyingly crunchy ice pellets in their drinks.
Rumors of the new ice first sprouted on r/Starbucks alongside a picture of piled-up nugget ice. “New special ice (we are 1 of 3 cafe stores testing the new ice),” the post reads. “What do you guys think? It looks like the ice at Sonic.”
Further online chatter confirmed that Starbucks will incrementally roll out the new ice using Follett ice machines, famous for generating trademarked ‘Chewblet’ ice. A representative from the company gave Today the inside scoop:
“As we continue to innovate and make investments in the Starbucks Experience for our partners (baristas) and customers, we are introducing new machines that make nugget ice to select stores this year,” the rep told Today. “Like many of our recent investments, this machine allows partners to focus on delivering the Starbucks Experience while hand-crafting the same delicious, high-quality iced beverages our customers have come to expect from Starbucks.”
So while our fave drinks aren't *really* changing, we can’t help but question the fate of Starbucks’ quality. Many coffee lovers are holding onto that same sentiment. The number one concern circulating the new nugget ice is that it melts faster than the OG, watering down your (already pricey) iced coffee.
A Starbucks partner claiming they’ve been using the nugget ice in their café store since last summer acknowledged the concerns in the Reddit thread:
“It does melt faster and your drink’ll probably get watery easier, but the customers (at least the ones at my store) love the ice! Seriously we still get people going ‘oh my god I love your guys’ ice.’”
Despite the woes of watery iced coffee, the new pellet-shaped cubes have been quite a hit – even in limited availability – according to Starbucks spokesperson, Megan Adams. She relayed its success in an email to CBS News.
"Customers who have tried the nugget ice in our hand-crafted iced beverages during testing had a resoundingly positive response," Adams wrote. "Like many of our recent investments, this machine allows partners to focus on delivering the Starbucks Experience while hand-crafting the same delicious, high-quality iced beverages our customers have come to expect from Starbucks."
How do you feel about the new Starbucks nugget ice? It seems like a trivial topic to bicker about, but we won’t know it's *real* impact until the new cubes are rolled out to our regular Starbies. Are you an ice chip fan, or pro-nugget? Only time will tell.
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Lead photo by solod_sha / PEXELS
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