This popular Starbucks drink gets its color from ground-up bugs! It is called the strawberries and creme frappuccino and it gets its pretty pink color from something called cochineal extract also known as mushed up bugs.
“All in all, it takes about 70,000 bugs to produce just one pound of cochineal dye.”
This is something that is commonly overlooked due to its name as an attempt to disguise it. One barista took a photo of the cream and uploaded it to a vegetarian website called This Dish is Vegetarian and they revealed that this frapp was not vegetarian at all because of its use of bugs.
As it turns out Starbucks is not the only company that uses these bugs in their dyes. Please watch the video below for more information.
“All food companies would be well advised to color their foods with real food and not either artificial dyes or an ostensibly natural dye like carmine. I bet real strawberries could be used. Why simulate the color of strawberries when you could probably get a pretty good result with strawberries or beet juice or something that won’t concern your customers?”