Gloria Jean’s Coffees is a true coffee expert, committed to crafting premium, handcrafted beverages—from every carefully selected bean to your cup. Whether you crave a classic caffé latte, a rich cappuccino, a cold brew or an iced long black, Gloria Jean’s delivers exceptional quality in each sip, alongside a range of hot and iced teas.
Answer: yes, there are drinks here you can order without dairy — but fewer than this page used to claim, and “dairy free” is not the same thing as “vegan”. Read on for what Gloria Jean’s own allergen chart actually says.
First, Which Gloria Jean’s Is This?
This matters, because there are two. The Australian business (gloriajeans.com.au) and the US business (gloriajeans.com) are separate operations with different menus and different published data. Almost everything on this page — flat whites, long blacks, piccolos, babycinos, chillers — is Australian menu vocabulary, so this guide covers Gloria Jean’s Coffees Australia. If you’re in the US, check the US company’s own nutritional PDF instead; its menu and its drink names are not the same.
Gloria Jean’s Australia publishes something genuinely useful: a per-drink allergen chart with a column headed “CAN BE DAIRY FREE w Plant Based Milk & NO topping added”, answered yes or no for every drink. That column is what this page is now built on.
Two warnings that come with it. First, dairy free is not vegan — the chart tracks the major allergens plus that conversion flag, and says nothing about honey, gelatin, carmine or other non-allergen animal derivatives. Second, the chart is dated July 2024 while the menu has moved on, so some charted drinks no longer exist and some current drinks aren’t charted.
Gloria Jean’s also states plainly: “we cannot guarantee our products be completely free from food allergens and potential cross-contamination due to the nature of the preparation and serving areas”, and on the chart itself: “Where a drink/ingredient is marked ‘NO’ in this table, it means the allergen is not present. There may still be traces of an allergen in the drink/ingredient, due to potential cross contamination.” The chart’s figures also assume full cream milk — “allergens may change based on customer milk choice.”
A Little Bit of History
Since 1979, Gloria Jean’s Coffees has been driven by a passion for great coffee.
Gloria Jean Kvetko founded the first business in a little hamlet outside Chicago, Illinois. She was an ambitious young mother who aspired to run a coffee shop where she could combine her love of caffeine with her desire to meet new people.
After a few years, Gloria Jean’s had become one of the world’s better-known coffee chains. The first Gloria Jean’s in Australia debuted in Sydney in 1996. Australia has a fantastic coffee culture; we recognize good coffee when we drink it. Gloria Jean’s continues to grow by sourcing premium beans, training baristas, and serving customers outstanding coffee with a bright smile.
Is Coffee Healthy?
Although initial research on coffee showed that it might cause health concerns, current studies show that drinking coffee offers several health advantages.
Overall, the evidence suggests that coffee is more beneficial than detrimental to health care. Moderate coffee drinking can be accommodated into a healthy diet for most people. Moderate coffee use of approximately 2 to 5 cups per day has been related to a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, liver, and heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, endometrial malignancies, and depression.
According to scientists, coffee drinkers should brew it using a paper filter because unfiltered coffee is linked to an increased risk of premature mortality and can include substances that elevate LDL or bad cholesterol levels. They also warn against using too much cream or sugar.
Vegan Options at Gloria Jean’s
Gloria Jean’s allergen chart has no vegan or vegetarian filter — earlier versions of this page said it did, and that was wrong. What it has is allergen columns and the dairy-free-conversion column. Everything below is keyed to that column, which means each entry says “can be made dairy free with plant-based milk”, not “is certified vegan”.
Hot Drinks You Can Have Made Dairy Free
- Cappuccino — espresso, textured milk and chocolate powder. Charted CAN BE DAIRY FREE: YES with plant-based milk and no topping.
- Cafe Latte — espresso and steamed milk. Charted YES.
- Flat White — espresso and steamed milk, no froth. Charted YES with plant-based milk. Correction: this page used to tell readers to order it “lactose-free” to make it vegan. That is wrong — lactose-free milk is still cow’s milk. Ask for a plant-based milk.
- Long Black / Espresso (Short Black) — the cleanest things on the chart. Long Black is charted with no milk and no allergens at all.
- Piccolo — a ristretto with a little steamed milk. Charted YES.
- Babycino — caffeine-free steamed milk with froth, for small children. Charted YES. The current menu spells it “Babycinno”.
- Hot teas — the chart’s “selection of hot teas” line shows every allergen as NO. Earl Grey, English Breakfast and green tea are on the current menu.
- Matcha Latte — not mentioned on this page before; charted CAN BE DAIRY FREE: YES.
Two hot drinks to strike off. The Caramelatte is charted CAN BE DAIRY FREE: NO — the caramel sauce keeps it dairy even if you swap the milk, which is the classic coffee-shop caramel trap. The name has also gone; the current menu lists a Caramel Latte under Specialty Lattes, and the July 2024 chart doesn’t separately answer for it, so it can’t be confirmed either. Don’t order either one as vegan. The Macchiato is charted YES but no longer appears on the current Australian menu, and neither does the Minicino (caramel, vanilla or strawberry) this page used to recommend.
