Today, Starbucks Coffee Company will begin offering an assortment of fresh and flavorful summer beverages made with Tazo® green teas. The line-up includes the new Tazo® Green Tea Frappuccino® blended creme, made with real matcha (ground green tea leaves), and two refreshing twists on classic iced tea — Tazo® Shaken Green Iced Tea and Tazo® Shaken Green Tea Lemonade. All three beverages will be available at Starbucks stores in the United States and Canada from July 13, 2005, through September 30, 2005.

Tazo® Green Tea Frappuccino® blended creme was first introduced in 2001 in Starbucks stores in Taiwan and Singapore. It has since been enjoyed by customers throughout Asia and has become one of the top Frappuccino® blended beverage flavors in those markets.

“Many of our customers who visited our stores in Asia became fans of the Tazo® Green Tea Frappuccino® blended creme and requested its introduction in North America,” notes Michelle Gass, Starbucks senior vice president of Category Management.

According to the 2005 Gallup Study of Hot Tea, conducted by Multi-sponsor Surveys, Inc. green tea consumption among hot tea drinkers has nearly tripled since 1999, with more than half trying green tea in the past year. Furthermore, the proportion of green tea drinkers reporting weekly consumption has grown by 32 percent since 2003.

“Given the growing popularity of green tea in the United States and Canada, this is the perfect summer to bring the distinct flavor and benefits of green tea to our Frappuccino® blended beverage and Tazo® Shaken Iced Tea offerings,” continues Gass.

Tazo® Green Tea Frappuccino® blended creme gets its light green color from the addition of high-grade matcha. Matcha is made by grinding green tea leaves into a fine powder and is used in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. Made with real matcha, the Tazo® Green Tea Frappuccino® blended creme is a creamy, sweet treat with a hint of melon flavor that contains more antioxidants than an equivalent amount of orange or apple juice. Tazo® Green Tea Frappuccino® blended creme is available with or without whipped cream and customers can modify the intensity of the green tea flavor by increasing or decreasing the amount of matcha in their beverage or by ordering their beverage with more or less melon flavor.

Tazo® Shaken Green Iced Tea and Tazo® Shaken Green Tea Lemonade are made with freshly brewed Tazo® Zen(TM) green tea, which is a delicious combination of green tea from China, lemon verbena from Eastern Europe, mint from the Pacific Northwest and lemongrass from Guatemala. The teas are then personalized to individual tastes, with or without sweetener and all-natural lemonade and shaken over ice to bring out the full flavor. Originally introduced on July 2, 2003, Iced Shaken Refreshments are handcrafted, freshly brewed iced tea and coffee beverages shaken with ice to uniformly mix sweeteners and aerate the beverage for a light, frothy, refreshing drink.