What is Starbucks coffee doing with its yearly zongzi release?

Starbucks has sold its Frappuccino Zongzi for thirteen consecutive years, despite near-universal mockery on Chinese social media each Dragon Boat Festival. The 2024 version keeps the format of four flavors and eight pieces for 198 yuan and adds a spicy popping-candy dipping sauce. The product is not built to win taste tests; it exists to keep the brand visible during a major gifting season.

The pattern repeats every year: southern diners who favor savory zongzi and northern diners who favor sweet ones both reject the coffee-flavored version, and employee taste-test videos are equally unenthusiastic. Yet the annual controversy itself generates free media coverage and gift-box sales, which is the point. For a company whose identity is built on coffee culture, the zongzi functions as festival marketing rather than a serious food product.

Every year around the Dragon Boat Festival, Starbucks' Frappuccino Zongzi always becomes a hot topic on social media. This product, which leaves neither the savory-loving southerners nor the sweet-loving northerners able to categorize it, has appeared in Starbucks' Dragon Boat Festival lineup for thirteen consecutive years. Netizen comments have evolved from initial blunt criticism into all kinds of creative mockery. Despite the sharply polarized reputation, Starbucks has never given up on this controversial zongzi. This year's Frappuccino Zongzi comes in four flavors with eight pieces total, still priced at 198 yuan, and adds a new spicy popping-candy dipping sauce. Caught between consumers' complaints and employees' helpless sales pitches, what exactly is the business logic behind this product? Is it a clever gift-bag marketing strategy, or a commitment to brand exposure during the festival? This article will take you through it.

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Every year around the Dragon Boat Festival, Starbucks' zongzi inevitably gets a collective round of mockery from netizens. As soon as the Frappuccino Zongzi appears, southern diners who prefer savory flavors and northern diners who prefer sweet flavors are both left speechless, truly unsure which side to place it on...

Thanks to Starbucks' persistence, the Frappuccino Zongzi has been sold for 13 years through rain or shine. Netizen reviews have also evolved from the blunt "tastes bad" to "If you have zongzi you can't finish, you can give them to me, I'm the world's biggest zongzi lover (except Frappuccino Zongzi, thanks)."

Why does Starbucks insist on selling such an hard-to-judge Frappuccino Zongzi? Who exactly is its target audience? These have always been the two great unsolved mysteries surrounding the Frappuccino Zongzi...

This year's Frappuccino Zongzi also "introduces something new," with four flavors, eight pieces total, still priced at 198, plus a new spicy popping-candy dip... Just hearing about it sounds a bit bizarre—truly worthy of being the "evil legend" of the zongzi world.

On social platforms, even though netizens have mixed opinions about the Frappuccino Zongzi, most still think it "tastes really bad"...

Even their own employees can't help but complain: "Frappuccino Zongzi taste test, this is hard to judge, I can only say, every trade has its own mountain, good luck to it!"

Some netizens also joke: "The consequence of not studying hard—the company you join in the future will hand out Frappuccino Zongzi at Dragon Boat Festival..."

Amid such an overwhelming trend, a small number of netizens still find the Frappuccino Zongzi quite tasty: "Bought it for the first time today, originally wanted to see how bad it tastes, but it's actually so good, isn't this just a chewy little dessert," "Super delicious!!!!", "That salted egg yolk one is insanely good"...

As the saying goes, every flower has its admirer, and radishes and greens each have their fans.

Regarding the Frappuccino Zongzi, not only do consumers "lodge complaints," but staff can hardly handle it either. Over the years you've probably heard plenty about Starbucks employees "selling zongzi at a loss"—do you think the staff sell Frappuccino Zongzi so diligently because of commissions or bonuses? No, they're just trying to complete the tasks assigned from above. Some online even jokingly call this Starbucks' "salary recovery plan"—to meet this quota, they won't even spare the study partners!!

Every year at this time, Starbucks employees frantically max out their "favor cards," promoting in WeChat Moments, contacting familiar customers... or asking every customer who walks in: "The Frappuccino Zongzi is out, would you like a box?"

To sell the Frappuccino Zongzi, they'll stop at nothing. Some will spend their own money to give customers free coffee, merchandise, coupons, etc. It's said that once a customer bought the Frappuccino Zongzi, and the employee excitedly made her a Starbucks version of "Grape Mousse." Some employees will bring out more pastries for regular customers to taste, treating them for two weeks straight, moving them with sincerity—over time the regulars feel embarrassed and end up buying.

Many people try it out of curiosity about its taste, but most give up on repurchasing. So in recent years, Starbucks employees have also eased up on pitching the zongzi, instead focusing on the free bag: "Starbucks' bag this year is large-capacity, students and office workers can all go for it... (and it comes with 8 zongzi)."

You have to admit this trick works—many people really do come for the bag. Plus, if the employee has drawing and rope-braiding skills and can DIY for customers, the order rate will visibly skyrocket!

For Starbucks, compared to the Frappuccino Zongzi's new flavors and new ways to eat it, the intent of the holiday promotion is clearly no longer about the zongzi, yet it draws attention every year—presumably because gift-bag marketing better "targets" young people's preferences!

The reason the Frappuccino Zongzi is so hard to judge yet still hasn't been pulled from shelves may be because of the gift bag's "support." To sell the Frappuccino Zongzi, Starbucks works hard year after year, and pushes its employees to work hard too—that persistent drive is as moving as the "bad-tasting" zongzi year after year.

This Dragon Boat Festival, did you eat Frappuccino Zongzi?!

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.