Vegan Drinks at Biggby Coffee – ah, Biggby Coffee, the place you go to when you fancy a sweet coffee that you just can’t find anywhere else. I mean have you ever had a Blueberry Latte before or how about a Cotton Candy Latte? Or how about a Caramel Espresso? Well, guess what, you can get them all at Biggby Coffee. Biggby may not be the biggest coffee chain in the US – it has, at the time of writing, 243 stores most of which are located in and around Michigan State (Dunkin’ Donuts which I wrote about in my post: Vegan Drinks at Dunkin’ Donut – How To Actually Order Vegan has 12,871 stores in comparison). That said, Biggby Coffee regularly features on the top coffee spots across the USA. That means only one thing, it is time to give Biggby Coffee the Vegan Bev HQ once over and find out exactly what are the Vegan Drinks at Biggby Coffee (it also means I can plan a dedicated trip to Michigan to try them out).
What Drinks Are Vegan At Biggby?
There are vegan drinks available at Biggby Coffee. Dairy milk can be substituted for oat, soy, coconut, and almond. Biggby Coffee also has a vegan mocha sauce as well as vegan syrups that can be added to coffees.
Before I dig into the post, are you craving a vegan Biggby coffee from home? Then make sure to grab some Biggby medium roast ground coffee from Amazon here. For recommendations on which vegan milk or creamer to add to your at-home Biggby coffee, make sure to check out this post I wrote – Is Coffee Vegan?
Vegan Drinks at Biggby Coffee – How I Wrote This Article
The exact ingredients for Biggby Coffee drinks are not available online. However, an allergy table is available on the Biggby website, so I was able to whittle down which Biggby drinks, sauces, and toppings contain dairy.
Is the Coffee at Biggby Vegan?
The coffee itself at Biggby is vegan – all black coffees at Biggby are vegan. In general, most coffee is vegan (although there is an exception). If you would like to read more about it you can here – Is Coffee Vegan – How To Find Out The Truth.
Which Biggby Coffee Sauces are Vegan?
Let’s continue with the sauces available at Biggby. Below is a summary table of all the vegan and non-vegan Biggby Coffee Sauces.
Non-Vegan Biggby Sauces | Vegan Biggby Sauces |
---|---|
Tenacious Tonic Sauce | Mocha Sauce |
Caramel Sauce | Cosmic Chai Sauce *(may contain honey) |
Mellow Sauce | Sugar-Free Mocha Sauce |
White Lightning Sauce | |
Mint Choc Chip Sauce | |
Salted Caramel Sauce |
At this point, I should mention sugar. Whilst there are three dairy-free sauces at Biggby it should be noted that the Mocha and Chai sauces will almost certainly contain sugar. Sugar is a topic that keeps coming up. The issue is that the sugar used could have been processed with bone char which may be an issue for some vegans. Similarly, I couldn’t quite work out if the Chai sauce contains honey. Some Chai sauces/bases contain honey – for example, this is true of the Chai base used in the Chai Tea Latte at Starbucks (see my post How To Actually Order Vegan at Starbucks). In Biggby’s case, this could be a possibility, although it does look like honey is added separately to their Chai Tea Latte. Without being able to see their ingredients I cannot be certain. In which case be sure to clarify before you order.
The most vegan-friendly sauce looks like the sugar-free mocha – and who doesn’t love mocha?
What Brand of Syrups Does Biggby Use?
Biggby Coffee also has a great selection of syrups – predominantly the Monin brand (similar to Peet’s Coffee which I breakdown in my post: Vegan Drinks at Peet’s – How To Know What’s Vegan). All Monin brand syrups are dairy-free. However, most of them do contain sugar which, as mentioned above, can be an issue for some vegans due to the potential of being processed with bone char. I would also avoid the honey syrup as it will contain…well, honey.
Does Biggby Coffee Have Vegan Sugar Free Syrups?
The Monin sugar-free hazelnut, sugar-free vanilla, and sugar-free caramel syrups are all vegan. The bottles even label them as vegan. Win.
Biggby Coffee Vanilla Powder
The Biggby Vanilla Powder contains dairy so make sure to avoid that. Sadly, this is true for most kinds of vanilla powders – they usually contain some form of dairy. Alternatively, you can opt for the vegan sugar-free vanilla syrup instead.
