Starbucks has launched the “petite treats” which are eight small-sized desserts, each one under 200 calories. These new food treats launched on March 8, 2011, and coming soon there is a chance to get a free petite treat with the purchase of any handcrafted beverage. From March 10, 2011 through March 12, 2011, come into any Starbucks between two and five p.m., and you can get a free “petite treat” with the purchase of any handcrafted beverage. My experience from past promotions is that “handcrafted” beverage is usually interpreted to mean a wide variety of things including tea-lemonades, Frappuccinos, Vivannos, lattes, and just about anything at all that you can imagine. I don’t know how broadly “handcrafted beverage” is being defined for this current promotion.
There are eight petite treats, as I previously mentioned. Some of you might remember, the launch of these new cute little desserts has its roots in a test that was recently conducted in Arizona, called the “mini treat test.” The test in Arizona involved more than eight little treats, but today (March 8, 2011) there were eight treats that launched. The eight treats are as follows:
- Red Velvet Whoopie Pie
- Lemon Square
- Rocky Road Cake Pop
- Birthday Cake Pop
- Salted Caramel Square
- Tiramisu Cake Pop
- Carrot Cake Mini Cupcake
- Chocolate Cupcake with Peanut Butter Frosting
I wanted to write a review of each of these little treats so I bought one of each today and attempted to eat all of them. This is not a good idea. Eating all eight at once is not advisable! It might be delightful to have one or two at a time but eight at once will put you into a sugar coma. I went to the Starbucks at 7th and Pike in downtown Seattle, and attempted to eat all eight while chatting with the store manager, Adam. It was interesting talking to him, and it reminded me how totally subjective this is. Taste is subjective.
I said to Adam, “I really like the lemon square – I like lemon.”
He replied, “Really? I don’t like lemon at all as a flavor. I really liked the birthday cake pop!”
I looked at him dumbfounded and said, “Really? Oh my gosh that was the one I liked the least. How about the salted caramel square? That was good.”
And then Adam said, “I don’t like caramel.”
When I was done talking to Adam I realized we had exact opposite views of which treats we liked the best. Just goes to show you, there is something for everyone! By the way, the carrot cake cupcake was delicious and the frosting on it was delectable! That might be my all-time favorite of all of them.
I mentioned a promotion for a free mini with the purchase of any handcrafted beverage. There is more information here on that:
Join Us For Tribute Days – From the Starbucks blogs
Please weigh in and tell me if you like these little treats!
(I feel like I have a million things to write about right now because I still need to do an entire post on Tribute Blend. I guess I’ll get to that eventually.)
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Yes Karl I agree that it is good to get the kids hooked when school lets out but I also think they should have extended the hours to include the adults going to work in the mornings.
Funny, I never did end up getting a free treat today. I walked in and there were 20 people in line, and while waiting a barista named Kiara handed me my drink and said it was “On The House” because of the huge crowd. The other people around me seemed a little miffed.
haha. Maybe tomorrow.
Went in around 2ish today. I tried the Rocky Road cake pop…wow was it decadent but good! The cake part was like slightly undercooked brownie…definitely great for a chocolate craving! I decided to try the Cocoa cappuccino since I think their mochas are too sweet. It was more bittersweet than a mocha from what I can remember but wow was it still too rich for me. I could only drink about half of it, and I ordered it non-fat milk!
I would have enjoyed the Rocky Road more with some Tribute I think.
I received a free mini treat with the purchase of a regular grande drip.
Melody – As always another great post!
As a person who’s favorite breakfast was a cup of black coffee and a pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups my choice was pretty much a no-brainer. I went right for the Peanut Butter Mini Cupcake – amazing!!! This could be the start of another bad habit.
