Starbucks

Starbucks did more than any brand to globalise cafe culture. It opened in 1971 in Seattle's Pike Place Market as a single shop selling roasted beans, and grew under Howard Schultz into the company that exported the Italian espresso bar to high streets worldwide, normalising the latte and the takeaway cup. The original Pike Place store still trades, and the bold, dark, slightly roasty house style has barely shifted in half a century, which is why the at-home range can credibly promise the same cup.

The at-home line covers the cafe formats people order by reflex, caramel macchiato, latte, cappuccino and the flavoured sachets, plus straight roast and ground. Through C.A.F.E. Practices, developed with Conservation International, Starbucks verifies the large majority of its coffee as ethically sourced, one of the bigger producer-facing programmes in the industry, and the at-home range reaches shelves via a global licensing alliance with Nestle. For our shelf Starbucks is the brand for the customer who specifically wants that bold, dark, internationally familiar cup at home. The profile tracks the stores closely rather than approximating them, the flavoured sachets are pitched squarely at the people who order them out, and the strength sits a notch above the gentler high-street rivals. Bold and unmistakable rather than delicate is the whole identity, and its drinkers would not want it any other way.

Key facts