What drinks are Starbucks putting on hold?

Many Starbucks customers are disappointed with the unavailability of drinks. If you are one of them, you are probably wondering, why is Starbucks putting drinks on hold? Read on to find out more!

Starbucks is putting drinks on hold due to supply chain issues. I once visited a Starbucks store and found a customer yelling at the barista when they were informed that there was no oat milk. Though I found the customer quite rude, I somehow understood their frustration.

When it was my turn to order, another barista informed me that there was no green iced tea. I started doing research on why Starbucks was putting drinks on hold and came up with this post. By the end of it, you will also learn what specific drinks are being put on hold.

Table of Contents

Why is Starbucks putting some items on hold?

Starbucks has been experiencing a shortage of some ingredients since mid-2021. It announced that it was experiencing supply chain issues. This was the main reason why Starbucks put 25 items on hold. The supply chain disruption led to shortages and long waits across numerous retail stores.

The hold was also caused by the global pandemic, which affected the supply of some of Starbucks’s ingredients to prepare its drinks. This also led to price hikes of some of the items.

A Starbucks spokesperson revealed that the specific items that were out of stock vary based on location. This means that you may find certain items in a specific Starbucks store but not in others.

Since the problem worsened, Starbucks had to make certain changes to regulate stock until the supply chain issues were fully resolved. The coffee chain apologized for the inconvenience it was causing customers and assured them that it was working with chain vendors closely to restock items. Though the company could not predict when items would be restocked, it assured customers that there would be no permanent cancellations.

What products did Starbucks put on a ‘temporary hold’?

why is Starbucks putting drinks on hold — Starbucks franchise, drinks. Source: Pinterest

Due to the issues the coffee chain has been experiencing, it temporarily put certain products on hold. The most affected products are used to make different items. These include hazelnut syrup, chai tea bags, caramel drizzle, oatmilk, and lemonade. Apart from such ingredients, Starbucks also put a temporary hold on pastries and breakfast sandwiches.

Since these are basic products that lead to a classic Starbucks experience, most customers did not take this lightly since they took to social media to complain. There were more than 100 Tweets from customers that wondered why Starbucks was out of such products. Starbucks announced that it was putting such products on a temporary hold until the supply chain issues got resolved.

What drinks is Starbucks putting on hold?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by UI Design (@uidesignpattern)

Due to an ingredient shortage, Starbucks was forced to put certain drinks on hold. Some of the drinks that you may struggle to find at your local Starbucks store include green iced tea, white chocolate mocha, mango dragonfruit drink, very berry hibiscus refresher, strawberry acai, cinnamon dolce latte, and chai tea latte.

If, for instance, you normally use the Starbucks app to order any of the drinks above, you may receive a pop-up informing you that it is not available at the time. The shortage of such drinks affected not only customers but also workers. Some Starbucks baristas revealed that lengthy shortages made their jobs harder.

Since customers react differently to this news, the coffee chain has been asking them not to yell at the baristas when they cannot access their favorite drinks at the stores. Some Starbucks stores put up signs explaining that they are experiencing temporary outages of some beverage items. Such signs were distributed from individual stores to Starbucks corporate stores to make customers aware.

Final thoughts

If you are a Starbucks regular, you have probably experienced the shortages that have been going on with this coffee chain for a while. Starbucks faced supply chain issues that forced it to temporarily hold some items. It lacked some ingredients to prepare certain drinks. Many customers were frustrated about this, but the company assured them that it was working closely with vendors to resolve the issue.

FAQ section

Why is Starbucks getting rid of cinnamon dolce?

According to a Starbucks representative, the company is getting rid of this product due to large supply chain issues.

Did Starbucks discontinue the vanilla latte?

No. Starbucks did not discontinue vanilla latte since it still includes blonde vanilla latte on its menu. However, this drink is not as popular as others and is not always available at every Starbucks store.