Starbucks Pike Place Roast Coffee and Every Brewed Roast Explained

Pike Place Roast is a smooth medium roast made for drinking all day. Starbucks created it in 2008 after customers asked for a freshly brewed coffee they could enjoy at any hour. The name honors the first store in Seattle's Pike Place Market.

The flavor is balanced and easy. Starbucks describes subtle notes of cocoa and toasted nuts, and its retail bags mention cocoa and praline. It has little acidity and no sharp edge, which is why people drink it black, with cream or with a splash of milk.

The beans are 100% Arabica from Latin America, a region known for steady quality and cocoa and soft spice notes. Many readers type pike roast Starbucks into search, and this is the coffee they mean.

This Starbucks Pike Place Roast table compares the blonde, medium and dark levels side by side. A darker roast tastes stronger, but it does not carry more caffeine, which is a point the caffeine section covers below.

Cafes make drip coffee in batches and poured to order. Each Pike Place brew is made fresh several times a day, so the cup you get is usually newer than a pot left on a hotplate. Drip coffee is hot water passed through ground coffee, with no pressure and no milk.

That makes brewed coffee different from the other cold and hot coffee drinks:

• Hot brewed coffee is the drip cup described above.
• Iced coffee is brewed coffee served over ice, covered in the section below.
• Cold brew is steeped in cool water for many hours and tastes smoother.

If you stay in the cafe, you can get a free refill. Since January 2025, anyone who orders hot or iced brewed coffee or tea to drink in can ask for a refill during the same visit, as long as the drink was served in a mug, a glass or your own clean cup. Cold brew, lattes and Refreshers do not count.

Black coffee at Starbucks is any brewed roast served as it comes, with no milk, cream or sugar. The Pike Place Roast, Sunsera and the featured dark roast are all served black by default. A grande Pike Place Roast has about 5 calories, 0 g of sugar and about 1 g of protein, according to published nutrition listings.

To order it, say the roast and size, such as "grande Pike Place, black." If you want room for your own cream, ask for "room." The condiment bar is the place for milk and sweetener, and a splash keeps the calories low.

Simple add-ins that stay light:

• A splash of 2% milk or a plant milk
• One packet of sweetener
• A pump of sugar-free vanilla, if you want flavor

Starbucks Black Coffee Price and What Changes It

The price of black coffee depends on the size, your store and your region. On the delivery app, every brewed cup starts at $3.15+, which is the smallest size with nothing added. App and in-store prices differ.

A bigger size costs more, and an airport or grocery kiosk often charges more than a cafe. Adding syrup or a milk swap raises the total. The short size is not on every menu board, so ask if you want the smallest cup.

The light roast on the Starbucks menu is the Sunsera Blend, which is sold as the Blonde Roast. Starbucks launched Sunsera on March 4, 2025, and describes it as a Brazil and Colombia blend with bright citrus and toasted almond notes. The company says it has medium acidity and a medium-light body.

It is a smoother, easy-drinking cup that works black, with cream, hot or iced. The menu description calls it a coffee for people who like balanced, flavorful, easy-drinking coffee. It is brewed in cafes as a coffee of the day, and bags are sold at grocery stores. For more on the lighter roast, read about Blonde Roast and Blonde Espresso explained.

Starbucks Veranda Blend: Is It Still Served?

Veranda Blend was the longtime blonde roast, known for a mellow, soft cocoa and lightly toasted nut flavor. In cafes, the blonde brewed coffee on the menu data is now Sunsera. Bags are a different matter: the Starbucks at-home site still lists Veranda Blend ground coffee next to Sunsera, so the blend has not disappeared from retail.

If you want Veranda in a cup, ask your store what it brews. If it is not on, Sunsera is the closest match, since both are blonde and mild.

Plain brewed coffee has about 5 calories in a grande. Caffeine varies a lot more, and published figures differ slightly by source.

Blonde has more caffeine than the dark roast, which surprises many people. The reason is roasting. Longer roasting drives off a small amount of caffeine, so the lighter roast keeps slightly more. The Blonde figures come from the previous Blonde Roast, and Sunsera is the current blonde, so confirm its number in the app.

Caffeine Content Starbucks Pike Place Roast Delivers by Size

A tall Pike Place Roast has about 235 mg, a grande about 310 mg and a venti about 410 mg, according to published guides. That is far more than a latte: a grande Caffè Latte has about 150 mg from two espresso shots.

A grande Caffe Americano sits in between, with more caffeine than a latte and less than the brewed cup. A grande cold brew has about 205 mg. The surprise is that espresso drinks have less caffeine than brewed coffee, because the cup is mostly milk and the shots are small.