Starbucks Unwrapped: Delving into the World of Factory-Made Bakery Delights

Brownie on wheels... how far does it come?

I'm up super early most mornings and usually zip off to Starbucks for 5:30 am. Yep, they are open early! Most of them. I grab my tea and unpack my office gear at a table and start happily blogging or writing or organizing my to-do list. Until the delivery guys come.

The Gordon Foods delivery trucks usually arrive shortly after the cafe opens and they trundle in mountains of boxes and oodles of milk jug crates. A lot of the delivery drivers like to leave the doors of the store open, because it's more convenient for them. But there can be loooonnnggg gaps while they are in the back, unloading things into the refrigerators, or in their truck, loading stuff up on the hand-cart... while I am sitting there, freezing my knees off.

Then come the boxes of soy milk, coconut milk, oat milk and yak milk (kidding on that last one).

A delivery of food boxes at Starbucks

Plus many, many boxes of baked goods. Croissants, breakfast sandwiches, brownies - all in cardboard boxes. 

Which got me thinking... as I sat there, shivering... exactly where do these tasty things come from?

It's quite unlikely that they come from a local bakery. If you walk into a Starbucks in Vancouver or London or Bangkok and order a double-chocolate brownie... odds are the brownie will look and taste identical. Sooo where do they come from?

I actually emailed Starbucks to ask them and got some standard boiler-plate email which basically said nothing. Apparently it's a proprietary secret. So I did some more digging...

Ready? Brace yourself. Cause it's not pretty.

Tracking the Brownie

There's my brownie!!
(Well, a demo version of it...)

Let's backtrack first... So there's that chocolate brownie sitting in the Starbucks display case. It used to be that Starbucks had several of each item displayed. So you might see 5 brownies sitting there, and 5 coffee cake slices, etc. But those days are gone, at least in our Starbucks. Nowadays, in order to reduce food waste, I only see a "demo" brownie in the display case (along with other single bakery items). And the breakfast sandwiches don't have demo models (can you imagine... that sitting out all day??).

That single brownie is for display purposes only. It is never sold but tossed at the end of the day. Apparently the food in the display case smells quite funky and sour by the end of the day soooo, no... you don't want to eat that brownie. (Newsweek article on barsitas cleaning out the display case - don't even get me started on this...)

So, you order your brownie, and the barista will reach into an under-the-counter cooler and pull it out. It is individually wrapped in plastic and she/he will then unwrap it, put it on a piece of paper and heat it in the oven for 20 seconds (ALWAYS get your brownie warmed up - sooooo much better) They will then toss that little piece of paper as they slip the brownie into a little paper bag for you (or a plate if you ask for it). Yes, I know... that's three disposable wrappers... ugh.

Baskets of individually wrapped sandwiches &
baked goods at Starbucks.

So how did the brownie get into the behind-the-counter cooler? Well, in the mornings (bright and early), the baristas re-fill the behind-the-counter coolers from the big freezers behind the scenes. They have yellow plastic trays and they will pull out all of the baked goods that they think they will need - 10 of this, 12 of this, 12 of that. Those yellow plastic trays might sit out for a bit, possibly thawing. And how did they get into the behind-the-scenes freezers? From those cardboard boxes that Gordon Foods delivers.

Now the trail gets murky... Gordon Foods gets them from somewhere. But where? This is where some internet research yielded the answer...

Your chocolate brownie, or breakfast sandwich or lemon loaf cake are all made in a massive factory by a Canadian company called Premium Brands. Where is this factory? Could be in Columbus (OH), Reno (NV) or Phoenix (AZ). Here in Canada... it could be Edmonton or Montreal. Does it matter? Not really... it's certainly NOT a 100 mile diet for most of us - unless you live in Edmonton or Montreal.

From a Premium Brands Factory to a Starbucks near You

So here's how it goes down... roughly... the chocolate brownie or egg breakfast sandwich gets cooked in this factory... 100s of them... 1000s of them... a whole long conga line of brownies and breakfast sandwiches. Which come toddling off the assembly line quick frozen and tucked into individual plastic wrappers. They come with an expiry date (6 months into the future - they are frozen after all) and are packed up in boxes. These boxes are bundled up and shipped off to Starbucks cafes around the country. Shipped via train, truck or plane? Don't know.

