There’s something new baking at Starbucks: Palmiers, croissants, petite scones, and chocolate chip cookies!
Starbucks is experimenting with having partners making baked goods in the stores! It’s a very small test, and from what I know, at this time involves only two Starbucks locations. The chocolate chip cookies are delicious. I tried a chocolate chip cookie and a palmier. From what I understand, all the items are made throughout the day. The barista who talked to me about the test, told me how much he liked the croissants fresh from the oven! Apparently there is the thought to expand the freshly-baked items to include more breakfast items, such as a croissant with ham, but this is still at the very earliest testing stage.
By the way, every time I write about test products, I always include the caveat that most tests never make it out of the testing phase. I’ve written about tests many times, and there is a whole category of them here: Starbucks test products. Most tests don’t make it to a national launch.
I tried the palmier and thought it was delicious. It is very buttery! (Butter makes everything good.) I think it would be fun to work on pairing it with coffee since it might work well with Casi Cielo. I can imagine that it would be great with a Sulawesi too, though Starbucks currently doesn’t offer a Sulawesi coffee. In looking at my receipt, the palmier sells for $1.50 each, for your information.
I had only my cell phone with me, but I snapped a few photos in the store. What do you think?
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Which two stores?
Ok Melody where in Seattle is this? Gosh why can’t they test this around here? What a great idea and long time coming for sure. I bet it would work in other regions. Running into a SB and having freshly baked pastries would be just wonderful.
I have long thought the pastries we serve are in no way deserving of such great coffee:: a mismatch. Maybe this is the beginning of a step in the right direction?
This is great. Saying that, it wouldnt work in my store. My store is just too small. Maybe for an area with stores like mine could centralize baking. But then that store would have just as many bakers as baristas. Oh well, I love seeing what the idea people will come up with.
How large is the kitchen in these stores? The price for the palmier does not seem high how about the cookie? Also, does the partner that bakes the pastries get extra money towards the baking?
Fresh baked cookies! Yum! i almost hope this doesn’t launch nation wide, it would make afternoon snacks too tempting to resist.
NOTE TO ALL: My gosh I have a full day today and then tomorrow I get on plane and I’m going out of town on vacation. I will NOT be responding to comments as regularly as I normally from this point on for almost one week. I’m going to make a couple of quick comments now. I am not ignoring you – I am on vacation. 🙂 I will still be able to moderate new comments on the go, as I always do, from my phone.
um. NOM.
that is all.
@purple1 and anyone who is interested – I think the way this works is that the dough is pre-made from somewhere and then the partners put the dough in the oven. It reminds me a bit, oh a million years ago, I once worked at a 7-11 (it was 1988, and I was still active duty but I desperately needed money, and so I found a Saturday job) and we had tubs of cookie dough (refrigerated, and in very small batches) made by a company called “Otis Spunkmeyer” and then we through the cookie dough into some kind of oven and made cookies. Actually, I always did think that 7-11 did a good job of figuring out how do make quick food! (Though mostly it looks repulsive to me now. Hot dogs and gross cheese are not my thing. I still think Otis Spunkmeyer cookies aren’t bad at all! I will indulge.)
@Purple1 – Thank you for the email!! I will use that! As to “kitchens” – This Starbucks is equipped with a lot of extra fridge space for dough. Right now, as I understand it, the store is getting back up help from SSC partners with the baking, but for this to work, they’ve got to figure out how to have it all just be the in store partners.
I can see this being launched in the Clover stores only – in fact, I am totally okay with that. I don’t mind brand segmentation, and right now, there are several different kinds of “Starbucks experiences” considering there are (1) beer and wine stores, (3)Clover stores (without beer and wine), and then (3) just normal stores. Well, and then there are a few stores which are just drive thru only!! I’ve never considered the drive thru to really embody truly the Starbucks experience. I think it can come close in many ways, but it is simply not the same as going into a store, tasting coffee, viewing merch, leisurely talking with baristas, etc… Right now, it almost is a hierarchy of 3 different kinds of store experiences.
ThiS COULD have the potential of a decent move but I’m not sure that the chaos the transition would cause would be worth it.
well……of course the ‘freshly” baked pastries sound good but ..I don’t know. I still wish they’d get over trying to do something new everyday and maybe brng back some coffees, etc. (ie; mostly coffee!)
