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Starbucks is one of the most recognised café names in the world, and on a tea shop's shelf the relevant part is its tea range, sold as in-café pyramid sachets and supermarket boxes. Buy it on the Starbucks shop page; this is the clear placement, paired with the chai latte and London Fog guides.
Explore in our shop: Starbucks Vanilla Latte, 5 Sachets 107.5g.
What Starbucks tea is
The Starbucks tea line-up is built around Teavana-branded pyramid sachets in its cafés, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Mint Majesty (a peppermint and spearmint blend), Jade Citrus Mint (green tea with mint and lemongrass) and the signature Chai Tea Latte, plus box sachets in UK supermarkets. Browse the stocked range on the Starbucks shop page. It is a coffee-led brand with a competent tea side rather than a tea specialist.
The Teavana story
The most interesting part of the story is Teavana. Founded in 1997 as a US specialist tea-and-accessories chain (much like Whittard), it was bought by Starbucks in 2012 for around US$620 million on the assumption that specialist tea would follow the growth path of specialty coffee. It did not: in 2017 Starbucks closed all 379 Teavana stores as unprofitable. Specialist tea turned out to be a genuinely different retail challenge, lower volume, more diverse customer knowledge, harder to standardise café-style. The Teavana name survives on the in-café pyramid sachets and the supermarket boxes, which is the current Starbucks tea presence.
Cafe tea vs the better-value alternatives
In the café, tea is largely a convenience tax. An Earl Grey or English Breakfast pyramid runs roughly £2.95 to £3.50 a cup, while a £3 to £4 supermarket box of the same style gives eight to ten cups. Mint Majesty is pleasant but Pukka Three Mint or Clipper Organic Peppermint match it at about £3 for twenty bags; Jade Citrus Mint is an acceptable green but specialist green is better. The Chai Tea Latte (£3.95 to £4.50 a cup) is the clearest case: a home version is a fraction of the price. None of this is a knock on the cup itself, just on the value when you are not already in the café.
How to recreate it at home
The signature drinks recreate cheaply and usually better. A London Fog is two Earl Grey bags in 150ml just-off-boil water for four minutes, topped with steamed milk and a little vanilla syrup, about 40p against £3.95. A Chai Tea Latte is pan-brewed masala chai topped with steamed milk, roughly 45p against £4.50. An Iced Shaken Black Tea is overnight cold-brewed Yorkshire (six bags in a litre) over ice, about 15p a glass. A Honey Citrus Mint is a mint bag plus a green bag with honey and lemon, around 20p. The full method for the first two is in the London Fog and chai latte guides.
Who it is for
Starbucks tea is for the moment you are already in a Starbucks, or want a familiar brand on the supermarket shelf over outright substance. It is a mid-tier convenience option: UK heritage brands (Twinings, Yorkshire) and specialists (Pukka, Whittard, Teapigs) deliver more in the cup for similar or less money, and for the caffeine context against coffee see tea vs coffee. It sits, clearly placed, among the convenience names in the brands hub.
Starbucks tea at a glance
| Aspect | Note |
|---|---|
| Brand | US coffee giant; tea range (Teavana retail closed 2017, in-cafe continues) |
| UK presence | Widespread; in-cafe tea menu + supermarket retail bags |
| Cafe tea offerings | Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Mint Majesty, Jade Citrus, chai latte |
| Format | Pyramid sachets in cafe; box sachets in supermarket |
| Quality tier | Mass-market; mid-tier accessible |
| Overall | Convenient cafe-tea; not specialist-grade; coffee-led brand |
| Strength | Recognised brand, consistent product, UK ubiquity |
| Weakness | Specialist tea brands deliver better cups at lower cost |
The bottom line on Starbucks tea
Starbucks is a US coffee giant with a competent, coffee-led tea side: Teavana pyramid sachets in the café (Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Mint Majesty, Jade Citrus, chai latte) and box sachets in supermarkets, after the Teavana specialist-retail experiment closed in 2017. It is a mass-market convenience option, fine for the café context, but specialist UK tea brands deliver meaningfully better cups at similar or lower cost, and the signature drinks are cheaper and better made at home. Source tea from the Starbucks brand page, compare with Twinings or Yorkshire Tea, or browse the full tea shop.
Reference noted
Tea reading
Continue with UK tea brands, chai latte, London Fog recipe, Earl Grey tea and English Breakfast tea. For the home shelf, the English tea range and loose leaf range.
More from the tea wiki
- Green tea
- Black tea
- Oolong tea
- White tea
- Herbal tea
- Caffeine in tea
- How to make tea properly
- Loose leaf vs teabag
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