Looking for BIGGBY Coffee vegetarian options? You’re in luck, since almost the entire menu at this Michigan-born coffee chain works for vegetarians without asking for a single substitution. The only sandwich to watch is the Bragel, BIGGBY’s bagel sandwich, which comes both with and without meat. We sorted out what’s what about the vegetarians and vegans can order at BIGGBY, plus a few things worth skipping.
A Quick Look at BIGGBY Coffee
Bob Fish and Mary Roszel opened the first store in 1995. It sat in a former Arby’s building on Grand River Avenue in East Lansing, Michigan, and they named it Beaner’s Coffee. The old name carried a history as a slur, and that pushed the company to rebrand as BIGGBY Coffee between 2007 and 2008. The founding team stayed on, and the new name built off the letter “B” that was already central to the logo.
BIGGBY has stayed privately held and 100 percent franchise-owned ever since, still headquartered in East Lansing. It finished 2025 with about 460 U.S. locations across 13 states after opening 47 new stores that year. Location trackers put the count near 490 by mid-2026, with more than half still in Michigan. Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky make up most of the rest, and a small but growing number of stores have opened in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida as BIGGBY pushes into the Southeast. 2025 also marked the chain’s 30th anniversary and its first major brand refresh in three decades. That same year, USA Today ranked it the No. 2 best coffee chain in the country.
BIGGBY Coffee Vegetarian Options: What to Order
BIGGBY Coffee’s menu is coffee-shop simple, which makes it easy to eat vegetarian here. Nearly every espresso drink, bagel, muffin, and snack skips meat entirely. Here’s how the full lineup breaks down.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Plain or Everything Bagel | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Asiago Bagel | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese baked into the dough) |
| Egg & Cheese Bragel | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (egg, dairy) |
| Bacon, Ham, Sausage, or Turkey Havarti Bragel | ❌ No (meat) | ❌ No |
| Red Eye (brewed coffee plus an espresso shot) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Iced Coffee or Iced Tea (unsweetened) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Vegan Sausage & Chao Cheese Bragel (select locations) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Blueberry or Coffee Cake Muffin | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy, egg) |
| BIGG Cookie (chocolate chip) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy, egg) |
| Glazed Donut Holes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy, egg) |
| Dark Chocolate Sea Salt KIND Bar | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Banana | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Hot or Iced Latte with oat, almond, or coconut milk (no whip) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes* |
| Creme Freeze Smoothie (standard tonic base) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy in the tonic base) |
| Mango Creme Freeze | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (dairy-free base) |
| Chai Latte | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (honey in the chai sauce) |
| Drinks with Caramel Marvel, White Lightning, or Mint Chip sauce | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
*Skip the Caramel, Marshmallow, and White Chocolate sauces to keep a plant-milk latte fully vegan.
Lattes, Cold Brew, and Coffee Drinks
Black coffee, iced coffee, espresso, cold brew, and French roast are vegetarian and vegan as poured, no milk involved. The bigger news is what happens once milk enters the picture. BIGGBY pours soy, almond, coconut, and Sunrise Barista Blend oat milk. Ask for any of these in a hot or iced latte, a cappuccino, a tea latte, or a sweet foam cold brew, and it goes dairy-free with one word to the barista. Seasonal drinks rotate through BIGGBY’s Featured Items section too, so it’s worth asking whether that month’s pick can go vegan the same way. Most of the flavor syrups are vegan, including blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, hazelnut, vanilla, cinnamon, coconut, and gingerbread, plus the sugar-free hazelnut and vanilla and the standard Mocha Mocha sauce.
Skip Caramel Marvel, White Lightning, and Mint Chip if you’re vegan, since all three contain dairy. Cosmic Chai Sauce, used in the chai lattes, has honey in it, so that one’s vegetarian but not vegan. Whipped cream is dairy too, so leave it off any drink you want to keep plant-based.
Bragel Sandwiches and Bakery Food
The Bragel, BIGGBY’s bagel breakfast sandwich, is the one menu item that splits cleanly between vegetarian and not. The Egg & Cheese Bragel has no meat, so it’s vegetarian. Everything else in the lineup, the Bacon, Ham, Sausage, and Turkey Havarti Bragel, is built around meat and isn’t. Some locations also carry a vegan sausage and Chao cheese Bragel. Chao is a widely available vegan cheese brand, and this plant-based version pairs it with a meatless patty, though availability depends on the franchise owner.
