Starbucks made a lot of changes in 2025. Some were great — but one was terrible.

• Under new CEO Brian Niccol, Starbucks had a sometimes rocky 2025.
• I thought slimming down the menu length and adding afternoon snacks made a lot of sense.
• But forcing baristas to write on the cups? Leave that in 2025.

It's been the first full year of Starbucks' CEO Brian Niccol's "Back to Starbucks" mission. So, how did it go?

Well, let's not beat around the bush: From a shareholder's perspective, pretty meh. By late December, Starbucks' stock had declined by more than 5% over the past year, compared to the broader stock market, which had increased by more than 16%.

But that's not what counts most with me, a consumer of Starbucks coffee (and its free public bathrooms).

Niccol's big vision was a return to Starbucks' glory days as a destination coffee shop where people wanted to sit and stay while sipping a drink — not a drive-thru for sugar syrup slop drinks ordered by phone.

I fully welcome a few of the changes. Others, not so much.

For one thing, he axed 13 unpopular and complicated drinks from the menu. Goodbye to Caramel Ribbon Crunch Crème Frappuccino and farewell to Royal English Breakfast Latte. I never even knew you existed.

Another change I welcomed: a plan to offer more late-afternoon snacks, like the "appertivo" menu in some of the European Starbucks. Hey, I love an afternoon snack! To test out Niccol's new plans, I headed out to a nearby Starbucks in the afternoon and had a very pleasant treat of something savory and something sweet. The newish falafel wrap was a hit, in my mind. I'd look forward to more afternoon-targeted items.

One last change that is a long time coming: finally charging people more for extra syrups and powder add-ons. I don't want my plain coffee subsidizing you sickos out there who ask for it with six scoops of matcha powder or eight pumps of caramel syrup. Niccol seemed to have learned from his time as Chipotle CEO that we should all understand that guac is extra.

Please don't write on my Starbucks cup!

But there was one big change that I think is a stinker: mandating that baristas doodle or write a cutesy message on the cups.

Although some baristas don't mind doing it — or even enjoy it! — I found plenty of Starbucks employees and customers talking online who thought the new policy was onerous and silly.

A Starbucks spokeswoman told me that writing on the cups was part of creating a warm environment: "We believe in the power of genuine human connection — and we know that even the smallest gesture, like a handwritten note on a cup, can spark joy for our customers and partners [employees] alike."

Well, I contend that — especially when stories get busy — no one wants to waste time making smiley faces on cups — and no customers want to wait, either. But more than anything, I find this forced whimsy to be cloyingly saccharine (and I say this as a lifelong Sweet'n Low user).

For 2026? I'd just like to see a return of the triangle-shaped espresso brownies.