Melody, you are so funny! We had to try everything at our meeting and by the end I didn’t know if I liked what I was trying! they are so rich! I had to re-try a couple later on 🙂 My favs are the whoopie pie and chocolate pb cupcake 🙂
Handcrafted beverage: any liquid handed to you from behind the counter. Excludes “ready to drink” beverages like San Pellegrino, Ethos water, Naked juice, etc
@Pam Did you say which mini treat you got? Tell me more! @Bayareabux – That’s what I thought. I’ve seen a few posts on other sites, and even on MSI, where it looks like some partners thought tea was excluded, but here in downtown Seattle, everything liquid handed to the customer at the bar/across the register got a free petite except the ice water! @Hayley – I wasn’t a big fan of the cocoa cappuccino either. Call me weird, but I don’t personally like chocolate with espresso. You would think that these things go together but milk + chocolate + espresso pretty much nearly drowns out the flavor of the espresso.
Well, I had the carrot cupcake yesterday so no I’ve officially tried them all (except the bday cake cake-pop, and I won’t be trying that one) The carror cupcake was very good. It comes in 2nd for me.
I have a tie for #1: RV Whoopie and PB choc cupcake……both delcious I thought. As someone who bakes, I’d probably give a slight edge of excellence to the choc pb cupcake…but loved both. The carrot cupcake is second for me. I guess the lemon cake (and I love lemon) would be third but I didn’t think it was up to par.
I also tried the cocoa cappucino (WITHOUT FOOD) and I thought it was a very good treat. But, I can see how it woud be a very sweet choice if added to another dessert!
I went to my store yesterday at just about 3P and they would soon be out of the treats (petites). It was steady but not overwhelmingly busy. Every person that I was in line around had to be offered the treat, they weren’t aware of it, even with signage in the store. If they’re running out close to 3P, then I really think they need to up the shipments. I realize this is often an issue (‘free pastry” issue) but during these big promo days…..I’d think they would be loaded up. I also never saw anyone choose a ‘cake pop’. I just have a feeling they’re not going to be a big hit here.
So, I found myself at the Lake Forest Starbucks on Trabuco and El Toro where I was promptly greeted by a smiling barista. He wanted to be sure I knew about the promo, and proudly pointed out each mini treat. I wanted to check out the “Tribute” blend that Melody had told me about. He told me it was his favorite blend, and that it was from four different coffees. (He knew which ones, too, and when he mentioned Sumatra, I knew I’d love it, too.) So, I had a grande drip, a salted caramel pastry, and a very pleasant experience.
After I got home, I emailed a friend of mine about the promo, and she said she wasn’t sure she wanted to spend $5 on a drink today. I said, no problem. You can get a regular drip, and I really like the Tribute blend. (Neither of us care for Pike Place.) So, she said she’d give it a try. Well, she went to the Starbucks in Mission Viejo, on Avery, close to the mall, and she had a completely opposite experience, They said she could only get the sample with a “handcrafted” drink. So, she told them she would go elsewhere because she knew other Starbucks were offering the pastry with drip. (She wanted to try “Tribute” blend anywa!) At that point, they relented, but then they weren’t going to let her choose which mini treat. They insisted she take the peanut butter cupcake, and she doesn’t care for peanut butter! Finally, i think she got something else (not sure what), but she described the Starbucks customer service at that store as “curt.” Not good.
I felt bad because because I’d convinced her to go check it out.
Oh well. She did like the “Tribute” blend, like I thought she would. I hope Starbucks continues to offer it for awhile. Pike Place is not “all that.”
Tribute Blend is amazing but appears to be a seasonal offering as it took over a year to create.
@diele yes I had wondered if Tribute would be back in stores every year now, or if this was a one time offering.
@Pam – That’s a painful story to read. And on MSI, I’ve read of customers being told “no” to Tribute Days free petite treats when they wanted tea. Bayareabux explained it perfectly on page one of these comments.
@Bayareabux – By the way, I’ll be in the Starbucks store at 1899 Union Street in San Francisco on the 16th! You’re probably no where near there, but I’ll be at least 800 miles closer to you. That store has something almost one of kind that I need to write about.
