Starbucks to roll out coconut milk option

Bruce Horovitz | USA TODAY

Starbucks is about to sell yet another thing to stir into your brew: coconut milk.

Beginning Feb. 17, the coffee giant will begin to offer coconut milk — Starbucks Single Origin Sumatra Coconut Milk — nationally as a non-dairy option, for an extra 60 cents. That's what it also charges for soy milk.

The new coconut milk is certified vegan and made from single-origin coconuts from the tropical Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The move comes amid a flurry of customer requests. In fact, providing a non-dairy alternative to dairy and soy is the second-most-requested customer idea that the company has ever received on its online platform for consumer suggestions, MyStarbucksidea.com, says spokeswoman Sanja Gould.

The alternative, non-dairy proposal has received more than 84,000 "votes" from consumers on the Starbucks customer idea site, Gould says.

Keeping customers happy is huge for Starbucks — including consumers who are vegan or lactose-intolerant. Offering an option like coconut milk is just the kind of thing that can help to separate Starbucks from its rivals. says Melody Overton, who writes the StarbucksMelody blog that is not affiliated with the chain.

"A lot of people are vegan or living a vegan lifestyle," says Overton. But there can also be a coolness factor to ordering dairy alternatives, she says. "It's pretty hip to be using coconut or almond milk."

What's more, coconut milk isn't limited to coffee, notes Christine Barone, vice president of brewed espresso at Starbucks. "We are excited to hear back what further customer and partner customization coconut milk inspires," she says, in a statement.

Starbucks says its beverage customization program now includes more than 170,000 beverage options.

And now, coconut milk ups the ante.