Starbucks competitor

Crossword Answer — September 28, 2025

Answer

NYT Crossword

Sunday, September 28, 2025

By Rich Katz

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Or reveal one clue at a time with the Hint and Answer buttons below.

NYT Crossword Clues

Across

  1. 1Caveat ___ ("Buyer beware")
  2. 7Spice that's characteristic of Hungarian cooking
  3. 14Marvel Comics mutant who can freeze his own body
  4. 20Arizona county or Indigenous people
  5. 21Tries some water, say
  6. 22Like a win-win situation
  7. 23___ law, concept in computing technology
  8. 24Alternative to a nanny
  9. 25Fire starters
  10. 26Contents of a flagon
  11. 27Ole Miss athletes, to fans
  12. 29X
  13. 30___ Scott, who the Supreme Court said was not free to sue for his freedom
  14. 32Org. not getting many happy returns?
  15. 33Remove surgically, as tissue
  16. 35"They tell me ..."
  17. 37Beethoven symphony originally intended to honor Napoleon
  18. 39Class that might cause some high schoolers to blush
  19. 40Sprawling Indian metropolis
  20. 41Like some bridges
  21. 42"Let me check on that"
  22. 44Expiates, with "for"
  23. 46Man's name that's 49-Across plus a letter
  24. 49Woman's name that's the first three letters of 46-Across
  25. 50Rap battle participants
  26. 53Tampa Bay athlete, in brief
  27. 54Twists off course, as a ship
  28. 58Witch
  29. 59Exploited
  30. 60"Weekend Update" co-host Michael
  31. 61All over again
  32. 63___Guessr, hit online game whose players deduce locations from Google Street View images
  33. 64Where a hurricane forms
  34. 66Wish someone "Happy Birthday," perhaps
  35. 69At dawn, say
  36. 71Mammal with long whiskers
  37. 73Extra
  38. 74They stand for art
  39. 75Called
  40. 77___ Day, Billie Holiday's portrayer in "The United States vs. Billie Holiday"
  41. 78Celebrity chef Ina
  42. 79Demanding entertainer
  43. 80X
  44. 82He was né Clay
  45. 83Watchdog's warning
  46. 84Words of understanding
  47. 86Outback baby
  48. 87Familiar initialism coined by a U.S. Air Force captain
  49. 88Do-over at Wimbledon
  50. 89Kind of sauce at a sushi bar
  51. 90Sewer in American history
  52. 91"Weekend Update" show, for short
  53. 92Zipped
  54. 93Like some alcohol ... or places that prohibit alcohol
  55. 94Not present and not excused, for short
  56. 96Foreign policy grp.
  57. 97Brezhnev of the Soviet Union
  58. 99Cherokee and Cheyenne
  59. 101Relationship featuring casual intimacy ... or a hint to six pairs of intersecting answers in this puzzle
  60. 108Starbucks competitor
  61. 109Spot for an ornament
  62. 110Giants in California and New York
  63. 112"Beat it!"
  64. 115Actor Wilson of "The Office"
  65. 116Rye, e.g.
  66. 118"Wouldn't miss it for the world!"
  67. 119Like slow filers and fast drivers, at times
  68. 120Furniture retailer owned by Williams-Sonoma
  69. 121Lives (in)
  70. 122Iditarod transports
  71. 123Involves

