What is the story about coffee fans and the Starbucks poster?

Before China's National Day holiday, Starbucks China posted a brightly colored drink image on Xiaohongshu captioned 'Waiting for good news.' Its orange-and-green color scheme closely resembled the teaser poster for Taylor Swift's new album, so fans expected a collaboration. When stores launched two customized drinks on October 3, staff said no collaboration event existed, disappointing many.

The two sides had briefly interacted before: in 2021 Starbucks North America offered a limited 'Taylor's Latte' tied to the re-recorded album 'Red,' along with a themed electronic gift card and in-store album tracks. Some China stores also played her songs for a limited period. That history helps explain the speculation, and fans remain divided over the misunderstanding.

On the eve of National Day, Starbucks China posted a brightly colored beverage poster on Xiaohongshu with the caption "Waiting for good news," which happened to closely resemble the color scheme of Taylor Swift's new album teaser poster. This coincidence quickly ignited the expectations of Swifties, with many guessing that the two sides would collaborate again. However, after stores launched two customized drinks as scheduled on October 3, staff said there was no collaboration event, leaving fans greatly disappointed. What exactly caused this misunderstanding? And what history of cooperation has there been between Starbucks and Taylor Swift? This article will recount the whole incident and discuss fans' polarized views on the matter.

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Before the National Day holiday arrived, Starbucks China posted a promotional image titled "Waiting for Good News" on the Xiaohongshu platform, showing a Starbucks drink interwoven with orange and green colors. Unexpectedly, as soon as this post appeared, it quickly attracted a large crowd of Taylor Swift (often called "Meimei" by fans) fans to watch and discuss.

Looking back, when this highly popular Western singer-songwriter released the re-recorded version of her album "Red" in 2021, she did indeed have a collaboration with Starbucks. At that time, stores in North America offered a limited-time special drink called "Taylor's Latte," and also launched a Taylor-themed electronic gift card. Customers at participating stores could hear tracks from the album.

Although Starbucks in China did not join this collaboration at the time, some stores also played Taylor Swift's album songs on loop during a limited period, attracting many fans to visit the stores specifically to listen and check in.

Precisely because the two sides had this brief interaction before, when fans discovered that this image posted by Starbucks before the official release of Taylor Swift's new album "THE LIFE OF SHOWGIRL" used exactly the same color scheme as the album teaser poster, they naturally speculated: Does this mean the brand will once again join hands with Taylor?

(The left image is the album teaser poster, and the right image is the image accompanying the Starbucks post.)

As a result, for a period of time, many fans kept a close eye on the brand's movements, and some even privately asked familiar Starbucks partners for inside information about the collaboration. After learning through various channels that Starbucks would launch new products on October 3, many were even more eager and made preparations in advance, saying that as soon as the official collaboration event was announced, they would immediately place orders and snap them up.

But when October 3 arrived, fans rushed excitedly to Starbucks stores, only to find that everything in the stores was as usual. After asking staff, they learned that Starbucks did indeed launch two customized drinks that day—"Berry Flavor Pink Coconut Latte" and "Berry Flavor Orange Frappuccino."

However, staff explained that these two new products were not collaboration items, but rather drinks previously customized by users that had received good reviews and were officially added to the ordering system. As for the widely circulated online claim of a "Starbucks and Taylor Swift collaboration," the staff members interviewed all said they knew nothing about it, stating that the stores had not received any notice of related activities.

Their full expectations instantly fell through, and many fans could hardly hide their disappointment. Some also believed that Starbucks using such a vaguely worded post to guide fans before the new album's release, making people mistakenly think there would be a collaboration between the brand and the star, was inappropriate.

However, some rational netizens pointed out that after Taylor Swift's new album was released, some Starbucks stores changed their background music to her album songs and played them on loop, arguing that Starbucks's caption "Waiting for good news" originally meant exactly what it said literally, and that it was only because fans eager for a collaboration "overinterpreted" it that this misunderstanding arose.

Some fans also said that the brief collaboration between Starbucks and Taylor Swift in 2021 did not include any collaboration merchandise either. In essence, the brand purchased the song copyright so that offline stores could play it on loop and promote the album. Therefore, in the view of some people, being able to hear Taylor Swift's songs played on loop in stores was already satisfying enough, and they admitted they would make special trips to stores to check in and take photos because Starbucks had recently changed its BGM.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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