But the baked goods are frozen... so the expiry date is good, right? Well, as long as the temperature stays constant for the entire trip... as they get trundled from factory to loading dock and on to a truck... which has a good refrigeration system... and then unloaded or reloaded somewhere else (several times perhaps)... until finally, they arrive through the door with Gordon Foods.

A Starbucks breakfast sandwich in it's wrapper.
(From CNN)

Have those boxes remained frozen for the entire time? No idea. Maybe not a big deal for my chocolate brownie... maybe a bigger deal for your egg & sausage breakfast sandwich. Some Reddit folks have spotted entire boxes of baked goods tossed in the trash behind Starbucks. Perhaps they arrived thawed instead of frozen?

I will tell you this... those boxes sit on the floor at Starbucks for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how busy it is in the store. And then they go into a freezer... to be pulled out days, weeks, months (?) later and thawed, reheated and served to you.

What happens to the unsold, thawed items? Well, for my local Starbucks, they bag them up and donate them to a local youth shelter. The shelter coordinator hits all of the local Starbucks (we only have 6) in the early morning and picks the bags of food up. And here's hoping that the items are all distributed and eaten quickly.

Not just Starbucks

So, who, you are asking, is Premium Brands? They are a Vancouver-based business that has become the fastest-growing packaged foods supplier in North America. Over the years, they have quietly bought up all sorts of niche food suppliers... places like Piller's Meats in Ontario and Freybe Gourmet Foods. Premium Brands doesn't just supply Starbucks... they also supply The Keg and Boston Pizza...

Which makes me wonder... is ANY of the food that we buy in restaurants actually... you know... cooked from scratch in a restaurant? Or is it all just pre-made "somewhere" and all the restaurant does is heat it up, doll it up with some sauce or a sprig of parsley, and serve it to us?

Cause I'm going to bet that Tim Horton's does not mix up their donut batter in the store. Nor do they make their own breakfast sandwiches... they just assemble them for you. Everything in a Timmies breakfast sandwich was cooked long, long ago in a factory far far away... and shipped to your local coffee shop.

Ugh. That's the thing. Whenever you have a restaurant chain... where customers expect the same standards whether they are in Vancouver or Halifax... or if you have "fast food" or "convenience food"... you are looking at pre-cooked, prepared food.

It's not just Gordon Foods too... there is also Sysco Foods. I've seen their trucks delivering boxes of "food" to various businesses. Heck... I even stayed at a retreat centre in Edmonton once and had the most amazing "healthy" cookie with craisins and nuts. It was SO good! I asked the retreat director - "OMG! What is the recipe for these??!!" She replied "They're good, aren't they! They come from Sysco." No recipe. No home-cooked baking. All the retreat centre did was bake the pre-made cookie dough.

Sadness. No yummy cookie recipe. Sigh. And no yummy brownie recipe either. It makes me stop and think when I look at a restaurant menu... A steak is probably cooked onsite. Chicken fingers? Probably come in a box and are tossed in the deep fryer. Salad? Probably comes in a bag, pre-mixed.

We have sacrificed something with our fascination with speed and convenience... And let's not even mention the environmental cost... prepared food that is shipped hundreds (if not thousands) of kilometres. All that packaging. All that food waste. There is a high cost to convenience and speed.

Further Reading

Globe & Mail - The Canadian secret behind the sandwiches at Starbucks - The Globe and Mail

Financial Post - This Canadian food company is growing like crazy because of Starbucks grab-and-go breakfast sandwiches | Financial Post

The Daily Meal The Scary Reason Starbucks' Food Looks Identical No Matter Where You Are (thedailymeal.com)

Premium Brands - Wikipedia article

Fox News - Starbucks recall of pre-packaged food (from 2016)

Reddit - Starbucks food boxes thrown in dumpster

I don't feel like Writing... I feel like Chocolate!!

Nope, I don't feel like writing. It's been a crap day at work with all sorts of technical issues as we launch a new workshop registration campaign. People buying the registration and then the system eating it and not spitting out a Welcome Email... and unhappy people left, right and center.

And then a disturbing personal phone call and... seriously... I just don't feel like writing. What I feel like is chocolate!!! Specifically a double chocolate brownie from Starbucks. It's 3:00 pm and the window for brownie time has closed (at least for me - or I'll never get to sleep). But that doesn't mean I still don't want it.

