By Lisa Baertlein
Reuters

Mooo-ve over milk, Starbucks Corp is testing coconut milk in shops in Los Angeles, Cleveland and Oregon as alternatives to traditional whole milk grow most popular.

A Starbucks spokeswoman declined to mention the number of stores were offering coconut milk. She added that your coffee chain is not testing almond milk, a common nondairy option, today as a consequence of “essential safety in our customers with nut allergies.”

Starbucks, containing nearly 11,800 cafes in the nation, regularly tests new releases. Such as, it recently ran an effort of gluten-free items.

In California, Starbucks rival Peet’s Coffee offers lattes as well as other drinks made out of almond milk. The Vegetable & Tea Leaf since March has offered customers within its 179 U.S. company owned stores the choice of choosing almond-coconut milk.

Major coffee chains for years have offered soy milk for a milk alternative. Starbucks began offering soy milk in 1997.

Overall sales of dairy dairy food and nondairy alternatives grew a scant 1.8 percent to $24.5 billion between 2011 and 2013, reported by consumer research firm Mintel.

Within that grouping, the exact opposite milk category was the best growing from 2011 to 2013, with sales rising 33 percent to nearly $2 billion, as outlined by Mintel data.