Starbucks Testing Coconut Milk As Another Non-Dairy Option At Some Stores

The sight of soy milk at the local coffee shop is a fairly familiar sight by now, but soon the lactose-free set of customers at certain stores in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Oregon and elsewhere will have yet another non-dairy option to choose from: Coconut milk.

Starbucks is testing the milk alternative in certain cities and states — the company hasn’t said how many stores will be offering it — instead of the popular almond milk, because of the “critically important safety of our customers nut allergies,” a spokeswoman told Reuters.

Just because a canister of coconut milk shows up today doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be there tomorrow, as Starbucks makes a habit of testing different products to see if they’ll work on a larger scale.

Non-dairy options are popular with consumers, making up the fastest growing part of dairy milk product and nondairy alternatives category so far as sales go: Sales in that area have risen almost 33% from 2011 to 2013 to reach almost $2 billion, according to data from market research group Mintel.

Starbucks goes coconuts in latest nondairy milk test [Reuters]

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