Can Latin America brew a coffee giant to rival Starbucks?

“Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee.”

It’s quite remarkable how central coffee has become to people the world over. The brown bean beverage is a start to the work day, a cheap hangout for college students and elders alike—it even makes for a pretty nice first date.

Now, while we’re pretty obviously fans of homegrown heroes like Juan Valdez here at Latinometrics, we do recognize who the global champions in coffee are to this day.

Founded in 1971 in Seattle, today Starbucks has over 36K locations spread out across more than 80 countries. The famed green-and-white giant has transformed from a simple coffee bean wholesaler to being the global symbol of perhaps the world’s most marketable (legal) substance.

Line chart comparing Starbucks licensed stores from 2011 to 2024, where Latin America's stores grew from 400 to 1,600.
Starbucks in Latin America: From 400 to 1,600

And in Latin America? Well, there’s been nonstop growth here too, with the region quadrupling its number of Starbucks locations in just over a dozen years. We’ve long since left behind competition in Canada and Turkey to reach an impressive 1.6K locations, spread out throughout all of Latin America’s biggest countries, minus Venezuela.

Notably, Mexico has more Starbucks locations than nearly all other Latin American countries put together, making the coffee hegemon just one more US company absolutely thriving south of the border.

What’s the future for Seattle’s caffeine star? And, given we all can agree the best beans come from Latin American countries like Brazil or Colombia, is there a future in which our region can create a coffee company which outperforms Starbucks?

Chile had a big moment in 2011 and 2012, attracting disproportionate sums of investment.