According to reporters who were present, the president ducked out of the White House with his Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, after making remarks at an event on student loan debt earlier this afternoon.
'The bear is loose,' president Obama told reporters as he walked out of the building.
Obama walked from the White House to a Starbucks one block over, where he ordered a Venti tea and spent eight minutes or signing autographs for Starbucks customers.
On his way back, the president stopped to talk to a hotdog vendor and a group of construction workers.
The president also instructed staff to keep press at bay. 'Let's test your wrangling skills,' he said, according to the White House pool report.
Today's outing was the third time in the last month that the president has stepped out of the White House to take an unannounced stroll to a nearby destination, leading observers to believe that after spending the better part of the last five and a half years cooped up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the president is going stir crazy.
Two and a half weeks ago the president decided to take an impromptu walk down the National Mall to and from the Department of Interior. A week before that, he and Vice President Joe Biden stopped by Shake Shack to have lunch with four construction workers.
The president did not say why he visited Starbucks today, but it could be because the company's CEO has publicly backed Obama's efforts to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.