Whatever Happened To Starbucks' Ice Cream?

Certain grocery store items remain embedded in your brain long after you can no longer purchase them. For many people, this phenomenon perfectly describes Starbucks-branded ice cream — a concept that began being produced by Dreyer's Inc. in 1996 before becoming a Unilever product.  Unfortunately for fans of that second release, the delicious pint-sized treats have been gone from store shelves for over a decade, remaining discontinued since 2013.

However, the ice cream pints are still looked back on fondly by many and would likely have grown a cult following (as many grocery items do) if the chain had continued to produce them. Starbucks' ice cream featured coffee flavors such as Java Chip Frappuccino, Caramel Macchiato, and Mocha Frappuccino. Plus, for people who didn't crave the coffee flavors, Starbucks also offered distinctly non-coffee ice creams, like Signature Hot Chocolate and Strawberries and Creme Frappuccino, really covering all bases to provide everything ice cream fans could want from the branded product.

While it lasted longer than the fabled Starbucks soda brand Fizzio, Starbucks' ice cream's existence feels like a blip in the chain's long history. The store's choice to pursue other chilly ventures has been met with mixed reactions in the years since. Beyond the 2023 debut of Starbucks' frozen lemonade, Starbucks' grand return to ice cream following the 2013 discontinuation of their store-bought products came in 2017 when the chain announced it would be experimenting with affogatos. A beloved Italian dessert that mixes espresso directly with either ice cream or gelato, affogatos felt like just the thing to satisfy the ice cream craving of diehard Starbucks fans. However, there was (and still is) one big problem: The treat is only available at Starbucks Reserve locations, of which there are only three in the United States.

So, lovers of both Starbucks and ice cream remain without many official options as far as the combination of both treats. While there are ways to make an affogato at home — with Starbucks' website having its own tutorial on how to do so — we are otherwise left craving that delicious blend of coffee and chilled creamy goodness that Starbucks once served at grocery stores across the country.