The Controversial Ingredient Once Used In Starbucks' Strawberry Creme Frappuccino

Part of the fun of Starbucks is the wide range of unique flavors that go well beyond traditional coffee drinks. Frappuccinos are especially popular, and over the years, customers have enjoyed plenty of creative secret menu offerings ranging from Ferrero Rocher to a Squid Game Frappuccino. A flavor like Strawberry Creme seems simple by comparison, but for years, it included a very controversial ingredient: cochineal. The vibrant red color came from the crushed shells of cochineal insects.

It may sound shocking at first, but cochineal, or carmine, has been a natural source of red color in food for hundreds of years. It's also FDA-approved, so this wasn't some secret scandal that Starbucks was involved in behind closed doors. That said, the company wasn't making a habit of openly disclosing the source of the color, either.

Starbucks stopped selling the Frappuccinos containing cochineal in 2012. Vegan customers pushed back against the use of cochineal after it became known that the dye was not vegan. Within a couple of weeks, Starbucks' president released a statement defending the ingredient as natural and harmless, but also said the chain would look into other options for coloring products such as Frappuccinos, cake pops, pink donut icing, and red velvet whoopie pies, which also contained cochineal. Less than a month later, it was announced that Starbucks would switch to lycopene, derived from tomatoes, as a natural color alternative.

Cochineal insects, sometimes called mealybugs, are harvested in countries like Peru, where they live on cactus. The tiny bugs look like fungus on the plant. When crushed, they excrete an intensely red liquid. Aztecs and Mayans used the dye frequently. It was shipped to Europe by the Spanish and found its way into paint, textiles, and eventually food.

Despite FDA approval, cochineal is not completely harmless. It has been known to cause allergic reactions, including severe anaphylaxis. In 2009, the FDA required products made with cochineal to disclose their presence on labels. The rule came fully into effect in 2011.

As for when Starbucks started using cochineal, those details are a little murky. A 2006 review of the Strawberry Creme Frappuccino on BevNet notes that carmine is included. That's a contrast to 2012 reports, including the one where a barista said they believed the recipe had changed only a few weeks earlier.

Starbucks introduced blended Frappuccino drinks made without coffee or tea in 2002. Strawberries & Cream, a slight tweak on the name, was introduced shortly thereafter. It is possible that cochineal was used as a colorant from the start, meaning it was included for about nine years before it became widely known and Starbucks switched to vegetable-based coloring.

Because cochineal is a natural ingredient, it can sound more appealing than artificial colors when it is labeled that way, especially since many artificial red colors have been banned due to health concerns. It may be listed on labels not only as cochineal but also as carmine, natural red 4, carminic acid, or E120. Even though Starbucks has stopped using it, you may still find it in some dairy products, candy, and beverages.