What Is Starbucks' Lavender Powder Made Of?

Starbucks is a coffee shop chain that you can find across the world, and Starbucks' fascinating name and signature logo dominate the coffee industry in the United States. In order to satisfy its millions of daily American customers, it makes sense that Starbucks' development team sometimes needs to create something new, and this is how Starbucks' lavender line-up came to life in 2024. There are currently three lavender drinks on the seasonal menu, each made with Starbucks' lavender powder, but what exactly is in this powder?

According to Starbucks, the chain uses a proprietary lavender powder which contains sugar, salt, natural lavender flavor, color from fruit and vegetable juice concentrate, and soybean oil. This is as far as Starbucks' information goes; no specific ingredient quantities are mentioned. Sugar is on the very top of the ingredients list, meaning it makes up the biggest percentage of this powder. This is what gives the beverages the "subtle sweetness," one of Starbucks' lead beverage developers made a point of mentioning when the beverages launched. That being said, the lack of further information is a little frustrating.

For starters, what the heck is a "proprietary" lavender powder? Well, this word isn't usually used to protect customers, but rather the company using it. A proprietary blend means that a group of ingredients is considered as one, ensuring that the individual quantities of each ingredient don't need to be disclosed. This means that Starbucks could include a very small percentage of more expensive ingredients, like real lavender, and use mainly cheap ingredients but still list all of them without a specific breakdown. This begs the question, how much lavender (if any) is actually in the lavender powder?

The word "natural" before lavender flavor can be deceiving; it's easy to assume this means that this flavor comes from real lavender. But this isn't necessarily the case — natural lavender flavor can simply be a combination of synthetic flavors and vegetable dyes (which are mentioned in the powder's ingredient list). Maybe Starbucks does use real lavender in its powder, but there's absolutely no information on the kind of lavender used, the process of extraction, or how much of it is included in the powder. If you've ever made homemade lavender syrup, you'll know these things are important. 

This lack of information doesn't take away from the fact that Starbucks' lavender drinks are delicious. However, it definitely raises further questions about what is actually in Starbucks' lavender powder. Unfortunately, we will probably never know for sure.