Like most office buildings, the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, VA runs on caffeine. But it doesn't run like a typical Starbucks. Baristas undergo background checks, aren't allowed to leave their posts without a CIA escort, and can't write names on cups due to security concerns.

The truth is that caffeine content remains pretty much the same during each stage of the roasting process. The difference between roasts is taste, not the amount of caffeine.

The average Starbucks customer visits the store 6 times per month while a loyal 20% of customers go to the stores 16 times per month.

Starbucks was founded in 1971 by three partners who met while they were students at the University of San Francisco: English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker. Howard Schultz joined Starbucks in 1982 as director of retail operations and marketing.

In 1994, Starbucks bought The Coffee Connection, gaining the rights to use, make, market, and sell the "Frappuccino" beverage. The beverage was introduced under the Starbucks name in 1995. By 2012, Starbucks had annual Frappuccinos sales of over $2 billion.

The first Starbucks location outside North America opened in Tokyo, Japan, in 1996.

After realizing customers wanted a drive-thru concept, the company started testing out the market in 1994, opening its first drive-thrus in Southern California.

Legend has it that 9th-century Ethiopian goat herders noticed the effect caffeine had on their goats, who appeared to "dance" after eating coffee berries. The leaves of the so-called "magical fruit" were boiled in water and the resulting concoction was thought to have medicinal properties.

In 2012, Starbucks opened the world's first ski-in/ski-out coffee shop in Squaw Valley, California at the Gold Coast Resort on the mountain top at 8,000 feet. The store even takes orders from the aerial lift.

In 2012, Starbucks began selling a line of iced Starbucks Refresher beverages that contain an extract from green coffee beans.