With veganism on the rise, a lot of companies jump in and try to make vegan products and sell these products to vegans. This is also what famous coffee company Starbucks does with offering plant based milks to their customers.

One of my most favourite drinks at Starbucks is their (soy) Chai Tea Latte.  Not liking coffee, the Chai Tea Latte was spicy and sweet and made my day complete! Sadly, last year, what was promoted as a vegan option turned out to not be suitable for vegans at all. The Chai Tea Latte was said to be vegan in multiple locations in the Netherlands if mixed with plant milks, but in the ingredient list you can see that Starbucks adds a little bit of honey to the mix. You can understand my disappointment because honey is not at all necessary as a sweetener! Think of Agave syrup, Maple syrup, Date syrup or Brown rice syrup! 

What is wrong with honey? 
Now you might think what is wrong with honey, you don't hurt the bees in the process right? Well there is actually a lot of animal (insect) cruelty and environmental effects involved with the honey industry. Here is a short summary:

• Honey is the food for the bees which they need to stay healthy and to survive, especially in winter times. The sugar water they get from bee keepers instead of their own honey does not have the important nutrients bees need. 
• Making honey is hard work for the bees. To make one gram of honey the bee has to fly out over 200 times! 
• To create a bee hive beekeepers have to get a bee queen pregnant by artificial insemination and squeezing seed out of male bees
• The queen bee gets branded so that she can be recognised and got her wings clipped so she can't escape or start a new hive somewhere else.
• Bee kolonies are territorial. Therefor the bee colonies who are kept by beekeepers could drive away other competing nectar-foraging insects, including other bees. 
• Some beekeepers kill off their hive every autumn so that they can start with a new and fresh hive in the spring.

If you want to know more, you can read these articles: https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/honey-industry and https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/19/why-dont-vegans-eat-honey-google-questions

Help us get this wonderful drink bee cruelty free and vegan friendly! Help us be heard by Starbucks.