{"id":18101,"date":"2016-03-08T13:00:13","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=18101"},"modified":"2016-03-08T13:00:13","modified_gmt":"2016-03-08T18:00:13","slug":"twenty-three-years-of-starbucks-chocolate-and-candy-and-mms-oh-my","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=18101","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-Three Years of Starbucks Chocolate and Candy and M&M’s — Oh My!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CC_StarbucksStarbucks Coffee has a long history of offering their own branded confections – in fact it goes back much farther than I expected.\u00a0 Today, I’ve got an array of Starbucks confectionery product packaging spanning twenty-three years that I’m excited to share.\u00a0 Make the jump to check them out!<\/p>\n

Twenty-three years is an odd number to throw out, and it is entirely to do with that being the furthest back I can confidently point to as far as an actual Starbucks confectionery product example.\u00a0 Tracking the history of Starbucks Coffee-branded confections is especially challenging, in no small part due to the fact that where their confectionery offerings are concerned, they have not followed a consistent development path.\u00a0 At least none that I’ve been able to deduce.\u00a0 In fact, each era and product I’ve uncovered seems to have a unique identity all its own.\u00a0 One periods offerings do not directly lead to another and there are stretches where Starbucks did not offer its own branded confectionery products at all, giving each new product launch the sense of a fresh start and an independence of whatever came before.<\/p>\n

Given the realities of how Starbucks went about product releases in this category, what I present today is less of a strictly-defined history and more of an organized gathering of historical glimpses.<\/p>\n

Going back those twenty-three years, the first piece I have to share today is a cardboard band that likely wrapped around a clear cellophane or plastic package containing six ounces of “Espresso Chocolates”.\u00a0 This first one features French\/English bilingual packaging, placing its origins in Canada.<\/p>\n

\"Canada

Canada – Starbucks Coffee – Espresso Chocolates – 6oz chocolate cardboard band label – 1993<\/p><\/div>\n

Next up from the following year and from the USA are two similar bands:<\/p>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee – Espresso Chocolates – 6oz chocolate cardboard band label – 1994<\/p><\/div>\n

Each of these features a 1994 copyright with “best by” dates from 1997 and 1998 respectively.\u00a0 I’ve opted to categorize them by their earlier, original copyright date, but it’s clear that these were offered for a handful of years.<\/p>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee – Toffee Chocolates – 6oz chocolate cardboard band label – 1994<\/p><\/div>\n

This next wrapper is undated but likely hails from the mid-1990’s.\u00a0 It was produced by the wonderful Seattle Chocolate Company<\/a> and may have been produced exclusively for Starbucks locations, but it is not clear if that’s the case.\u00a0 Perhaps it was something that was sold around Seattle at the time, a “home team” theme if you will.<\/p>\n

\"Seattle

Seattle Chocolate Company – Starbucks Coffee Dark Chocolate Truffle Bar – 2.5oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – mid-1990’s<\/p><\/div>\n

I believe that same Dark Chocolate Truffle bar would be given more prominent Starbucks branding a few years later in the following form.\u00a0 It should be noted that the Seattle Chocolate brand name is nowhere to be found on this next wrapper:<\/p>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks – Dark Chocolate Truffle Bar – 2.5 oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1998<\/p><\/div>\n

The 1998-1999 period would present us with what appears to be the first full-blown lineup of Starbucks Coffee-branded chocolate bars.\u00a0 I have six different variety wrappers from this era:<\/p>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Chocolate – Milk Chocolate with Peanut Butter – 1.5oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1998<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Chocolate – Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle – 1.5 oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1998<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Chocolate – Mocha – 1.5 oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1998<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Chocolate – Dark Mocha – 1.5 oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1998<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Chocolate – Dark Mocha Truffle – 1.5 oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1998<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Chocolate – Dark Mocha with Praline Almonds – 1.5 oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1999<\/p><\/div>\n

In the year 2000, Starbucks would offer up a series of chocolate bars featuring a wrapper design quite different from the previous version.\u00a0 Each of these also included the compelling trademark line “When Coffee Dreams, it Dreams of Chocolate”.\u00a0 I think that’s a pretty spectacular line:<\/p>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee Company – Milk Chocolate Bar – 3oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 2000<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee Company – Espresso Dark Chocolate and Coffee Bar – 3oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 2000<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee Company – Dark Chocolate Bar – 3oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 2000<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ve got a cardboard band from the following year that featured the same look as those three, but must have been for a smaller style offering:<\/p>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee -Dark Chocolate – band wrapper – 2001<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2004, Starbucks would offer up an “origins” assortment that featured four distinctive blends of chocolate mini bars.<\/p>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Origin chocolates – Outer sleeve 2.4 oz package and insert card – 2004<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Origin chocolates – African Blend Dark 54%, Venezuelan Dark 73.5%, Mexican Milk 50%, African Blend Milk Chocolate 34% – individual wrappers – 2004<\/p><\/div>\n

Oddly, I have two similar wrappers that appear to have originated from the Canadian Starbucks side of things, albeit a year earlier:<\/p>\n

\"Canada

Canada – Starbucks Origin Chocolates – Venezuelan & Ecuadorian Arriba – 55-cent singles chocolate wrappers – 2003<\/p><\/div>\n

Regular offerings of these smaller, individually-wrapped bars would continue for the next few years:<\/p>\n

