This Massive 2023 Costco Coffee Recall Affected Nearly 3 Million Cans Of Cold Brew

Few things will divide the internet faster than an opinion about coffee. A brave Redditor once asked if Costco's Kirkland Signature Colombian Cold Brew cans were worth buying and was told it tasted like "dirty water," or fairly strong "brewed, black coffee" that was perhaps "basically jet fuel." Those firmly in the Team Cold Brew camp were understandably heartbroken when their quick-fix caffeine jolt was at the center of a massive recall storm.

Card-carrying Costco shoppers know their membership comes with many benefits, even if they have to live with much-loved products being inexplicably discontinued. Sometimes it's not the store playing fast and loose with our affections, and circumstances outside its control force Costco to remove products from its shelves. That was exactly the case in 2023, when more than 2,772,850 cans of Costco's Kirkland Signature Colombian Cold Brew were recalled, making it one of the biggest coffee recalls in the U.S..

According to the FDA, the cans were pulled due to the presence of a metal foreign object, while a letter from supplier Berner Food & Beverage warned Costco members that the root of the problem was the possibility of finding a bolt in the can. Kirkland Signature Colombian Cold Brew might not be everyone's cup of joe, but nobody wants to slug a mouthful of metal. Customers across 13 states, including Texas, California, and Maryland, were urged to check their cupboards for cans that had best-by dates up to October 2023, and return them to their local Costco store.

The Colombian Cold Brew recall was one of the bigger ones to hit Costco, but it certainly wasn't the last. In 2025 alone, the store withdrew more than 3,000 pounds of its Kirkland's Ahi Tuna Wasabi Poke due to listeria contamination, while problems with the glass prompted almost one million bottles of Kirkland Signature Prosecco to be yanked from shelves.

Happily for anyone who cracks open a can whenever they want a caffeine boost, Kirkland Signature Colombian Cold Brew coffee is still going strong at Costco and is, going by the lack of reports, bolt-free. However, in 2026, the internet was awash with talk about the company's massively popular Kirkland Signature House Blend coffee. For years, it was an open secret that it was actually supplied by Starbucks, but when its wordmark logo vanished from bags around 2024, customers took notice.

The intrigue deepened as one Redditor was told "by a friend who works for the roaster" that Kansas City's Parisi Coffee had replaced Starbucks, but there's still no concrete confirmation. Some mourned the loss of Starbucks as Costco's House Blend roaster, while others couldn't be more delighted. As we said, nothing divides the internet faster than an opinion about coffee.