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Why Starbucks is so 'red-in-the-face' today

Starbucks is bringing back red cups. In fact, this year the chain introduced not just an ornate red holiday cup, but 13 different ornate red holiday cups.

November 10, 2016 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Okay, I stopped counting at 12. But there were pages and pages of media all over the world covering this story, so it must be important right? Here it is: Starbucks is bringing back red cups.

That's right. The typically mostly green cups of the dearly loved coffee filling station for people around the world, are changing color in honor of the season. And if there's one mistake the brand is not going to make this year, it's treating this cup and the holiday it pays tribute to as anything less than the monumental earth-changing news that it is. 

As we all probably know, that's what they did last year when they had the audacity to put their brand's liquid enlivening agents in a very plain, non-descript, non-in-your-face-this-is-Christmas-type red cup, during the holidays. That created not only calls that the brand was maybe "anti-Christmas," but perhaps even a little "anti-Christ." Plus, the whole ugly affair triggered nearly a one percent drop in stock value and that is just plain ol' un-American. 

But, not this year, by golly. In fact, this year the chain introduced not just an ornate red holiday cup, but 13 different ornate red holiday cups. The 13 designs are, according to Fortune, the work of 13 women from the six countries of the U.S, Indonesia, Dubai, Canada, Russia and South Korea. This year's red-and-white designs were winners chosen over Instagram last year from 1,000 different customer designs and they hit the stores Thursday, Nov. 10 in 75 countries, according to Starbucks. 

Of course, they bring with them great tidings of good joy and new holiday flavor LTOs, including chestnut praline latte, peppermint and skinny peppermint mocha, caramel brulee latte, gingerbread latte, eggnog latte, and even — gasp — Teavana joy-brewed tea and spiced sweet cream narino 70 cold brew, if you dare select something outside of the perimeters of coffee. Holiday spice flat white is also available, according to a news release.

Hopefully, the masses will be calmed. Clearly, the brand is conceding that it may have lost its caffeinated head a little last year a little by not showing due respect to the season. So, let peace return to the kingdom. And now, may we all just say a prayer of thanks that this didn't happen on Tuesday, or we might still not know who the next president is.  

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.