\"Canada

Canada – Starbucks – Milk Chocolate & Dark Chocolate 0.3 oz 55-cent singles chocolate wrappers – 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Canada

Canada – Starbucks – Dark Chocolate Chocolat Noir – 0.3 oz 55-cent single Holiday chocolate wrapper – 2006<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Canada

Canada – Starbucks – Milk Chocolate & Dark Chocolate – 75-cent singles chocolate wrappers – 2007<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2008, two very different styles of full-size chocolate bars appeared.\u00a0 It’s unclear why these each feature such different designs:<\/p>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks Chocolate – Mocha Dark Chocolate – 3oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 2008<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks – Dark Chocolate – 1.2 oz chocolate bar wrapper – 2008<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks – Dark Chocolate & Coffee – made with Starbucks Sumatra – 1.2 oz chocolate bar wrapper – 2008<\/p><\/div>\n

Most recently, in 2010 Starbucks offered what appears to have been a take on the coffee-infused chocolate or chocolate-covered coffee beans type of product.\u00a0 These sound pretty awesome, though I missed them when they were out.<\/p>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks – Dark Chocolate coated cacao beans – 1.2 oz chocolate candy package – 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starbucks

Starbucks – Dark Chocolate with VIA Ready Brew coffee beans – 1.2 oz chocolate candy package – 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Those are the most recent offerings I’ve got to share, but they’re not all I have to present today.<\/p>\n

Beyond the pieces I’ve already shown you, I’ve got a few pieces that defied easy dating and one that stands as a fascinating example of “what might have been”.\u00a0 Let’s take a look at that one first, a package for the Starbucks-branded M&M’s that never were.<\/p>\n

The Starbucks M&M’s pack I have would appear to be a fully-realized product, in that it is professionally printed and does not seem like any other prototypes I’ve encountered in the past.\u00a0 And yet, according to the former Mars employee who shared it with me, it is just that:<\/p>\n

The Starbucks pack is a mock-up for the custom printed M&M\u2019s program. \u00a0Mars was trying to promote the technology by showing companies it could print their logos on the candy. \u00a0I remember there were some really tasty coffee M&M\u2019s made in R&D for that pack. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t an item that was actually produced or sold.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"CC_Mars

Mars Direct – Starbucks Coffee branded My M&M’s – Chocolate – 2oz candy package wrapper mockup – 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Coffee-flavored, Starbucks-branded M&M’s!\u00a0 How cool is that?\u00a0 I have to imagine these would have been big sellers.<\/p>\n

Next up are a pair of foil wrappers for Starbucks Double-Shot branded chocolates produced by renowned Seattle confectionery institution, Fran’s Chocolates<\/a>. \u00a0 I believe it is possible that these date back to the early 1990’s and might be the earliest pieces contained in today’s post (they feature a different zip code than all the rest), but I currently have no way to be sure as they have not dates on them.<\/p>\n

\"Fran's

Fran’s Chocolates – Made for Starbucks – Double Shot Hazelnut & Dark Chocolate – 85-cent .5oz foil chocolate candy wrappers – 1990’s to early 2000’s<\/p><\/div>\n

The last bit of Starbucks confectionery packaging I have to share is a bit different, because it isn’t for a chocolate-based product.\u00a0 Instead, it appears that these wrappers actually clothed some kind of hard candy.\u00a0 Featuring French\/English bilingual text, these likely originated at a Canadian Starbucks.\u00a0 Once again, these lack any kind of date, so where they fall in the Starbucks confectionery timeline is unclear.\u00a0 What is clear is that they feature fun little mascots and I think they’re pretty awesome:<\/p>\n

\"Canada

Canada – Starbucks – Lemon, Cola, Orange hard candy individual wrappers – circa 1990’s to 2000’s<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, the last pieces I’ll be presenting today are not connected to Starbucks at all, but rather one of their competitors.\u00a0 Still, I thought they would be appropriate to include.\u00a0\u00a0 Here are two chocolate bar wrappers for bars branded and sold by The Coffee Bean<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf – Fluer De Sel Dark Chocolate – 2oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf – Ultimate Espresso Milk Chocolate – 2oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – 2010<\/p><\/div>\n

Coffee and confection will always be closely linked, and they’re a great match as I hope today’s post has shown.\u00a0 So beyond everything that’s come before, I think we can count on a steady stream of collaborations and crossovers between the two flavorful worlds of coffee and confection for years to come.<\/p>\n

And that’s everything I’ve got to share on the confectionery history of Starbucks Coffee.\u00a0 I hope you enjoyed it and I’ll see you next time!<\/p>\n

\"CC_Starbucks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starbucks Coffee has a long history of offering their own branded confections – in fact it goes back much farther than I expected.\u00a0 Today, I’ve got an array of Starbucks confectionery product packaging spanning twenty-three years that I’m excited to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,56,4],"tags":[321,316,328,351,332,1264,14,324,78,333,21,450,1030,1263,15,341,11],"class_list":["post-18101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1990s","category-chocolate-2","category-mms","tag-candy-collecting","tag-candy-collection","tag-candy-collector","tag-candy-wrapper-collection","tag-candy-wrapper-collector","tag-coffee","tag-collectible","tag-collecting-candy","tag-confectionery","tag-confections","tag-packaging","tag-packaging-design","tag-seattle","tag-starbucks","tag-sweets","tag-vintage-candy-wrappers","tag-wrapper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2aFGk-4HX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18101"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18156,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18101\/revisions\/18156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}