Ice Cream For Breakfast: Starbucks Will Offer Sweet Treat With Coffee In US

Parents are going to have a hard time explaining why their kids can't eat ice cream for breakfast if they start ordering it with their coffee at Starbucks. The coffee chain announced Tuesday it would start offering varieties of affogato, or hot or cold coffee poured over ice cream, in some of its locations.

Affogato will be served at 100 different stores in California starting Wednesday, with more expensive versions of the coffee-laden sweet treat to be offered at 10 different Starbucks locations with reserve bars in Los Angeles, Boston and Washington, D.C., Business Insider reported. The ice cream-covered coffee was first introduced to menus at the company’s Roastery store in Seattle back in June 2016, according to reports, which a Starbucks spokeswoman told CBS News in a statement led to the decision to expand the tasty concoctions on to other store menus.

The drinks will range in price starting at $6 for the classic affogato to $8.50 for the cold brew malt, which is made with small-lot cold brew, vanilla ice cream and chocolate bitters. Along with the two treats, Starbucks will also offer the Shakerato Affogato made with espresso shaken over ice and finished with vanilla syrup and mint sprig.

Starbucks' newest affogato roll-out comes after the coffee chain introduced three affogato-like Frappuccino flavors during the summer of 2016. They included vanilla bean, caramel and mocha affogato flavors.

Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz, who announced in December he would step down from his position to take on more projects focusing on Starbucks’ premium Roastery efforts, previously said that he wanted to amp up Starbucks’ appeal and make the chain’s Roastery the “Willy Wonka of coffee.”

Meanwhile, 7-Eleven has also jumped on board with affogato-style treats. The convenience store's Australia branch introduced two new coffee options earlier this month, including 7-Eleven Iced Coffee and the 7-Eleven Coffee Melt, which is coffee splashed over Peter’s vanilla ice cream, according to reports.