I stopped by right at 2pm yesterday and tried the Birthday pop and it was delicious! Inspired me to write a blog on my love of Starbucks! http://bit.ly/g7Ibn2
Got my free mini but no box! SM said they did not get any shipment in. Was looking forward to it. Still favorites are peanut butter and carrot cake mini cupcakes. Would love them to ship the boxes. Promotion does not seem to be consistent at all stores.
I’m in sbux right now!! Having some tribute and a red velvet whoopie pie
My 9 y.o. votes this way:
#1 Birthday Cake pop (it dethroned the previous #1 just today)
#2 Lemon Square
#3 Rocky Road pop
I think I’m sticking with the caramel square, but haven’t tried the pops yet. The PB cupcake was quite good (but the 9 y.o. “stole” the pb cup from atop)
Petite treats aren’t offered at the Starbucks I frequent.
Oh, I received 2 treats today. I asked for the peanut butter one at the register and they didnt run it through the register, but just gave it to me….about 20 minutes later they opened a new box of lemon and gave me one of those. They are very rich! Don’t think I would ever buy one though!
I also received two shots of espresso for free when another barista was bored.
I had the salted caramel square today and loved it. The sweet and salty flavors mixed perfectly, as did the chewy-crunchy layers of texture. I might try the lemon square next. Tribute Blend, unfortunately, doesn’t do much for me. It’s a perfectly good coffee, but nothing about it stood out to me. Maybe I’ll try it again and try to find a better description.
I did not like the tiramisu cake pop at all. It did not have any coffee flavor in it and just tasted like raw cookie dough. I would stick to the Rocky Road pop for the chocolate lovers, and the Red Velvet Woopie Pie for those that love creamy desserts!
@Stella: I totally agree about the ‘tiramisu cake pop’, perfect description.
I did, however, on a 2nd try, different store, think the ‘rocky road’ pop was very good. sweet (of course) but very good and did not find that ‘doughey-ness’ inside of the ‘tiramisu’.
My favorite is the Lemon Square it’s tart and sweet at the same time and reminds me of pie 🙂
I also wanted to note that one of the great things about the new Simphony till software is that it automatically will discount applicable items. I.e. If I ring in a tall coffee and a lemon square it will automatically discount the square if appropriate (which it was). Also when ringing in a 2 pack of treats it will make the 2nd one cheaper and the baristas don’t have to remember discount codes etc. A suggestion to customers might be to have the barista try to ring it in to see what happens. (Although I wish this wasn’t necessary)
I’m hopeful that baristas can get comfortable “Just saying YES” and that we can delight that the treats are making a splash rather than dreading the 2-5 time slot. We had a ton of fun in my store and gave out over 125 items each day…but this way people get to try it and then hopefully find something they can daydream about in the afternoons. Lemon Square take me away.
I went to 2 Stores yesterday and got 2 frapps (one for yesterday and one for today) and 2 treats (again one for today) and I gotta tell you thar even though they were good I wasn’t too impressed and thought that for the small size they should sell for no more than 75 cents.
@sbuxbecca – I really like the lemon square too though I think it’s even better a bit chilled, in a cold fridge. The texture of it in the stores can be almost a bit gooey, and so it needs to be a little colder, and less gooey! Sounds like your tribute days was fun! We had fun here in downtown Seattle. Three of my neighborhood stores seem to have too many treats, so it looked like they were having a blast with Tribute Days!
@Steve – You got the two treats for free right? So then no worries about the price! Frappuccinos are very expensive too. If you want to order sugar/milky shake like drinks at Starbucks, you’ll pay a premium. I paired the lemon square with iced Kenya from a Clover store, and that was delightful!
Ok that’s it! I have to try the lemon square! 🙂 Too many new treats, too little time! Hope everyone had good Tribute days!
I was hoping they would bring back something like Mini Mondays(BOGO). We had it in the test market and it definitely brought in more business from 2pm-close.