Starbucks has been coming up with bold and new strategies to stay relevant and ahead of the competition. The company has been experimenting with new drinks and flavours across its stores to ensure it can cater to its widely diverse customer base.
In China, Starbucks has launched a pork-flavoured latte for its 2024 Lunar New Year limited collection. The drink is a blend of Dongpo braised pork and coffee, with a slice of dried pork as the topping.
The drink is available for 68 yuan ($9.45), according to the Starbucks delivery app. It was launched just a few days before the Lunar New Year began.
The photos of the drink have gone viral on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, with the drink getting mixed reactions.
"For 67 yuan, I could eat a plate of braised pork then go to Luckin and drink two lattes," one Weibo user wrote.
"I would allow both (pork and coffee) to exist in my stomach at the same time, but not in my mouth at the same time," commented another user. Meanwhile, the beverage is available at Starbucks Reserve stores across the country.
Starbucks has launched a ‘Pork-Flavoured Latte’ in China pic.twitter.com/rbRxbwtQcA
— Pubity (@pubity) February 21, 2024
The Lunar New Year is one of the biggest holidays in China. It is the season where families reunite and spend money on celebrations, entertainment, dining, and travel. All companies try to woo as many customers as possible during the season.
China also happens to be the biggest branded coffee shop market in the world. Starbucks has almost 800 stores in China, per the data available for 2023. But Luckin Coffee remains the country's biggest coffee chain.
Starbucks often launches holiday special drinks according to local tastes and traditions. Last year, it introduced olive oil coffee in Italy and the United States. It has just launched the Iced Strawberry Matcha Tea Latte at all Starbucks stores across the UK as part of its new spring menu, per CNN.
The beverage will be available for Starbucks Rewards customers from February 29 and for other customers from March 7.
Meanwhile, Starbucks mugs have also become a divisive issue on the internet. It began after a TikTok user shared a post highlighting how a woman has been renting out her Stanley cup for selfies.
"I have a pink Stanley cup available for photo shoot" TikTok user @e4stsidem4rios reads out loud in a video posted on the app. "Selfies with it are $5 (£3.95) and I can meet at the mall during the day. Message me to book a time, I'm literally booked up all afternoon on Wednesday".
"Can somebody tell me why someone is selling selfies with their pink Starbucks Stanley cup on Facebook?" she asks. The video went viral on social media soon after being posted. It had garnered more than 1.1 million views as of Sunday.
The "winter pink" Stanley cups have become a rage over the last few months, with more and more people trying to get their hands on them. Celebrities and influencers have all been spotted with these tumblers. The cups were being sold for around $300 (£237.16) on Valentine's Day. Some stores in the US even saw people forming long queues just to get one of them.
The winter pink-coloured tumblers were launched as part of a limited Target and Starbucks collaboration and were available for sale "while supplies last". Viral videos in January showed people trying to grab the cups off a display shelf at a store. The tumblers come in several colours and sizes, but the pink ones were in limited stock, and that is what possibly made them famous among social media users.
In fact, the product has a dedicated hashtag with more than 241 million views of the #stanleyquencher on TikTok.
