How The Smell Of Breakfast Sandwiches Forced Starbucks To Rethink Its Menu - Tasting Table

"The smell of a breakfast sandwich coming together is one of life's great comforts: The sizzle of bacon crisping in its own fat, the nutty sweetness of bread turning golden in the toaster, the soft hiss of eggs meeting a hot pan. It's the scent that feels like a Sunday morning. Just perfect ... unless you're in a coffee shop. In 2008, Starbucks had to make the hard decision to temporarily stop serving warm breakfast sandwiches because their savory aroma was overpowering the very thing they were famous for - the smell of coffee."

"The coffee giant announced that it would stop serving warm breakfast sandwiches as part of a broader turnaround plan and shift its focus to healthier breakfast choices and high-quality baked goods. Howard D. Schultz, Starbucks' chairman and chief executive, was quoted in The New York Times saying, "The scent of the warm sandwiches interferes with the coffee aroma in our stores.""

"The sandwiches returned six months later, with better ingredients, lower cooking temperatures, leaner bacon, and a scent engineered to stay in its lane. Cut to today, and Starbucks sells premade sandwiches, procured fresh every day from local catering companies, leaving their trained baristas to focus on the coffee experience. The nose knows: Leaning into aromas Deutschlandreform/Shutterstock In the restaurant business, scent can range from background notes to a marketing tool as potent as a catchy slogan or a well-placed ad. The right aroma can stir up hunger, evoke nostalgia, and even draw people in off the sidewalk."

Warm savory aromas can overpower coffee scent, prompting Starbucks in 2008 to stop serving warm breakfast sandwiches temporarily because the sandwiches' scent interfered with coffee aroma. Starbucks later reintroduced sandwiches with better ingredients, lower cooking temperatures, leaner bacon, and scents engineered to avoid overwhelming coffee. Today Starbucks sells premade sandwiches sourced fresh daily from local caterers so baristas can focus on coffee. In restaurants, scent functions as a marketing tool that can stimulate appetite, evoke nostalgia, and draw passersby inside. Chains such as McDonald's and Cinnabon deliberately let food aromas spill into the air as an open invitation.

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