Does Biggby Coffee Have Oat Milk and Almond Milk?
Biggby Coffee offers oat, soy, coconut, and almond instead of dairy milk. This is actually a pretty good selection. Plant-based milk does come at an additional charge like in a lot of places. If you are looking for free vegan milk alternatives, then go visit a Philz (see my post: Vegan Drinks at Philz – How To Actually Order Vegan) or a Panera Bread (see my post: Vegan Drinks at Panera – How to Know What Is Vegan).
Vegan Drinks at Biggby Coffee – Toppings
Below is a table of the vegan and non-vegan toppings you can put on your drinks at Biggby Coffee.
Biggby Dairy Toppings | Biggby Non-Dairy Toppings |
---|---|
Whipped Cream | Sprinkles* (see below and potential to contain Confectioner’s Glaze) |
Sweet Foam Topping | |
Chocolate Chips | |
Toffee Topping |
Biggby Non-Dairy Topping
The sprinkles toppings do not contain dairy. However, sprinkles are not always vegan for several reasons – they often contain Confectioners Glaze (essentially shellac – the resin from lac beetles), they often contain sugar that could have been processed with bone char, and they contain artificial colors which are often routinely tested on animals.
The vegan toppings at Biggby Coffee look limited.
Vegan Sweetener at Biggby
For added sweetness, Biggby Coffee has sugar turbinado natural – this is a raw form of sugar that should not have been processed with bone char. They also have Truvia – Truvia states on their website that Truvia is suitable for vegans.
If you are comfortable with sugar then you can add all the syrups (apart from honey) and mocha sauce to your coffee. If you are not comfortable with sugar then you still have the option of sugar-free mocha sauce, sugar-free caramel syrup, sugar-free hazelnut syrup, and sugar-free vanilla syrup as well as turbinado sugar and Truvia.
Are Biggby Lattes Vegan?
The first thing you need to know is that the Biggby Coffee menu is a beast. At the time of writing, it had around 75 lattes on the menu. 75! I am not going to bore you by going through each latte option (I don’t think that would be helpful to you). Instead, having gone through all the drinks, here is a list of the items you must avoid in your latte:
- White Lightning;
- Mint;
- Caramel;
- Mellow; and/or
- Vanilla Powder.
If you are a fan of vanilla make sure to check if your Latte contains vanilla powder or vanilla syrup. Remember, vanilla powder is not vegan. If you are looking for a recommendation my personal choice would be an oat milk latte with sugar-free hazelnut syrup and sugar-free caramel syrup.
Are Biggby Tea Lattes Vegan?
Biggby Coffee’s tea lattes contain vanilla – it is not clear if this is the non-vegan power form, so if you order a tea latte make sure to ask for sugar-free vanilla syrup instead.
Avoid the chai lattes and chai chargers as they both contain honey. Also, the hot caramel spice contains caramel so is not vegan and the enlightened chai contains white chocolate so is not vegan.
My personal recommendation is the tea latte list would be an oat milk matcha tea latte.
Is Biggby Hot Chocolate Vegan?
The cocoa at Biggby Coffee is dairy-free. I have also already established that the mocha sauces are also dairy-free. The dark hot chocolate ordered with plant-based milk and minus the whipped cream will be dairy-free (although it will contain sugar). The mellow, mint, and caramel hot chocolate varieties will not be vegan as these sauces contain dairy.
Dairy-Free Hot Chocolate at Biggby | Non-Vegan Hot Chocolates at Biggby |
---|---|
Dark Hot Chocolate (with oat, soy, almond, or coconut milk) and without whipped cream | Mellow Hot Chocolate |
Mint Hot Chocolate | |
Caramel Hot Chocolate |
Is Biggby Pumpkin Spice Vegan?
Biggby pumpkin spice is not vegan, nor can it be made vegan as the pumpkin spice contains dairy. This is also the case at most coffee chains such as Starbucks (How To Actually Order Vegan Starbucks Drinks), Dunkin’ (Vegan Drinks at Dunkin’ Donuts – How To Actually Order Vegan), and Coffee Bean (Vegan Drinks at Coffee Bean – How To Order Vegan).
