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

The Insidiousness of Single-Use Plastic

It is sooo hard to be eco-friendly sometimes. So hard.

I was in Starbucks the other day month (before covid19), in Victoria, and decided to have a double chocolate chunk fudge brownie. Just cause. I don't need to justify it, do I? No... once in a while is OK... right?

Anyhow... I ordered it warmed up "for here". It comes on a sturdy little plastic plate but then there's a hiccup.

You see a warmed up chocolate chunk brownie gets gooey and is hard to eat with your fingers. Very messy... and dry napkins don't cut it.

The baristas obviously know this because they gave me a fork with my brownie. A reusable plastic fork? No. A reusable metal fork? No.

I received an individually wrapped, flimsy, black, single-use, disposable, plastic fork. There is so much wrong with this... on so many levels.

• Individually wrapped - little sleeve of filmy plastic which instantly gets ripped off and... tossed.
• Flimsy - it's not a fork that I could take home and put in our picnic or camping kit. It can barely handle a succulent warm brownie
• Black - even if it had a recycle logo on it, which it doesn't... black plastic is virtually impossible to recycle at this point in time because the sorting machines can't read the logos.
• Single-use - as noted above, this is a flimsy fork. It is not designed to be reusable. It is designed for single-use.
• Disposable - yep, no dishes to wash, no cutlery to sort, just pure convenience. Disposable convenience.
• Plastic - yup, plastic. They have all sorts of reusable things here... ceramic mugs, sturdy plastic plates, why not metal cutlery?

Camping Cutlery

I got irked and sent in a suggestion to Starbucks. If we are trying to move away from single-use plastics... then the individually wrapped plastic forks have got to go!

I stewed a bit more and then thought... what can I do?

Well... I could pack my own cutlery. Enough of this disposable convenience. I've got the disposable cup thing handled but... now we're into cutlery.

I do have a metal camping spoon, knife, fork set somewhere in the camping gear. They click together and come in a little sleeve... I could dig those out and carry them around in my backpack for just such a moment.

Or... I think we have sturdy plastic camping cutlery somewhere, maybe slightly more accessible... in the laundry room? Let me just go and dig them out... ***10 minutes later*** Voila. Done. They are now riding around in my backpack in a reusable ziploc bag (yes, we wash and reuse our ziploc bags).


It's one Small Step in the fight against disposability.

P.S. Whilst finalizing this blog for publication... I googled "starbucks disposable cutlery" and came across this Globe & Mail article. They are phasing disposable cutlery out this year! Hooray!!!

Disposable Convenience

You already know about my Starbucks hot chocolate addiction... so I might as well make another confession. My morning routine of yore was to go to Starbucks with my laptop, order my hot chocolate, find a table with a nearby electrical outlet and work for several hours.

Nothing wrong with that, right?

Except... I always ordered my hot chocolate in a disposable cup. Even when they specifically asked me if I wanted it in a mug. Worse... they would sometimes ask... "is that for here, or to go"... and I would blatantly LIE and say... "uh... to go". Just so I could get a disposable cup. Despite the fact that I could save $0.10 if I got my hot chocolate in a porcelain mug. Why so attached to the disposable cup?

Because my hot chocolate stayed hotter longer in a disposable cup than in a porcelain mug. That's it... I like my hot chocolate hot... not cold. So I lied...

But I wasn't fooling anyone... The Starbucks baristas aren't dumb... they know me... they know that I never just "go"... I always stay and sit. My chronic lying nibbled away at my conscience...

Travel mug

I tried to bring my own travel mug... but the first few I tried were the wrong size for a Grande beverage (16 oz). All of the travel mugs in our cupboard were for a Tall beverage (12 oz). Obviously, there was no way I could downsize to a Tall Hot Chocolate. I mean... it's marginally cheaper but not 25% cheaper... and it's 25% smaller. Hmph! I also wasn't going to buy a new Grande travel mug from Starbucks because... well... they are expensive.

I know this is illogical and oxymoron-ish but... that's the convoluted twistings of my guilty sugar-addled brain trying to justify itself!

