Is Costco’s Kirkland-Brand Coffee Made By Starbucks? (2024)

Costco’s in-house brand Kirkland, which is often produced by well-known companies and can be far fancier than average store brand products. Kirkland coffee is confirmed to be produced by Starbucks, the Seattle-based giant, but since late 2023 or early 2024, the labeling on the medium roast Kirkland House Blend has vanished, suggesting that at least the house blend is now produced by another company. Costco’s website still lists some Starbucks products as available for online ordering, though not with Kirkland branding. Another section of Costco’s site labeled “Starbucks whole bean coffee” lists various other products (like the house blend), but the Kirkland products are not marked with any Starbucks branding, implying that Kirkland coffee may no longer be produced by the company.

As of early 2024, it is not totally clear whether Starbucks is producing Kirkland coffee as it did in the past, since they no longer feature any mention of the Seattle coffee chain. However, it is worth noting that not all Kirkland coffee is (or was) supplied by Starbucks. Both the Kirkland whole-bean espresso blend and its decaf blend are (or were) supplied by Starbucks, but Costco appears to have used another company for its Colombian coffees (including the “Colombian Supremo” variety). California-based Rogers Family Co. has been named as one supplier of this coffee. However, the packaging for the Colombian Supremo doesn’t indicate any other brand aside from Kirkland (including Rogers Family Co.), so this is hard to confirm.

It has also been confirmed that some Kirkland coffee has been supplied by other companies, including Keurig and Green Mountain, who mostly provide Kirkland-branded coffee pods. (Technically, these are the same company, since Green Mountain bought Keurig nearly 20 years ago and nearly a decade ago, Green Mountain was bought up by a large private equity firm.) So, even if Kirkland’s house blend is no longer provided by Starbucks, it’s worth knowing that Starbucks was never the sole supplier for all Kirkland coffees to begin with.

Kirkland packaging tends to be relatively coy about which other brands are involved in producing these products. It is always possible that the Kirkland House Blend is still from Starbucks and that Costco simply eliminated the coffee chain’s branding. There are rumors that Starbucks ended its contract with Costco, and the new packaging for the house blend seems to back this up (although there’s no official confirmation from Costco). Plus, the Kirkland espresso blend, which was formerly supplied by Starbucks, also has new packaging that’s free of any Starbucks logos.

A possible candidate could be Rogers Family Co. (which also operates under the name San Francisco Bay Coffee), since the brand is already reportedly behind Costco’s other Kirkland Signature coffees. But Kirkland’s coffee packaging doesn’t typically flag the original supplier, so beyond the coffee producers that are already known to produce Kirkland coffee (Rogers, Keurig, and Green Mountain), it’s hard to make any other guesses since evidence is minimal.

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