Love Starbucks Frappuccino? Thank Kenny G!

If you’re a classic rock fan who starts the day with a Frappuccino, you may owe a surprising debt of gratitude to… Kenny G.

That’s right. Not Ozzy. Not Springsteen. Not the guys from ZZ Top. Smooth-jazz saxophone legend Kenny G says he helped inspire one of Starbucks’ most popular drinks.

Back in the early days of Starbucks, the company was mostly about coffee. No frozen coffee drinks. No whipped cream piled high enough to qualify as mountain terrain. Just coffee.

But Kenny G happened to be an early investor in Starbucks, and he noticed customers flocking to a competitor called Coffee Bean for a sweet frozen drink called a Blended. According to Kenny, people were lined up around the block for them.

So he started calling Starbucks founder Howard Schultz.

“Howard, there’s this thing they do there that’s like a milkshake or whatever,” Kenny recalls telling him.

Kenny says feedback from people like him helped convince Starbucks there was a market for frozen coffee drinks. Eventually, Starbucks launched the Frappuccino, and the rest is caffeinated history.

It’s one of those strange rock-and-roll-adjacent stories. Somewhere out there, a guy wearing a Metallica shirt is sipping a Caramel Frappuccino while listening to AC/DC, completely unaware that a smooth-jazz superstar may have helped put that drink in his hand.

So the next time you order a Frappuccino, remember: your rock-and-roll soul may be getting fueled by a little more smooth-jazz sax than you ever realized.

Doug O’Brien