What Is in the Starbucks and QQ Collaboration for Coffee Fans?

Starbucks is launching a limited collaboration with QQ, the long-running Chinese chat platform. The campaign introduces two drinks, a Pineapple Lemon Energy Refresher and a Golden Drink Light Gold Energy Refresher, plus ice cups, takeaway bags, and physical merchandise printed with QQ emoji elements. A limited-edition QQ Show also returns, letting users earn virtual props for their avatars.

For veteran netizens, QQ Show carries strong nostalgia from the 2000s, and the news spread quickly on social platforms as a reminder of that era. The tie-in follows a wider pattern of refined coffee brands borrowing digital nostalgia to reach younger buyers. Stores will run the campaign for a limited window, and coffee enthusiast communities are already tracking leaked cup photos and activity details.

Starbucks is about to launch a co-branded collaboration with QQ, introducing two new drinks and a series of merchandise, with the most eye-catching item being the return of limited-edition QQ Show. This news has sparked heated discussions on social platforms, with many netizens sighing over "tears of an era." This collaboration not only brings two new products—"Pineapple Lemon Energy Refresher" and "Golden Drink Light Gold Energy Refresher"—but will also use limited-edition ice cups and takeaway bags printed with QQ emojis in stores, and release various physical merchandise featuring QQ emoji elements. For veteran netizens, the addition of limited-edition QQ Show fills this campaign with retro nostalgia, perhaps awakening long-buried memories of their youth. Front Street Coffee will also continue to follow this collaboration and bring the latest news to coffee enthusiasts.

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Recently, a photo of a new Starbucks ice cup has been circulating on social platforms, with the area around the mermaid logo on the cup covered in various QQ emojis. At first glance, one might think a child had casually decorated a Starbucks cup with stickers, and many netizens find the design somewhat tacky, yet it also exudes an indescribable charm.

However, this ice cup is not a fan-made DIY creation, but a limited-edition item for Starbucks' collaboration next week. As for the partner in this collaboration, it may surprise many Starbucks fans—it is none other than QQ, the chat software most people use daily.

According to activity information leaked from the platform, the Starbucks and QQ collaboration will launch two new drinks: "Pineapple Lemon Energy Refresher" and "Golden Drink Light Gold Energy Refresher." During the campaign, stores will use limited-edition ice cups and takeaway bags printed with QQ emojis, and will also release multiple physical merchandise items incorporating QQ emoji elements.

In addition, Starbucks will jointly launch a limited-edition QQ Show with QQ. Users simply need to complete corresponding tasks according to the activity guidelines to receive limited-edition virtual props to decorate their virtual avatars.

Younger netizens may be somewhat unfamiliar with "QQ Show," but in the hearts of veteran netizens, "QQ Show" carries a youth that can never be reclaimed.

In an era when almost everyone had a QQ account, QQ Show was once an important platform for users to express their individuality. People could mix and match various props for the initial avatar provided by the system, showcasing their uniqueness through cute, fun, fashionable, refined, or even edgy virtual looks.

Some friends, in order to have a cooler virtual image, would work hard on activity tasks to earn limited-edition props, or directly recharge the QQ Show-exclusive Red Diamond, expressing their individuality in various ways.

However, with the popularity of smartphones and changes in netizens' needs for chat tools, the flashy QQ Show gradually faded from users' sight. People increasingly treated QQ as just a daily tool, no longer spending time and energy on managing virtual avatars, and the number of users willing to pay for it continued to decline. Therefore, in 2020, QQ discontinued the Red Diamond recharge function associated with QQ Show.

After QQ's PC version upgrade in November 2021, although QQ Show was not officially taken offline, the feature was collapsed. If users did not specifically click to view it, the chat interface would not display their own or their chat partner's virtual avatars, which made QQ Show even more blurred in people's memories.

So when people learned that the Starbucks and QQ collaboration merchandise actually included a limited-edition QQ Show, most netizens were quite surprised. Many, upon seeing the familiar QQ virtual characters, couldn't help but sigh, "tears of an era."

Although few users carefully dress up their QQ Show nowadays, and the practicality of the limited-edition QQ Show is far less than that of physical merchandise, for veteran netizens, this Starbucks campaign is full of retro vibes. Many said that after the campaign officially launches, they might bring their long-dormant QQ Show back into the spotlight, using it to reminisce about their past youth.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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