Down

  1. 1Title heroine described as "handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition"
  2. 2Dough
  3. 3Fly-catching bird with a name derived from Greek
  4. 4Driveway goo
  5. 5As a whole
  6. 6Moves elsewhere
  7. 7Tenured profs, often
  8. 8Small battery ... or an org. that might help with a battery
  9. 9It's all in your head
  10. 10Mother of Joseph and Benjamin, in the Bible
  11. 11Book after Song of Solomon
  12. 12French cocktail made with crème de cassis
  13. 13Mirrored
  14. 14Reasoned conclusion
  15. 15Brewski
  16. 16Bulldog fan in Connecticut
  17. 17Santa ___
  18. 18Stellar
  19. 19Van ___ Avenue, thoroughfare in San Francisco
  20. 28Minds one's P's and Q's
  21. 31Contribute (to), as one's reputation
  22. 34Been asleep, say
  23. 35Texter's "Beats me"
  24. 36Small inlet
  25. 38Li'l
  26. 43One-named singer born in Nigeria
  27. 45Skier's conveyance
  28. 46Online site for D.I.Y.ers
  29. 47Time out, perhaps
  30. 48Info commonly shown on a board game box
  31. 50Clown around with food?
  32. 51City SE of Phoenix
  33. 52Purpose of some cameras
  34. 55Reaches a shared opinion about
  35. 56Holistic contentment
  36. 57Some beans or sauces
  37. 59"E pluribus ___"
  38. 62Sport
  39. 65Matrix
  40. 67Sun bloc?
  41. 68Pretty ___ picture
  42. 70Moving around
  43. 72Attack
  44. 74You can put a ring on it
  45. 76Back
  46. 78Came back, as hair
  47. 79Music's Fatboy Slim and David Guetta, informally
  48. 81Error message on a Blu-ray device
  49. 83Targeted (to)
  50. 85Key for a quick exit
  51. 92Boils with rage
  52. 95Liberal-leaning
  53. 97Chinese "nut" that's really a fruit
  54. 98Makes small in comparison
  55. 99Government debt obligations, familiarly
  56. 10040 winks
  57. 101___ fatale
  58. 102Gets 40 winks
  59. 103Letter-shaped train track piece
  60. 104"To ___ own self be true"
  61. 105Sharpened
  62. 106George of "Star Trek"
  63. 107Bad thing to discover in the pantry
  64. 108AA or JJ, e.g.
  65. 111Jazz singer Sylvia ___
  66. 113Come to
  67. 114"For sure"
  68. 116Org. that merged with the U.F.C. in 2023
  69. 117Kind of party

Crossword clues, hints, and answers

Across

  1. 1. Caveat ___ ("Buyer beware") — Answer: EMPTOR
  2. 7. Spice that's characteristic of Hungarian cooking — Answer: PAPRIKA
  3. 14. Marvel Comics mutant who can freeze his own body — Answer: ICEMAN
  4. 20. Arizona county or Indigenous people — Answer: MOHAVE
  5. 21. Tries some water, say — Answer: HASASIP
  6. 22. Like a win-win situation — Answer: NOLOSE
  7. 23. ___ law, concept in computing technology — Answer: MOORES
  8. 24. Alternative to a nanny — Answer: DAYCARE
  9. 25. Fire starters — Answer: FLINTS
  10. 26. Contents of a flagon — Answer: ALE
  11. 27. Ole Miss athletes, to fans — Answer: REBS
  12. 29. X — Answer: CHI
  13. 30. ___ Scott, who the Supreme Court said was not free to sue for his freedom — Answer: DRED
  14. 32. Org. not getting many happy returns? — Answer: IRS
  15. 33. Remove surgically, as tissue — Answer: ABLATE
  16. 35. "They tell me ..." — Answer: IHEAR
  17. 37. Beethoven symphony originally intended to honor Napoleon — Answer: EROICA
  18. 39. Class that might cause some high schoolers to blush — Answer: HEALTH
  19. 40. Sprawling Indian metropolis — Answer: DELHI
  20. 41. Like some bridges — Answer: DENTAL
  21. 42. "Let me check on that" — Answer: ILLASK
  22. 44. Expiates, with "for" — Answer: ATONES
  23. 46. Man's name that's 49-Across plus a letter — Answer: EVAN
  24. 49. Woman's name that's the first three letters of 46-Across — Answer: EVA
  25. 50. Rap battle participants — Answer: MCS. Hint: These lyrical warriors often take the stage to showcase their rhymes! 🎤
  26. 53. Tampa Bay athlete, in brief — Answer: BUC
  27. 54. Twists off course, as a ship — Answer: YAWS
  28. 58. Witch — Answer: HAG
  29. 59. Exploited — Answer: USED
  30. 60. "Weekend Update" co-host Michael — Answer: CHE
  31. 61. All over again — Answer: ANEW. Hint: Think about how you might restart something fresh! 🔄
  32. 63. ___Guessr, hit online game whose players deduce locations from Google Street View images — Answer: GEO
  33. 64. Where a hurricane forms — Answer: OCEAN
  34. 66. Wish someone "Happy Birthday," perhaps — Answer: SENDACARD
  35. 69. At dawn, say — Answer: EARLY
  36. 71. Mammal with long whiskers — Answer: WALRUS
  37. 73. Extra — Answer: BONUS
  38. 74. They stand for art — Answer: EASELS
  39. 75. Called — Answer: TERMED
  40. 77. ___ Day, Billie Holiday's portrayer in "The United States vs. Billie Holiday" — Answer: ANDRA
  41. 78. Celebrity chef Ina — Answer: GARTEN
  42. 79. Demanding entertainer — Answer: DIVA
  43. 80. X — Answer: TEN
  44. 82. He was né Clay — Answer: ALI
  45. 83. Watchdog's warning — Answer: GRR
  46. 84. Words of understanding — Answer: ISEE
  47. 86. Outback baby — Answer: JOEY
  48. 87. Familiar initialism coined by a U.S. Air Force captain — Answer: UFO
  49. 88. Do-over at Wimbledon — Answer: LET
  50. 89. Kind of sauce at a sushi bar — Answer: EEL
  51. 90. Sewer in American history — Answer: ROSS
  52. 91. "Weekend Update" show, for short — Answer: SNL
  53. 92. Zipped — Answer: SPED
  54. 93. Like some alcohol ... or places that prohibit alcohol — Answer: DRY
  55. 94. Not present and not excused, for short — Answer: AWOL
  56. 96. Foreign policy grp. — Answer: NSC
  57. 97. Brezhnev of the Soviet Union — Answer: LEONID
  58. 99. Cherokee and Cheyenne — Answer: TRIBES
  59. 101. Relationship featuring casual intimacy ... or a hint to six pairs of intersecting answers in this puzzle — Answer: FRIENDSWITHBENEFITS
  60. 108. Starbucks competitor — Answer: PEETS
  61. 109. Spot for an ornament — Answer: CARHOOD
  62. 110. Giants in California and New York — Answer: TEAMS
  63. 112. "Beat it!" — Answer: AMSCRAY
  64. 115. Actor Wilson of "The Office" — Answer: RAINN
  65. 116. Rye, e.g. — Answer: WHISKEY
  66. 118. "Wouldn't miss it for the world!" — Answer: IMTHERE
  67. 119. Like slow filers and fast drivers, at times — Answer: FINED
  68. 120. Furniture retailer owned by Williams-Sonoma — Answer: WESTELM
  69. 121. Lives (in) — Answer: RESIDES
  70. 122. Iditarod transports — Answer: SLEDS
  71. 123. Involves — Answer: ENTAILS

