Why is sky blue coffee trending on social media?

Starbucks employees have been mixing their own sky blue coffee drinks using blueberry powder, and photos of the results have spread quickly on social platforms. The drinks are not official menu items and customers cannot order them, but the color-changing trend has drawn steady attention from coffee drinkers who follow secret menus.

The powder first appeared in the Matcha Frozen Mountain series, where it was only a garnish and customers reported tasting nothing; all three drinks had a muted market response. Baristas later blended it with colorless ingredients to make a transparent blue drink, and shared images moved through partner networks. Results range from sky blue to purple, and some mixes look like glass cleaner.

Recently, a batch of stunningly beautiful Starbucks "dreamy new drinks" has emerged on social platforms, but they are actually creative beverages mixed by employees themselves using ingredients like blueberry powder. From sky blue to dreamy purple, from soothing spirulina blue to the failed "glass water," this wave of color-mixing has turned the bar into a palette. Although these secret drink methods are not official products and customers theoretically cannot order them, it does not dampen coffee lovers' enthusiasm for creation in the slightest. This article will take you through the origins, ways to play, and failed attempts of this blueberry powder DIY trend.

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"Viral hits" keep emerging on social platforms, and the same is true in the coffee industry, especially among young workers who follow trends and always find new ways to play.

If you are a fan of Starbucks secret menus and usually love searching for all kinds of highly photogenic creative drinks, you have probably seen quite a few dazzling "dreamy new drinks" recently. Never mind how they taste—judging by appearance alone, each cup is more stunning than the last. With employees mixing them by hand, the whole bar seems to turn into a palette, making appearance-focused friends exclaim with delight!

The origin of this trend can be traced back to Starbucks' previously launched Matcha Frozen Mountain series. The R&D team used a blueberry powder to inject a "blue sky" concept into the drinks, but because the blue powder was only a garnish, many customers reported that they could not taste it at all, and the market response to all three new products was also mediocre . Recently, however, after this packet of blueberry powder fell into the hands of employees, it unexpectedly sparked a wave of enthusiasm for experimentation.

During a shift, a Starbucks partner spotted an unused packet of blueberry powder on the shelf and had the idea to "tinker with an employee drink," trying to mix it with other colorless ingredients, eventually creating a sky-blue transparent drink. After the photo was shared on social platforms, it immediately attracted many Starbucks partners to look, and this blue-toned "nameless new drink" quickly spread.

Actually, blueberry powder is not appearing at Starbucks for the first time. This hidden way of drinking the "little blue water" was tried by baristas a few years ago, but using blueberry powder for coloring seemed to ignite partners' desire to create, unintentionally setting off a DIY coloring trend and even unlocking many color combinations never seen on the Starbucks menu. In the words of the workers: ever since blueberry powder came along, Starbucks is full of magical little potions.

Blueberry powder has color-changing properties of its own. It changes color when it meets other colored drinks, and the amount used also directly affects the final hue. Therefore, when mixing it with colorless transparent or colored liquids, the effect is like opening a blind box—you never know until the very end whether it will be a pleasant surprise or a fright.

For example, some people add a small amount of blueberry powder and flavored syrup to colorless transparent coconut water to make an indigo-blue sweet drink; someone's hand slips and too much blueberry powder is added, and the drink instantly turns purple; someone adds the powder to white coconut milk, and the whole cup takes on a soothing spirulina blue; someone squeezes a pump of raspberry syrup at the bottom of the cup, immediately adding an orange-red tone; and some people do it purely for fun, playing with red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple all at once.

Although blueberry powder has strong coloring ability and many variations, it is itself a color that tends to suppress appetite, so failed DIY attempts are naturally unavoidable. Several partners ended up with a cup that looked like "glass water," or rather "toilet cleaner concentrate"; someone made a liquid version of the famous British dish—"Stargazy Pie"; and someone else, because they added black tea, instead mixed up a cup of "stinky water"...

As for how these so-called "secret drink methods" of internal beverages actually taste,恐怕 only the partners who DIY them personally would know.

PS:

Because these "new products" are all mixed by employees themselves, they are not actually real Starbucks launched products, nor are they a hidden menu offered by any store, so theoretically customers cannot order them. ( One partner said : Of course, if you are considering buying mooncakes...)

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

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