Skip to content

Food & Drink

Read More ›

Starbucks Rolls Out New Coffee Drink With Beef Jerky in Seattle

The new eyebrow-raising drink is only available in Seattle.

jerky-coffee-aeriel-lead

Remember the Unicorn Frappuccino? Seems like only yesterday social media had a field day over Starbucks’ technicolored gimmick.

But this week Starbucks has unveiled a successor to the Unicorn frap’s ridiculous-beverage throne: a cold brew with a side of beef jerky.

That’s right, jerky.

Here in Seattle, the coffee capital of the country, we’ll be the first to try their newest creation, the “Pepper Nitro with a Jerky Twist.” The new drink, available for a limited time at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle, is a nitro cold brew coffee topped with honey foam, cracked pink peppercorn and garnished with a stick of grass-fed beef jerky.

According to Raegan Powell of the Starbucks R&D team that created this meaty monstrosity of a drink, the beef’s savory qualities make for an “exciting complement to the smooth and sweet finish of the nitro cold brew experience.”

The drink was inspired by Starbucks’ Reserve Lake Kivu Coffee, shipped all the way from the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This specialty grade coffee is only sold in Starbucks Reserve stores and has notes of sweet and herbal spices that a press release suggests pairs nicely with savory flavors.

In this new jerky drink, the Lake Kivu coffee is slow-steeped as cold brew and served on draft through a nitro tap. Then, to achieve its peppery bite, it is infused with malted fennel black pepper syrup. 

Personally, I adhere to a strict no-jerky-before-8 a.m. rule. But if it sounds like your kind of thing, head over to the Roastery and Tasting Room on Pike and let us know how it is.

Maybe this new oddball drink, coupled with the Seattle launch of Starbucks’ new lunch menu (no more sad paninis!), will be good enough to make you forget that just last week the company announced it is shutting down all of its Teavana stores.

 

Opening Night: Is Ethan Stowell’s Cut Club Happy Hour Going to Solve the Affordability Crisis?

Opening Night: Is Ethan Stowell’s Cut Club Happy Hour Going to Solve the Affordability Crisis?

At Cut Club, the longtime Seattle restaurateur is going old-school, with steaks made for sharing, no service charges, and a happy hour where $12 still buys dinner. 

Cut Club, the new steakhouse inside downtown’s Hotel Max, feels like a restaurant from the not-too-distant past. The menu leans comfortable rather than ambitious or world-spanning. It serves a typical lineup of steak cuts, some traditional sides like oysters, prawn cocktail, and wedge salad, and some cocktails that are between $15 and $20. There’s a…

Outside the Box: Gourmondo Founder Launches Olivina

Outside the Box: Gourmondo Founder Launches Olivina

Alissa Leinonen’s new venture brings her seasonal, Northwest approach to weddings, milestone celebrations, and elevated events.

After 30 years, Alissa Leinonen—founder of renowned catering and box-lunch company, Gourmondo—has launched a new venture. Called Olivina, the new luxury catering and events company focuses on highly personalized, elevated experiences ranging from weddings or other milestone celebrations to corporate gatherings. What started with $4,000 from a refinanced car (and a tiny café in Pike…

7 Washington Fall Festivals Worth the Drive

7 Washington Fall Festivals Worth the Drive

Autumn is back. Celebrate with fresh-hop beer, apple harvests, returning salmon, cranberries, and more. 

Explore 7 fun Washington fall festivals worth the drive, from Leavenworth's Autumn Leaf Festival and Issaquah Salmon Days to CrabFest and Fresh Hop Ale.

Restaurant Roundup: Brunch With a Side of History, Cardamom Lattes, and Chiew Chiew

Restaurant Roundup: Brunch With a Side of History, Cardamom Lattes, and Chiew Chiew

Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.

Hope you’re hungry for a history lesson. Oliver’s, the cocktail lounge inside downtown’s Mayflower Park Hotel, was a Bartell Drugs store during Prohibition before becoming the city’s first hotel bar in the late 1940s—the Carousel Room, named for the carousel horses hung from the ceiling. When Washington repealed the rule forbidding the service of hard…