Sooo... I continually lied or fudged or... whatever... and kept ordering my hot chocolate in a disposable cup. Until... one day at a thrift store... I found a Grande sized travel mug (Starbucks branded no less). Hallelujah! My guilty conscience was assuaged. I proudly trotted to Starbucks the next morning with my mug tucked into my backpack. Clear conscience... hot Hot chocolate! Win-win! Yay!

That worked for... ohhhh... one day...

You see... when you get home, you need to remember to take your mug out of your backpack and then wash it. And then you need to remember to pack it up the next morning and... that didn't happen. My attempts at "bring your own mug" were not a success. And my illicit affair with the disposable cup continued. It was convenient. Bring my own mug was inconvenient. And convenience won, every time.

Starbucks recycle system

I could easily try justifying myself...

"Those disposable cups get recycled. See, Starbucks has a recycling system."
Not. Have you ever seen customers put things in those convenient holes in the Starbucks blue bin? Most people either can't read or are moving too fast to stop long enough to figure out what goes where. And... have you ever seen the baristas take those bags to a recycle dumpster? I hang around long enough at Starbucks to see what goes on. No... those clear bags of "recyclables" get taken to the garbage dumpster. There is no recycle dumpster - just garbage... and cardboard.

"Maybe they get sorted at the dump."
Seriously?! And even if they did... disposable cups are lined with a thin film of plastic. Very difficult to recycle.

"Everybody else is doing it."
Very true. But just because everybody is into harming the environment, doesn't mean I have to be.

Starbucks sign - Save the Turtles

One of the Starbucks I frequent has a staff member who is a committed environmentalist. They have chalkboard signs up all over the place encouraging the use of "for here" mugs or BYO travel mug. Back in my disposable cup era... I would walk by these signs saying "Save the turtles. Get a for-here mug".

And I would walk by these signs... ignore the beseeching eyes of the turtle... and STILL order my hot chocolate in a disposable cup.

But all is not lost. When I ditched the hot chocolate habit a year ago... I also ditched the disposable cup habit. I'm not such a rabid chai tea aficionado that I really care if my tea stays hot or cold. In fact, it's kind of good for it to cool quickly cause their hot water dispenser is scorching!

I do wonder though... I have gone to a local coffee shop where the default is a porcelain mug. You specifically have to request a "to go" cup. At Starbucks, if they don't ask you... the default is disposable cups. What if the default was not disposable? Interesting idea...

Vintage refillable lighter

And so, I sit here, sipping my tea out of a porcelain mug, proud of this one Small Step in reducing wasteful consumption. I look at the world differently though... I view things through a different lens, a lens that sees the fusing of convenience and disposability. Here's a quick list of items which feature disposable convenience... is there a solution?

• Kleenex - cloth handkerchiefs?
• disposable diapers - cloth diapers? I still have the diaper pail my Mom used!
• BIC lighters - anyone remember refillable metal lighters?
• paper towels - rags?
• paper plates - regular plates? Melmac plates?
• plastic cutlery - regular cutlery? bamboo cutlery?
• Keurig pods - I'm not a coffee drinker but... regular drip coffee maker? French press?
• plastic water bottles - bring your own metal water bottle? There are a tonne at thrift stores...
• WetWipes - regular toilet paper? I know that TP is convenient and disposable but even I have a line... trust me, leaves don't work very well... And I'm not sure using rags would work... but who knows.
• plastic bags - oooohhhh.... that's a can of worms - let's just say... those reusable grocery bags that rip after less than a year of use are not the best solution (more in another blog post)
• fast food - is there a solution? A&W at least offers chilled glass mugs if you eat-in...

And there's probably a tonne more. And yes... some of these will require more from us: more washing up... more laundry... more cooking... more work... more planning... more thought.

As I stare at this list... of which I am a serial offender... I realize I face multiple choice points in a day. Every time I reach for a Kleenex or paper towel... I make a choice. A choice for convenience. I could argue that Kleenex and paper towel are compostable... but that doesn't negate the fact that trees were cut down to make these paper products... and bleached to make them super white. I also know that regular cotton production is extremely hard on the environment.

Starbucks porcelain mug

Are there alternatives? Organic cotton? Bamboo? Hemp? Linen? A quick Google reveals that... goodness... there are options out there! Who knew there were hemp hankies?

More research required... this blog is already long enough.

I leave you with a picture of a Starbucks porcelain mug... my one Small Step towards making a difference...