All product names, logos, and brands used in this post are property of their respective owners.
I am saddened to report that in late 2020, Starbucks removed my bakery staple, the Cinnamon Morning Bun (or Morning Bun), from the menu. It is no longer available (discontinued) in the US market at Starbucks stores.
In late 2018/early 2019, I had a scare which ended up being a false alarm. At that time, the Morning Bun was only missing from the menu for a short time. I discovered that its brief disappearance was due to a change in the recipe.
One of my drivers for this post is highlighting a use case for the “Wayback Machine” and the value/power of the information it contains. In this case, I am referring to the ability to compare historical nutrition facts, ingredients and other information from a restaurant’s online menu.
In 2019, I used the trusty “Wayback Machine” (archive.org) to prove my hypothesis that the recipe changed. My morning bun at that time was not just a flattened, slightly different tasting “one-off”. The “Wayback Machine” allowed me to review the appearance, ingredients, and nutrition facts of the 2016-2018 morning bun vs. the 2019-2020 one; sure enough, there were differences between the two (and the pre-2016 version as well). I have summarized below if this sort of thing interests you.
| Fact | Pre-2016 | 2016-2018 | 2019-2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serving | 110g | 110g | 94g |
| Calories | 350 | 390 | 420 |
| Total Fat | 15g | 15g | 22g |
| Saturated Fat | 10g | 9g | 13g |
| Trans Fat | 0.5g | 0.5g | 1g |
| Cholesterol | 40mg | 45mg | 160mg |
| Sodium | 380mg | 440mg | 440mg |
| Total Carbohydrate | 54g | 56g | 46g |
| Dietary Fiber | 2g | 2g | 1g |
| Sugars | 21g | 22g | 14g |
| Protein | 7g | 8g | 9g |
| WayBack Link | Link | Link | Link |
And what blog post is complete without images; here are historical pictures of the Starbucks Morning Bun.
Pre 2016
Photo by Starbucks via web.archive.org
2016-2018
Photo by Starbucks via web.archive.org
2019-2020
Photo by Starbucks via web.archive.org