Vegan Drinks at Wawa

Vegan Drinks at Wawa – it’s time to move on over to the East Coast because today we are going to be talking about all the vegan drinks you can find at Wawa. That’s right Wawa, the convenience store on the East coast that goes up again 7-Eleven and K-Mart. Wawa is one of the biggest convenience stores on the East Coast with over 900 stores. In fact, Wawa is amazing because, if I can go off-topic for a second, they have a completely plant-based and vegan offering as part of their “Wawa Your Way” menus (though the plant-based menu does offer egg whites and cheese still) at all their stores. Sadly, when it comes to drinks it is not so easy to work out. I emailed Wawa several times to try and work out what is exactly vegan and what isn’t in their drinks but kept getting directed to their above-mentioned food menus. That didn’t put me off. It just meant a whole lot more digging and research, because it is time to find out what are the vegan drinks at Wawa?

As a general rule, most of the drinks at Wawa are vegan or can be made vegan with the substitution of dairy milk for soy, almond, or oat milk. The main drinks that cannot be made vegan are chai tea lattes, frozen cream smoothies, freeze smoothies, flurricanes (milkshakes), and hot chocolates.

Vegan Drinks at Wawa – Summary Table

Vegan Wawa Drinks	Wawa Drinks That Can Be Made Vegan	Wawa Drinks That Cannot Be Made Vegan	Non-Vegan Wawa Drink Add-ins and Toppings
Freshly brewed coffee	Lattes	Chai tea lattes	Non-Dairy Creamers
Tea	Cappuccinos	Frozen cream smoothies	Vanilla Dairy Base
Cortadito	Macchiatos	Freeze smoothies	Caramel Sauce
Colado	Fruit smoothies	Flurricanes	Chocolate Chips
Cafecito	Cold brew	Hot chocolates	Egg Nog
Espresso	Iced lemonade		White Chocolate Sauce
Refreshers			Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pieces
Cold Brew			Graham Cracker Crumble
Iced Lemonade			Non-Fat Vanilla Yogurt Smoothie Base
Plant-Based Smoothies			Protein Boost
			Pumpkin Spice Sauce
			Whipped Cream

Want To Make Vegan Wawa Coffee From Home?

Before we dig in, are you originally from the East Coast but now living on the West coast and missing your beloved Wawa vegan java hits? If so, I have some good news! You can buy Wawa coffee on Amazon – you can get Wawa’s regular ground coffee on Amazon here. It is also available in Colombian and hazelnut. Are you more of a fan of coffee made from K-cups? Then Wawa and Amazon have you covered with these k-cups (they can be used on a machine like this from Amazon). Make sure to check out my post on coffee for some vegan milk suggestions to go with your vegan Wawa at homebrew – Is Coffee Vegan?

Vegan Drinks at Wawa – Some Issues

When writing this article, I couldn’t find as much information about the vegan status of Wawa’s drinks online (either through their website or app) as I would have liked. So, I reached out to Wawa’s customer service.

I received an email back telling me that my email had been forwarded to their marketing and quality assurance teams for an answer (yay). I am yet to hear anything further back from them (not so yay). If I do receive an answer, I will update this post.

Vegan Drinks at Wawa – Sugar

Always make sure to double-check with a Wawa team member that your drink is vegan before ordering.

A lot of the sweeter drinks below contain sugar. It is virtually impossible to know if sugar has been processed with bone char – which can make the sugar used not vegan. Some vegans avoid all sugar that isn’t marked as raw, beet or organic. Some vegans are comfortable consuming sugar. If you fall into the former group, avoid the sweet drinks below and stick to the unadulterated drinks.

Vegan Drinks at Wawa – FAQs

Before we dig into the tables of vegan vs non-vegan drinks let’s first get a few of your most niggling questions out of the way.

Are The Chai Tea Lattes at Wawa Vegan?

According to PETA (see below references section) the chai tea lattes at Wawa are not vegan. This is most probably due to honey – this is also the most common reason for chai tea lattes not being vegan. For example, this is the reason the chai tea latte at Starbucks cannot be made vegan – see my How To Actually Order Vegan Starbucks Drinks. Without a confirmation response from Wawa (because the information is not available elsewhere) I do not know for sure this is the reason. I will update this post if I hear back from Wawa.

Does Wawa Have Non-Dairy Milk?

Wawa has three dairy-free kinds of milk available when ordering coffee – almond milk, soy milk, and oat milk. There is no surcharge for substituting dairy milk for almond or soy milk. There is a 25 cents surcharge for substituting dairy milk for oat milk in your drink.

Does Wawa Have Oat Milk?

Oat Milk was introduced at Wawa in 2021. The oat milk does come at a 25-cent surcharge.

Does Wawa Have Vegan Milkshakes?

Wawa does not have vegan milkshakes. Wawa’s milkshakes are called “Flurricanes” and they are thick milkshakes made with dairy ice cream blended with non-vegan ingredients such as cookies and chocolate chips. These milkshakes at Wawa are not vegan.

Are Wawa Smoothies Vegan?

Wawa’s cream smoothies use a vanilla base that contains dairy and so cannot be made vegan. However, a lot of the fruit smoothies are vegan if you hold the whipped cream. Just make sure to avoid the lemon freeze and strawberry freeze as they contain dairy.

