meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Best One Yet

🄤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed

The Best One Yet

Nick & Jack Studios

News, Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

šŸ—“ļø 3 May 2025

ā±ļø 9 minutes

šŸ§¾ļø Download transcript

Summary

Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet here: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/


The cream-topped, dome-lidded Frappuccino is the caffeinated crown jewel of the Starbucks empire. It helped the company break out from regional coffee chain to global lifestyle brand, made cold drinks into 75% of Starbucks’ beverage sales, and created a whole new language of filibuster-length orders (ā€œCan I get a grande vanilla bean frappe, in a venti cup, extra whip on top and a mocha drizzle?ā€). But the original Frappuccino was actually created at a boutique Boston coffee shop in the early ’90s to survive the summer sales slump. Then a stand-up comic in Santa Monica took a blender and a big idea to make a version for Starbucks…only for CEO Howard Schultz to dismiss it as a low-brow slushie (Sir, this is a Starbucks, not a 7-Eleven). Find out how a frozen coffee shake went from indie experiment to global juggernaut, why innovation doesn't always mean inventing something new, and how the Frappuccino became the best idea yet.


Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet for the untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — and the bold risk takers who made them go viral.


Episodes drop every Tuesday, listen here: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/

—-----------------------------------------------------


GET ON THE POD: 

Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts 


FOR MORE NICK & JACK: 

Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter 

Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ 

Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ 


SOCIALS:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypod

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod 


Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ 



See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Yeties, Nick and Jack here coming at you from the T-Boy Studio. On our weekly show, the best idea yet,

0:05.3

we go deep on the most popular products of all time. And this week, we took on the most viral

0:10.6

drink of all time, the Starbucks Frapicino. Because odds are, statistically speaking,

0:16.2

you're caffeinated up right now by a latte you sip this morning. Never get this. Starbucks didn't actually invent the Frapecino.

0:23.4

Starbucks acquired the Frapecino.

0:25.8

And it was an acquisition that Howard Schultz hated it at first.

0:29.0

Turns out the Frappuccino was actually invented by a small coffee shop over in Boston,

0:33.5

run by the biggest bean guru we'd ever heard of.

0:36.4

So we're about to give you a taste of that episode.

0:38.5

After you're done with that sample,

0:40.3

go chug the whole thing at the best idea yet,

0:43.3

our separate show page.

0:44.5

We drop the link in this episode description

0:46.5

to make it easy for you.

0:47.5

So enjoy the whipped cream on top

0:48.9

and the double shots of caramel

0:50.0

because of Rappuccino is an experience.

0:52.7

One Frapecino episode coming up.

1:00.3

You hear those bells?

1:04.1

Those are the historic Lowell House bells at Harvard.

1:07.2

That means we're back in Cambridge, just outside Boston.

1:09.7

Back at the coffee connection,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nick & Jack Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Nick & Jack Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright Ā© Tapesearch 2025.