Down

  1. 1. Title heroine described as "handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition" — Answer: EMMA
  2. 2. Dough — Answer: MOOLAH
  3. 3. Fly-catching bird with a name derived from Greek — Answer: PHOEBE
  4. 4. Driveway goo — Answer: TAR
  5. 5. As a whole — Answer: OVERALL
  6. 6. Moves elsewhere — Answer: RESETTLES
  7. 7. Tenured profs, often — Answer: PHDS
  8. 8. Small battery ... or an org. that might help with a battery — Answer: AAA
  9. 9. It's all in your head — Answer: PSYCHE
  10. 10. Mother of Joseph and Benjamin, in the Bible — Answer: RACHEL
  11. 11. Book after Song of Solomon — Answer: ISAIAH
  12. 12. French cocktail made with crème de cassis — Answer: KIR
  13. 13. Mirrored — Answer: APED
  14. 14. Reasoned conclusion — Answer: INFERENCE
  15. 15. Brewski — Answer: COLDONE
  16. 16. Bulldog fan in Connecticut — Answer: ELI
  17. 17. Santa ___ — Answer: MONICA
  18. 18. Stellar — Answer: ASTRAL
  19. 19. Van ___ Avenue, thoroughfare in San Francisco — Answer: NESS
  20. 28. Minds one's P's and Q's — Answer: BEHAVES
  21. 31. Contribute (to), as one's reputation — Answer: REDOUND
  22. 34. Been asleep, say — Answer: LAIN
  23. 35. Texter's "Beats me" — Answer: IDK
  24. 36. Small inlet — Answer: RIA
  25. 38. Li'l — Answer: ITSY
  26. 43. One-named singer born in Nigeria — Answer: SADE
  27. 45. Skier's conveyance — Answer: TBAR
  28. 46. Online site for D.I.Y.ers — Answer: EHOW
  29. 47. Time out, perhaps — Answer: VACATION
  30. 48. Info commonly shown on a board game box — Answer: AGELEVEL
  31. 50. Clown around with food? — Answer: MCDONALD
  32. 51. City SE of Phoenix — Answer: CHANDLER
  33. 52. Purpose of some cameras — Answer: SECURITY
  34. 55. Reaches a shared opinion about — Answer: AGREESON
  35. 56. Holistic contentment — Answer: WELLNESS
  36. 57. Some beans or sauces — Answer: SOYS
  37. 59. "E pluribus ___" — Answer: UNUM
  38. 62. Sport — Answer: WEAR
  39. 65. Matrix — Answer: ARRAY
  40. 67. Sun bloc? — Answer: NBA
  41. 68. Pretty ___ picture — Answer: ASA
  42. 70. Moving around — Answer: ASTIR
  43. 72. Attack — Answer: SETUPON
  44. 74. You can put a ring on it — Answer: EARLOBE
  45. 76. Back — Answer: DEFEND
  46. 78. Came back, as hair — Answer: GREWIN
  47. 79. Music's Fatboy Slim and David Guetta, informally — Answer: DJS
  48. 81. Error message on a Blu-ray device — Answer: NODISC
  49. 83. Targeted (to) — Answer: GEARED
  50. 85. Key for a quick exit — Answer: ESC
  51. 92. Boils with rage — Answer: SEESRED
  52. 95. Liberal-leaning — Answer: LEFTIST
  53. 97. Chinese "nut" that's really a fruit — Answer: LITCHI
  54. 98. Makes small in comparison — Answer: DWARFS
  55. 99. Government debt obligations, familiarly — Answer: TBONDS
  56. 100. 40 winks — Answer: SIESTA
  57. 101. ___ fatale — Answer: FEMME
  58. 102. Gets 40 winks — Answer: RESTS
  59. 103. Letter-shaped train track piece — Answer: IRAIL
  60. 104. "To ___ own self be true" — Answer: THINE
  61. 105. Sharpened — Answer: HONED
  62. 106. George of "Star Trek" — Answer: TAKEI
  63. 107. Bad thing to discover in the pantry — Answer: SMELL
  64. 108. AA or JJ, e.g. — Answer: PAIR
  65. 111. Jazz singer Sylvia ___ — Answer: SYMS
  66. 113. Come to — Answer: ARE
  67. 114. "For sure" — Answer: YES
  68. 116. Org. that merged with the U.F.C. in 2023 — Answer: WWE
  69. 117. Kind of party — Answer: HEN