Peet’s (Vegan Drinks at Peet’s How To Know What’s Vegan) does use dairy-free pumpkin spice so Peet’s pumpkin spice can be made vegan if ordered with plant-based milk.
Are Biggby Boost Smoothies Vegan?
There are four Biggby Boost Smoothies on the menu and all four are not vegan. They all contain Chobani Greek Yogurt. The Golden, Strawberry Chai, and Matcha Boost Smoothies also contain milk and in addition, there is honey in the Golden Boost Smoothie.
The easiest smoothie to vegan-ize is the Banana Berry Boost Smoothie – just ask for it without the yogurt (it should be a delicious combination of strawberry, banana, and orange).
Are Biggby Creme Freezes Vegan?
Biggby Coffee Creme Freezes are essentially Biggby’s “Frappuccino” style drink. The Biggby Crème Freezes are not vegan. They all use Biggby’s tenacious tonic as the base which contains dairy. However, you can sub the tenacious tonic base for plant-based milk.
Some of the freezes also contain white lightening, milk, vanilla, choc chips, whipped cream, and half and half and so cannot be made vegan.
The following Biggby Freezes should be able to easily be made vegan just with the substitution of the tenacious tonic base with your choice of plant-based milk:
Biggby Freezes that can be made vegan with substitution of Tenacious Tonic with Plant-Based milk |
---|
Banana Berry Creme Freeze (banana, OJ, and strawberries) |
Banana Creme Freeze (banana and OJ) |
Banana Mango Creme Freeze (banana and mango) |
Banana Nut Creme Freeze (toffee nut and banana) |
Blackberry Banana Creme Freeze (coconut, strawberries, and lemonade) |
Coconut Beach Creme Freeze (coconut, strawberries, and lemonade) |
Intergalactic Creme Freeze (raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, lemonade) |
Orange Creme Freeze (tangerine and OJ) |
Pina Colada Creme Freeze (coconut, banana, and OJ) |
Pink Panther Creme Freeze (blackberry, strawberry, and OJ) |
Pomegranate Creme Freeze (blueberry, pomegranate, and OJ) |
Raspberry Zinger Creme Freeze (raspberry, lemon slice, and lemonade) |
Red Bull Creme Freeze (Red Bull)* |
Strawberry Shortcake Creme Freeze (strawberries and lemonade) |
*Oh and yes, Red Bull is vegan. I broke down energy drinks in my blog Are Energy Drinks Vegan – Complete Guide To Finding Out)
Vegan Drinks at Biggby Coffee – The Final Sip
Wow, Biggby has a BIG menu. Out of all the coffee chains and restaurants I have broken down they have by far the biggest selection. Up until now, I thought Dutch Bros had a lot of drinks (see for yourself and check out my Dutch Bros article Which Dutch Bros Drinks Are Vegan? The Complete Guide). I mean Biggby has over 100 specialty drinks on their menu. If you want more choice in your life then this is the place for you (if you are indecisive then perhaps not…). The great news is that on their website Biggby tout is great at coffee ninja customization. So in any event your barista should have no problem helping you whip up a delicious vegan beverage. Most definitely, a chain to visit if you are vegan.
…now you know.
Beverage makers may change ingredients and/or manufacturing processes. Always double-check ingredients before purchasing any beverages.
Like What You Are Reading
Want to know what is and is not vegan at other coffee chains and restaurants, such as Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Dunkin’ Donuts, Peet’s, Philz’s, or Dutch Bros. If you do, then check out my other posts below:
- How to Actually Order Vegan Starbucks Drinks
- Vegan Drinks at Dunkin’ Donuts – How to Actually Order Vegan
- Which Dutch Bros Drinks Are Vegan? The Complete Guide
- Vegan Drinks at Peet’s – How to Know What’s Vegan
- Vegan Drinks at Philz – How to Actually Order Vegan
- Vegan Drinks at Panera – How to Know What Is Vegan
- Vegan Drinks at Coffee Bean – How to Order Vegan
- Is Starbucks Pumpkin Spiced Latte Vegan? The Amazing Truth