Mazagran

by Starbucks

1995 – 1996 GONE FOREVER

Gone. By December 1996 the Seattle Times was calling it Starbucks' 'first flop.' Many retellings date the test to 1994 — that was the Pepsi partnership's announcement; Mazagran's test was in mid-1995.

Last verified Nov 8, 2026

Starbucks' first bottled drink was sparkling coffee: lightly carbonated and chilled, in vanilla, berry, spiced and 'fiery' flavors, test-marketed in California in 1995. Shoppers tried the future once and went back to lattes.

🧾 One more thingThe name came from a coffee-and-water drink French Foreign Legion soldiers drank in Algeria more than a century earlier. Pepsi did the bottling as a 50-50 partner, but only the Starbucks logo went on the bottle.

Filed under: Drinks & Sodas · the ’90s

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📅 Timeline

1994Starbucks and Pepsi announced a 50-50 ready-to-drink coffee partnership in August.
1995Mazagran went on test in May in two Santa Monica Starbucks; by August it was in nine shops and about 50 other California outlets.
1996In December the Seattle Times reported the carbonated coffee had recently been taken off shelves.

❓ People also ask

What was Starbucks Mazagran?

A lightly carbonated bottled coffee, sold in vanilla, berry, spiced and 'fiery' flavors in a 1995 California test.

Did Mazagran lead to bottled Frappuccino?

By Starbucks' later retellings, yes: the company's coffee-extract work from the period went into bottled Frappuccino, which the same Pepsi partnership launched successfully.

🧾 Sources

Seattle Times, The Starbucks Challenge — Specialty-Coffee Maker Hopes New Products Won't Dilute Its High-Class Reputation (1995)
Seattle Times, A Bottle O' Joe (1995)
Seattle Times, Seattle's Coffee King — In The Beginning Was A Quaint Little Roasting Company (1996)

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