It didn’t work at Tims. But will Beyond Meat be a Starbucks hit?
Coffee chain to offer meat-free patties on breakfast sandwiches across Canada
Better late than never.
With a progressive, largely urban image, and almost every kind of vegan milk option under the sun, it seemed a bit surprising that Starbucks didn’t have any meat-free versions of its breakfast sandwiches.
Now that’s changing, at least in Canada. Starbucks announced Wednesday that it would be unveiling breakfast sandwiches with patties from Beyond Meat, one of two big players in the vegan meat replacement world. The patties are made with peas and brown rice and include fennel, rosemary and other spices.
“Starbucks customers and partners (employees) in Canada have been asking for a delicious breakfast sandwich with a plant-based patty,” the company announced in a press release.
The sandwiches, which go on sale at most of its 1,500 Canadian stores on Tuesday, will have a vegan patty, but will come with eggs and cheddar cheese. A Starbucks spokesperson was unable to say why there wasn’t a vegan version — without cheese and eggs — available.
“We’re thrilled that Starbucks is introducing the Beyond Meat breakfast sandwich as a core menu item at all stores across Canada … We greatly appreciate Starbucks’ collaboration and shared vision around the launch,” Beyond Meat CEO and founder Ethan Brown said in an emailed statement.
Other chains, including Burger King with its Impossible Whopper and A&W, with its Beyond Burger, have entered the plant-based food world.
That the Seattle-based coffee giant took until this week to unveil its meat-free breakfast sandwiches was something of a surprise to retail analyst Lisa Hutcheson.
“This is a little bit late to the game. I would have thought they’d be one of the front runners. It’s really more in keeping with their clientele and image than, say, Tim Hortons,” said Hutcheson, managing partner at the J.C. Williams Group retail consultancy.
Starbucks has previously said it’s exploring plant-based patties for its U.S. locations.
On the flip side, Hutcheson wasn’t surprised Tim Hortons had earlier introduced — and then stopped selling — Beyond Meat patties.
Canada’s biggest coffee chain has been adding dozens of new products in an attempt to kickstart slumping same-store sales.
“I think they’ve been jumping on anything, including this,” Hutcheson said. “I don’t think this was ever really a great fit for them. And they’ve been adding so many items.”
Tim Hortons added plantbased breakfast sandwiches with Beyond Meat sausage patties to its menus last May, then followed up in July by offering Beyond Meat burgers.
In January this year, Tim’s pulled the plug on its meatless patty experiment, saying the items weren’t selling particularly well.