Bagels on their own are a safer bet. The Plain and Everything bagels are vegan. The Asiago bagel has cheese baked into the dough, so that one’s vegetarian only. Muffins, the BIGG chocolate chip cookie, and glazed donut holes are all vegetarian, but they’re standard bakery items built with butter and eggs. Treat them as vegetarian rather than vegan. Want a grab-and-go vegan snack instead? A banana or a Dark Chocolate Sea Salt KIND bar is a safe pick at any BIGGBY. Food selection can still vary store to store under the franchise model, so check with your barista before assuming a location carries an item outside the core menu.
Smoothies and Frozen Drinks
Creme Freeze smoothies and frozen lattes are vegetarian, but most run on a dairy-based tonic, so they aren’t vegan by default. The Mango Creme Freeze is the exception. BIGGBY makes it on a dairy-free base, which makes it the go-to frozen option if you’re avoiding dairy. Frozen lattes follow the same rule as hot ones: ask for oat, almond, or coconut milk, and skip the Caramel and White Chocolate flavors.
Tea, Hot Chocolate, and Energy Drinks
Tea lattes and brewed teas, including Rainbow Rooibos, Earl Grey, and Matcha Love, are vegetarian, and they go vegan with a plant-milk swap wherever a recipe calls for milk. A brewed iced tea, hot or unsweetened, is vegan on its own with no swap needed. Hot chocolate comes with dairy by default, but BIGGBY can usually build it with oat, almond, or coconut milk on request. The kids’ menu runs on the same base drinks as the rest of the shop, so the same dairy and honey rules apply.
Want caffeine without dairy or coffee flavor? Try the Energy menu. BIGGBY Blast and a set of Red Bull-based mocktails run on energy drink and juice bases rather than coffee, so this section is vegetarian by default. Ask your barista about specific flavor mix-ins if you’re strict about honey or dairy-derived additives.
What’s Vegan at BIGGBY Coffee?
You can eat and drink vegan at BIGGBY as long as you steer around dairy and honey. The vegan options are real, if you know where to look:
- Plain or Everything bagel
- Vegan sausage and Chao cheese Bragel (select locations)
- Dark Chocolate Sea Salt KIND Bar
- Banana
- Mango Creme Freeze
- Any espresso or brewed coffee drink with oat, almond, soy, or coconut milk, no whip
- Most flavor syrups, including blackberry, blueberry, hazelnut, vanilla, cinnamon, and coconut
Skip the Asiago bagel, the standard Bragels, muffins, cookies, donut holes, the Cosmic Chai Sauce, and the Caramel Marvel, White Lightning, and Mint Chip sauces, since all of them contain dairy, egg, or honey.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
A few things worth knowing before you order:
- BIGGBY makes its thick sauces, like white chocolate, caramel, and marshmallow, in facilities that also process peanuts, even though the sauces themselves don’t contain nuts.
- BIGGBY makes its thin flavor syrups in facilities that process tree nuts, with one exception: the Hazelnut syrup itself contains neither peanut nor tree nut ingredients.
- Almost every beverage skips gluten, with one exception: the Chocolate Chip Cookie Creme Freeze contains real cookie pieces.
- The gluten-free food list covers just two items: bananas and the Dark Chocolate Sea Salt KIND Bar.
- The Cosmic Chai Sauce contains honey, which rules it out for strict vegans even though it’s fine for vegetarians.
- BIGGBY prepares everything in a shared space, so cross-contact is always possible. Tell your barista if your dietary need is medical, not preference.
Tips for Vegetarians at BIGGBY Coffee
- Order your latte or cold brew with oat, almond, coconut, or soy milk if you want to keep it dairy-free.
- Ask for the Egg & Cheese Bragel if you want a hearty vegetarian breakfast sandwich without the meat.
- Skip the Caramel Marvel, White Lightning, and Mint Chip sauces if you’re avoiding dairy in a drink.
- Call ahead if you want the vegan sausage and Chao cheese Bragel, since it’s only stocked at some locations.
- Stick to a plain or everything bagel, not the Asiago, if you want a vegan bread option.
- Ask about a honey-free chai alternative or skip the Cosmic Chai Sauce entirely if you’re strict vegan.
- A banana or a Dark Chocolate Sea Salt KIND bar is a safe grab-and-go vegan snack at any BIGGBY.
Conclusion
BIGGBY Coffee is an easy stop for vegetarians and a workable one for vegans who know where dairy and honey hide. Order your drink with oat, almond, or coconut milk. Reach for the Egg & Cheese Bragel or a plain bagel when you want real food, and treat the bakery case as vegetarian rather than vegan. For more on ordering out without the meat, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants and the full restaurant guides. If you like a coffeehouse run, check what’s vegetarian at Dutch Bros, Caribou Coffee, and Scooter’s Coffee.
