Plant-based menu at Peet’s Coffee

Peet’s coffee has launched a menu of plant-based items this month – about five vegan savory and sweet items are on offer, along with some new vegan coffee drinks. It’s probably the biggest effort to encourage plant-based diets that I’ve seen from a coffee chain in the US, so I wanted to celebrate that. Also, after recent posts on Ukraine and the latest IPPC climate report I just wanted to post something quick and cheerful 🙂

Last year, I evaluated the social and environmental impact of Peet’s Coffee and gave it a respectable score of 3.5 out of 5 Green Stars. Now that Peet’s have introduced this plant-based menu, I’m bumping the score up to 4 Green Stars. For comparison, I think Starbucks ranks at a mediocre 2.5 Green Stars and that hasn’t changed since a couple of years ago. Starbucks doesn’t have any vegan items on the hot menu – they brought out an Impossible burger sandwich, but decided to pair it with regular cheese and egg rather than making it fully plant-based.

If anything, Starbucks has slipped in terms of environmental impact during lockdown – some branches still don’t allow customers to use their own mugs, so the waste footprint has increased significantly. Covid is not transmissible by touching objects, to any significant extent, folks! Anyway, here’s a quick guide to the Peet’s plant-based food menu:

Peet’s plant-based menu items

Peet’s has three sweet items on the plant-based menu for northern California. These items vary by region as they are supplied by local bakers.

1. Guittard Chocolate Brownie
2. Blueberry Ginger Scone
3. Morning Glory Muffin

The brownie has been on the menu for quite a while – I appreciate that the chocolate is from Guittard – a pretty ethical supplier of baking chocolate. The other two items are new and I think they are easily as good as any of the baked items that I’ve tried at Peet’s (except perhaps for the twice-baked almond croissant!). The scone has a nice ginger kick and a texture that’s indistinguishable from the regular scones. The morning glory muffin is probably my favorite – the seeds and grated carrot and coconut make it more nutritious and I think it’s better than the regular muffins that are made with dairy. However, I should point out that the scone is impressively low in sugar, for a baked item – only 8 grams per 92 g scone.  

There are two savory items on the plant-based menu:

1. Everything Plant-Based Sandwich
2. Mediterranean Flatbread

The Everything Plant-Based Sandwich had just come out when I wrote the last post on Peet’s social and environmental impact. It’s a sausage patty from Beyond Meat, combined with JUST vegan egg and vegan cheddar. The Mediterranean Flatbread is described as JUST vegan egg and Violife vegan cheese top a savory blend of pesto, kale, tomatoes, and tangy bell peppers inside a crispy lavash.

I’ve been trying quite a few JUST products recently (sous-vide egg bites and vegan mayo) so I’m going to write a post on them over on Ethical Bargains soon.

I like both of these items – the Everything Plant-Based Sandwich is my favorite of the two – and it’s just good to be able to get a guilt-free savory item when out and about.

Anyway, it’s good to see a major coffee chain taking a risk and doing something for climate change and the stresses on our food systems and habitats. Seek out and request plant-based items in your local coffee shops. VegOut magazine has a list of the ten best vegan coffee shops in the US, while PETA ranks the major coffee chains for vegan food and drink options.