Victory! The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Drops Vegan Milk Upcharge After PETA Push

For Immediate Release:
May 21, 2026

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Brew-tiful news for cows, their calves, and kind coffee drinkers: After months of pushing from PETA, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf will end its vegan milk upcharge starting June 3. The move follows emails from more than 20,000 PETA supporters and a meeting with PETA ally Strategic Action for Animals. In thanks, PETA is sending the Los Angeles-based coffee chain delicious cow-shaped vegan chocolates.

“The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s compassionate decision is grounds for celebration, and PETA commends the company for making ethical, animal-friendly vegan milk accessible to everyone,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA encourages coffee lovers everywhere to help spare mother cows and their calves a lifetime of suffering by ditching dairy and choosing kind vegan milk.”

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf joins a rapidly growing list of coffee chains—including Starbucks, Dunkin’, Peet’s Coffee, Scooter’s Coffee, Tim Hortons, Caribou Coffee, and Dutch Bros—that have dropped the unfair upcharge following pressure from PETA. PETA is now calling on Biggby Coffee to follow suit.

Cows have deep maternal instincts and, like all mothers, produce milk only to feed their babies. In the dairy industry, cows are repeatedly forcibly impregnated, and their calves are taken away from them within a day of birth so that the milk meant to nourish them can be stolen and sold to humans. Once their bodies wear out from repeated pregnancies, they’re sent to slaughter. In addition to causing these animals immense suffering, the dairy industry is a major producer of the greenhouse gases fueling the climate catastrophe.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.