Starbucks acquired The Coffee Connection in 1994.
The Coffee Connection was a Boston-based coffee company associated with the Frappuccino beverage. Starbucks acquired the business and obtained rights connected with the Frappuccino name and recipe, helping turn the blended coffee drink into a major Starbucks product.
Starbucks later developed and widely marketed the beverage in its own stores. The Frappuccino became one of the company’s best-known cold drinks and expanded into bottled products and numerous flavor variations.
The acquisition date is sometimes confused with the Frappuccino’s broader national rollout or with the launch of bottled Frappuccino beverages. Those were later stages in the product’s history; the acquisition occurred in 1994.