The answer to “Starbucks competitor” in the New York Times crossword is PEETS — a 5-letter word. This clue ran in the New York Times crossword on September 28, 2025, a Sunday puzzle, at 108-Across. If it's the entry standing between you and a clean grid, that's the word you need — and below you'll find why it fits, plus links to the day's other clues if more than one square is giving you trouble.

“Starbucks competitor” answer

PEETS (5 letters)

Reveal the solution one letter at a time with the tiles above if you'd rather nudge yourself toward it than see the whole word at once. Just want it outright? The answer is PEETS.

Why the answer is PEETS

PEETS is the 5-letter solution that fits "Starbucks competitor" in the NYT Crossword crossword on September 28, 2025 (108-Across). Use the letter tiles above if you'd rather reveal it one letter at a time.

When else has “Starbucks competitor” appeared?

New York Times reuses clues across dates, sometimes with a different answer depending on the grid. Here's where this exact clue has shown up before, and what the answer was each time — handy if you landed here from a puzzle on another date.

September 28, 2025 (this puzzle) → PEETS. We haven't indexed an earlier appearance of this exact clue yet.

More clues from the NYT Crossword crossword on September 28, 2025

Stuck elsewhere in the grid? Here are some of the crossing and nearby clues from the same puzzle — tap any for its answer and explanation.

Want every clue in one place? The full New York Times answer list for September 28, 2025 is on that day's grid page, and today's live NYT Crossword answers are always one tap from the today page.

About the NYT Crossword

The New York Times crossword, edited by Will Shortz, is the most famous daily puzzle in the United States. It runs a 15×15 grid Monday through Saturday and a larger 21×21 grid on Sunday, and its difficulty deliberately ramps through the week: Monday is the most approachable, Saturday the toughest, with Thursday often reserved for a trick or twist like rebus squares. This page covers a Sunday puzzle. A straight-definition entry is the kind of solid mid-grid answer that anchors the trickier crossings around it. Because the NYT reuses short, crossing-friendly words regularly, seeing them once makes them easier to spot next time.

Frequently asked questions

What is the answer to “Starbucks competitor”?

The answer is PEETS, a 5-letter word. It appeared in the New York Times crossword on September 28, 2025.

How many letters is the answer to “Starbucks competitor”?

5 letters: PEETS.

Where did this clue appear?

In the New York Times crossword on September 28, 2025 (a Sunday puzzle), at 108-Across.

Can “Starbucks competitor” have a different answer?

Yes — New York Times sometimes reuses a clue with a different solution to fit the grid. The answers we've recorded for each date it appeared are listed above when available.

Where can I find the rest of this day's NYT Crossword answers?

The full grid for September 28, 2025 is on the NYT Crossword answers page, with every clue and answer from that puzzle.

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