Cold Drinks
The Fruzies are gone — and were never vegan as this page described them. Every Fruzie entry here was described as being made with yogurt, which is dairy. There is no Fruzie on the current Australian menu at all, and no banana drink of any kind.
What replaced them is better news:
- Fruit Chillers — the current menu runs Lemonade, Mango, Mixed Berry and Strawberry. The chart shows the Fruit Chillers with every allergen NO and CAN BE DAIRY FREE: YES.
- Iced Long Black and Cold Brew (black) — no milk at all per the chart; both on the current menu.
- Cold Brew – White — charted CAN BE DAIRY FREE: YES.
- Iced Teas — Peach, Lemon Lychee, Orange, Strawberry and Raspberry are charted with every allergen NO and dairy-free YES. Peach and Lemon Lychee are on the current menu.
- Over-ice flavoured drinks — Caramel, Coconut and Irish Nut are water-based, charted MILK: NO. Worth noting that this caramel is dairy-free on the chart while the hot Caramelatte is not.
Cold drinks to strike off. The Banana Smoothie this page told readers to order with soy milk is charted CAN BE DAIRY FREE: NO (as Milkshake – Banana), and in the US company’s own data every smoothie flavour is marked Dairy while every chiller is not. Under both companies, “smoothie” means a dairy base. Italian Sodas are the cleanest thing on the whole chart — every allergen NO — but they are no longer on the current Australian menu. And there is no drink called “Signature Iced Coffee” any more; the current cold coffees are Cold Brew, Iced Long Black and Iced Mocha.
Is Gloria Jean’s Coffee Gluten-Free?
The chart shows every coffee classic — cappuccino, latte, flat white, piccolo, macchiato, long black, espresso and filter — as GLUTEN: NO, and the hot teas as free of all listed allergens.
One exception worth knowing: the hot chocolates are charted GLUTEN: YES. If you’re avoiding gluten as well as dairy, they’re out on both counts.
Can You Make Gloria Jean’s Hot Chocolate Vegan?
No — and this page previously said the opposite. It claimed the hot chocolate was “a delightful vegan choice” because it was made with mocha syrup rather than actual chocolate, and that skipping the whipped cream and the dairy milk was enough.
Gloria Jean’s own allergen chart contradicts that. All three hot chocolates — Signature Hot Chocolate, White Chocolate and Creamy Hot Chocolate — are marked MILK: YES and CAN BE DAIRY FREE: NO. Swapping the milk does not fix them. If you want something chocolate-adjacent, that has to be a conversation with the barista about what else is behind the counter, not an instruction from this page.
What Coffee Beans Does Gloria Jean’s Use?
This page used to state that Gloria Jean’s uses Rainforest Alliance Certified 100% roasted arabica beans. That claim isn’t made on Gloria Jean’s Australian nutrition or menu pages, nor in the US company’s nutrition document, so it has been removed rather than repeated. If bean sourcing and certification matter to you, ask the company directly.
Other Popular Cafes With Vegan Options
If Gloria Jean’s choices don’t appear to suit your vegan tastes, there are plenty of additional options. Several cafe restaurants provide vegan options to prevent losing a loyal customer base.
Starbucks Coffee
These fundamental beverages are vegan: make an iced or hot coffee with soy milk and any flavor of sweetener syrup such as caramel, vanilla, or hazelnut, and you’re good to go.
You can also try the following vegan beverages:
- Starbucks Bottled Cold Brew Black or Iced Coffee (sweetened and unsweetened)
- Vita Coco
- Badoit Sparkling Water
- Tazo Bottled Tea
- Noah’s Creative Juices
- Silk Almond Milk
- Silk Soy Milk
Take note, the famous Starbucks Bottled Frappuccino is not vegan.
Rainforest Cafe
Rainforest Cafe is a restaurant franchise located throughout the United States and Canada. The majority of the menu options are salads or burgers. This cafe, however, offers a choice of vegan drinks. Check out their website for a vegan menu to choose from.
Fresh Juice
This restaurant is not a caffeine go-to, but if you want to try a refreshing drink, this is the best vegan option. However, it is still best to ask for answers and help from their store employees to confirm, as preparations may change from location to location.
Here is the list of the fresh juices you can grab at the store:
- The Celery One
- The Detoxifying One
- The Energy One
- The Immunity One
- The Glow One
- The Hardcore One
- The Protection One
- The Wakeup One
Wrapping Up!
With its mantra and tagline, “Purveyors of good coffee,” Gloria Jean’s has attempted to make its aims obvious — and to its credit, it is one of the few coffee chains that publishes a per-drink allergen chart with a dairy-free column you can actually use.
Use it as it’s written, though. Espresso-based coffees, hot and iced teas, the fruit chillers, the over-ice flavoured drinks and the black cold brews are all charted as convertible to dairy free or free of milk to begin with. The Caramelatte and all three hot chocolates are charted as not convertible, whatever milk you ask for. Smoothies are dairy-based. And dairy free still isn’t the same as vegan — the chart says nothing about honey or other non-allergen animal ingredients, and Gloria Jean’s warns it can’t rule out cross-contamination.
If they can’t satisfy your cravings by chance, there are still many vegan cafes to hop in. However, watch your caffeine intake for your health. Enjoy your cup, fellas!