I am feeling cranky and out of sorts. The day got off to a rocky start and I didn't get my 1 hour writing time before being tossed into the deep end of technical work issues. Which sucks. And here I am, trying to regroup and gather my thoughts and... it's hard. I'd be much happier, I think, if I just grabbed my office backpack and went to Starbucks... I'd do a better job of regrouping there. But that's probably not true.

Cause at this time of day, Starbucks is overrun with university and high school students and there's not a hope of getting a table next to an electrical outlet (and my laptop battery doesn't last long anymore). So I'd probably just sit there and spin my wheels and feel even worse than I do right now. So that's not a solution. Which is why I'm sitting here and trying the writing thing at home... just me and keyboard.

It's not easy... the siren call of the brownie (and Starbucks) is strong. But it really doesn't help me. Not in the least. What does help me is increasing the magnification of this browser window by 20%! Sigh... things on the screen are looking smaller and smaller. Might  be time for another visit to the optometrist to see how the old eyes are doing. I can still read things, but I find myself squinting and frowning more at the screen... which is problematic on a Zoom call, when I just look frowny angry!

Anyhow... back to the topic at hand. I know that writing will make me feel better... but writing when I'm not already feeling good can be a challenge. And I even had a topic picked out from my morning walk at 6:00 am. But writing about that topic didn't seem feasible at this point. What really needs to get written is what's going on in me right now. So here we are.

Some people think that writing is "easy" if you're a writer. It's not. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth. It's not comfortable. It is not warm and fuzzy. It's dragging out your dirty laundry for all the world to see... and then holding each piece up to the light and studying it in detail. What is going on in my head right now... ?? What am I feeling? What is going on for me?

While I know that everyone has dirty laundry, that doesn't mean it is any easier for me to drag it out and share the nitty-gritty-ness of it. Gross. Emotions. Feelings. Grumpiness. Moodiness. Ick.

But if we all have it, surely it would be beneficial to share it... to share what is going on, so that others don't feel that they are all alone with their filthy laundry. Still doesn't make it easier to write about.

I guess the burning question is... why do I want a sugary, fatty treat that is crammed with wheat gluten (bad for my thyroid condition)? What is the brownie actually going to do? For about 1 minute, it will taste absolutely delicious and then... poof... it will be gone and I all I will taste is the bitterness of regret and the anger of failure. Which doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? And yet... that is what I am craving right now.

The emotions are too uncomfortable - frustration, anger, sadness, fear, irritation, uncertainty - and rather than sit in that... I would rather go and have the brownie. Run from the emotions? Distract myself from the emotions... if only for a minute? Makes zero sense.

I wish I could figure it out. It's not like I'm craving a banana or an apple or a handful of nuts? Or a walk or a drink of water. Although I do have my water bottle close at hand and am sipping at it as I write this. Trying to distract myself from the brownie.

Maybe what I really need is a good cry. Maybe the brownie is just trying to stuff sweet on top of those uncomfortable emotions that want to be expressed? Maybe. Or maybe I need to rage and growl in anger at the situation I find myself in. Perhaps the craving for the food is the brain trying to stuff all those emotions down... "let's just force feed it some sweets". Because emotions are dangerous you know.

It's not safe to express many emotions (other than joy) out in the world. Heck, we aren't really trained in how to express our emotions. We complain about people, places and things, but we don't really get to the heart of the emotion. We swallow the angry words. We stuff down the tears. We stiffen our backs in the face of fear. Don't show it... don't feel it. Sounds like a Disney film... Frozen and the song "Let it Go"...

Don't let them in. Don't let them see.... Conceal... don't feel. Don't let them know.

And the truth is, life is messy. Things aren't always smooth and calm and peaceful. It is so easy to get blown off course. To get thrown off kilter. The question is... how to get back on course. How to get back on kilter...  back on track?

How to clear the space? Write about it? Express it? Connect with something that grounds us, roots us, reminds us who we are? Put things into perspective?

Maybe step away from the computer and the phone and reconnect with the analogue world. Go for a walk... do something physical and with my hands. Declutter some more? Something... and the only way to know what is going to help is to try a few things... and see what sticks and what doesn't. See what helps and what throws me further off course. I'm pretty sure a brownie, delicious as it is, would throw me further off course! Sad to say... but it is truth! Ugh!