I think this would be nice, but unrealistic in all locations.
As a bit of history, i think Starbucks tested this in early 2000 in the southeast US. I know a store that they thought about putting this into but the plan was pulled, but I am pretty sure it was tested in several other stores.
U Village is one of the stores, what is the second store?
Sounds great but very difficult to execute. There would have to be labor dedicated specifically for baking only. With all the lean practices I can just see the coffee timer going off every 8 minutes, the slide every 10, the oven when the breakfast sandwich is done, and then adding the cookie timer! I’m not trying to be negative but they do keep finding ways of cutting labor while still accomplishing the same tasks and level of service. Also, did you ever notice the “fresh baked” coo
The good side is, our pastries are horrible and overpriced. They are delivered late day and frozen. Then they are pulled out of the freezer at close and thawed over night. Then into the display case. If someone pulled too many, back in the freezer the thawed ones go. The loaf cakes recently went up 30 cents which seems like a steep increase for a frozen slice of cake.
I have heard that some stores use local bakeries. I don’t know if this is still true or not.
This might be difficult to coordinate but wouldn’t it be wonderful to step in to freshly baked local pastries? Each region would be unique depending on what the local bakeries were doing. They might be baking up different things on different days so there would be variety. I’d come in for coffee just to make sure I didn’t miss something new and special in the pastry case. It also would connect Starbucks to their community, something they talk about all the time. I would rather support the local businesses in my tiny town then serve the same frozen stuff all the time. The baristas sticking pre-made dough in the oven is definitely better than the freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw stuff we have now, but if something is going to be difficult to implement, let it be local bakeries. Can you imagine the relationship the locals and Starbucks could have? People come to Starbucks for the coffee. Then they will eat some fabulous pastry and check out the bakery some time. Starbucks will have more customers spending more money because they will be offering a significantly better and more unique product. The bakery gets visibility at a very busy coffee shop and will have the steady income of producing in bulk. I’m probably dreaming but dang, my mouth is watering already!
Oops didn’t mean to push the post button. The dangling sentence is supposed to read “fresh baked” cookies at Subway. They look so pathetic and unappetizing in their little glass case next to the POS,
I am in a fresh market, not a frozen market. I still feel that pasteries being delivered everyday that are not freshly made is a shame. I can understand why though. There would be no way to provide 15,000 stores with fresh goods daily.
Holy Moly! That looks delicious.
Also, I put this idea on MSI a few years ago! Scones & muffins would be super easy to bake, too, and it would make the store smell so good! Although, I hope it wouldn’t overtake the smell of coffee.
It’s funny because Barnes & Noble cafes have been doing this forever.
The way it works is that the cookies, scones, etc are baked from a frozen state and done in about 30 mins. It didn’t really require but too much in the way of labor — honestly, putting it in the display case took longer than prepping and baking.
The hole in this process is keeping quality high (not overbaking and then keeping quantities on hand)…
I love fresh baked cookies…that’s what great about Subway and what I’ve missed at Starbucks so far.
In Amsterdam, NL they’ve just opened a concept store that also offers fresh baked cookies and croissants.
Melody, do the partners bake the pastries in the TurboChef oven that is used to cook breakfast sandwiches, or do they have another “special” oven that they bake in? I could actually see this working in certain locations, where pasty sales are high enough to support the time and energy required to bake cookies, scones, etc. However, it would be nearly impossible for the partners to bake everything that Starbucks sells without some major renovations and time allotment for this. (IF this ever rolls out,) maybe each store that bakes could choose one item that is their speciality and only bake that one item. (I bet those cookies smell DELICIOUS when they are baking!!)
I have to come back to this blog post because I continue to believe that having fresh baked items would make a mark in the store. Soon, they are opening a Cosi right next door to my local SB and I am wondering how that will impact the sales at SB because there might be some duplication of items. I can only see something like fresh baked goods an asset in this kind of situation.
Starbucks old chunk chocolate chip cookies were the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. Now they made them bigger and not nearly as good almost nasty. Taste like pure dough and flour now. Please go back to the original smaller chunk chocolate chip cookies. Pleasssssseeeeee