When ordering, again, make sure to confirm that your fruit smoothie does not contain any dairy. Wawa has also launched some amazing plant-based smoothies such as frozen banana cold brew and strawberry banana oat.

Are Wawa Hot Chocolates Vegan?

Wawa’s hot chocolates are not vegan, nor can they be made vegan as they have pieces of dairy chocolate melted into them.

Wawa Drinks That Cannot Be Made Vegan

Non-Vegan Wawa Drinks (And Cannot Be Made Vegan)
Chai tea lattes Frozen cream smoothies Freeze smoothies Flurricanes Hot chocolates

Vegan Wawa Drinks – Actual Vegan Drinks at Wawa

Now that I have covered the FAQs, it is time to move on to the good stuff – the vegan drinks available at Wawa. The below table provides a summary for you. I have separated this section into vegan drinks at Wawa without any changes, vegan drinks at Wawa with the use of vegan milk (e.g. oat, etc), and then a separate section looking at add-ins and toppings.

Vegan Wawa Drinks
Freshly Brewed Coffee: – Mild Roasts – French Vanilla, Regular, Decaf & Hazelnut – Medium roast – 100% Colombian – Bold roast – Cuban Roast & Dark Roast
Tea
Cortadito
Colado
Cafecito
Espresso
Refreshers: – Berry Dragon Fruit – Berry Passion Fruit – Mango Dragon Fruit – Mango Passion Fruit – Strawberry Passion Fruit – Strawberry Dragon Fruit
Cold Brew
Iced Lemonade
Plant-Based Smoothies e.g. The frozen banana cold brew and strawberry banana oat

Vegan Wawa Drinks With Vegan Milk

Vegan Wawa Drinks with Vegan Milk
Cappuccinos
Lattes* Make sure to hold the whipped cream if it comes with the latte. The caramel, white chocolate & pumpkin sauces contain dairy, so ask if you can substitute these sauces for the salted caramel syrup in drinks such as the pumpkin, and caramel lattes. The mocha sauce is vegan (it is a similar situation at most coffee shops – all the sauces are not vegan apart from the mocha – Vegan Drinks at Dunkin’ Donuts – How to Actually Order Vegan*).
Macchiato* *Sub the caramel sauce for salted caramel syrup in the caramel macchiato. Double-check that the salted caramel macchiato is made with salted caramel syrup only and no caramel sauce.
Fruit Smoothies* *Hold the whip. Avoid the lemonade freeze and strawberry freezes (both contain dairy).
Café Con Leche
Cold Brew

Non-Vegan Drink Adds-Ins and Toppings

Non-Dairy Creamers

To begin with, I should tell you that the non-dairy creamers at Wawa contain milk. I found this out via the allergen statement on their app so just watch out for that. It is often the case that non-dairy creamers still contain whey – see my post: Is Coffee Vegan? How to Find Out the Truth.

Toppings & Add-Ins Containing Dairy

I also found the below allergy statement on the Wawa app regarding the following toppings and drink add-ins containing milk (and in the case of egg nog – egg). A lot of these sauces and toppings have already been covered above, but just for the sake of clarity here is a table.

Non-Vegan Wawa Drink Add-ins and Toppings
Non-Dairy Creamers
Vanilla Dairy Base*
Caramel Sauce
Chocolate Chips
Egg Nog
Graham Cracker Crumble
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pieces
White Chocolate Sauce
Non-Fat Vanilla Yogurt Smoothie Base*
Protein Boost
Pumpkin Spice Sauce
Whipped Cream

*As we know that the vanilla dairy base and vanilla yogurt smoothies base both contain dairy. To this extent, I would recommend double-checking if any drinks with the word vanilla in the name contain dairy before ordering.

Vegan Wawa Drinks – Soft Drinks

Finally, Wawa obviously also sells a wide selection of well know bottles and cans of sodas, energy drinks, and juices in their refrigerators. If you would like to read more about whether these drinks tend to be vegan, you can check out the following posts:

Is Soda Vegan?

Vegan Drinks at Wawa – The Final Sip

Bom Chicka Wawa – see what I did there. Convenience stores let’s face it they offer great convenience – need a coffee, snack, or beverage quickly while you are on the go then convenience store it is. The problem is, often when you are vegan there isn’t much on offer at Convenience stores – a simple coffee with some non-dairy creamer (that is if the non-dairy creamier doesn’t still contain whey). The great thing about Wawa is that they have embraced offering food and snacks for people who are plant-based and vegan, which is amazing. Can you get vegan drinks at Wawa, yes! A lot of their coffee can be made vegan with the addition of plant-based milk (NOT THE DAIRY-FREE CREAMER), but some of the more indulgent drinks are no-gos. But, hey at least you can have some vegan food with that beverage now.

…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 Dunkin’ Donuts (including all of their Holiday Drinks), Coffee Bean, Dunkin’ Donuts, Peet’s, Philz, or Dutch Bros. If you do, then check out my other posts below:

References (as of 9 January 2022)

PETA article on vegan options at Wawa – Beyond Meat, Veggies, and Coffee: Eating Vegan at Wawa

Wawa website – www.wawa.com

Wawa App

Vegan Drinks At Wawa