--- title: Starbucks Coffee Tests Guinness Stout Beer Flavored Dark Barrel Latte description: It's called the Dark Barrel Latte and comes topped with whipped cream and dark caramel sauce canonical: https://time.com/3418688/starbucks-guinness-latte/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-22T17:01:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:22.615Z og:title: Starbucks Is Testing a Drink That Tastes Like Guinness (Without the Alcohol) og:description: It's called the Dark Barrel Latte and comes topped with whipped cream and dark caramel sauce og:url: https://time.com/3418688/starbucks-guinness-latte/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1042e285d67f6db/6986a49ff983e7f53c04fc72/450336224.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Starbucks Coffee og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Starbucks Is Testing a Drink That Tastes Like Guinness (Without the Alcohol) twitter:description: It's called the Dark Barrel Latte and comes topped with whipped cream and dark caramel sauce twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1042e285d67f6db/6986a49ff983e7f53c04fc72/450336224.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Starbucks Is Testing a Drink That Tastes Like Guinness (Without the Alcohol) by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Sep 22, 2014 5:01 PM UTC  Coffee pours from a coffee machine into a cardboard coffee cup inside a Starbucks Corp. coffee shop in London, U.K., on Monday, June 9, 2014\. U.K. services companies' confidence rose to a record this quarter, indicating continued expansion in the largest part of the economy, the Confederation of British Industry said. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images Coffee pours from a coffee machine into a cardboard coffee cup inside a Starbucks Corp. coffee shop in London, U.K., on Monday, June 9, 2014\. U.K. services companies' confidence rose to a record this quarter, indicating continued expansion in the largest part of the economy, the Confederation of British Industry said. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesJason Alden—Bloomberg / Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Sep 22, 2014 5:01 PM UTC If you’re already panicking about what you’re going to drink once Starbucks stops selling its beloved seasonal pumpkin spice latte, don’t worry, because the chain is now testing out a brand new flavor. This one, though, is not meant to evoke the feelings of strolling through a pumpkin patch in a pair of Ugg boots on a crisp autumn Saturday. Not at all. This one is meant to taste like a nice dark Irish stout. The new drink, called the Dark Barrel Latte, is being tested at select locations across Ohio and Florida, Grubstreet[ reports](http://www.grubstreet.com/2014/09/starbucks-dark-barrel-latte.html). It doesn’t contain any alcohol, but it supposedly contains the dark, toasty, malty flavors of Guinness. A BuzzFeed writer who got his hands on one in Columbus [confirmed](http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryankincaid/starbucks-dark-barrel-latte) that it really does taste like stout. Several customers who’ve [tweeted ](https://twitter.com/noelwoodss/status/511890990010216448)about the drink [agree](https://twitter.com/hilibbye/status/512397676244393985) that it [tastes ](https://twitter.com/resesjoy/status/513776163806642178)like Guinness — but the jury’s still out on whether or not that’s actually a good thing. When I asked a colleague who was born and raised in Dublin (Guinness’s birthplace) how he felt about all this, he responded first with [this GIF.](http://i.giphy.com/2WxWfiavndgcM.gif) Then, as he mulled it over a bit more, he added, “Holy hell. Worst.” Then he posed a question: “American Guinness already doesn’t taste like Guinness. So what will this taste like?” Then he barfed all over me and my stupid American ignorance. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3418688/starbucks-guinness-latte/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3418688/starbucks-guinness-latte/"},"headline":"Starbucks Is Testing a Drink That Tastes Like Guinness (Without the Alcohol)","datePublished":"2014-09-22T17:01:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:22.615Z","description":"It's called the Dark Barrel Latte and comes topped with whipped cream and dark caramel sauce","url":"https://time.com/3418688/starbucks-guinness-latte/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Food & Drink","Beer","Starbucks","latte","Coffee","drinks"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1042e285d67f6db/6986a49ff983e7f53c04fc72/450336224.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1042e285d67f6db/6986a49ff983e7f53c04fc72/450336224.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Starbucks Coffee","caption":"Operations Inside A Starbucks Corp. 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