Starbucks has Taylor Swift fans scrambling to decode messages ahead of album re-release
It looks like Starbucks is feeling “Red Season.”
Taylor Swift fans are buzzing about rumors of a potential Starbucks collaboration with the famed singer-songwriter whose re-release of her third studio album “Red (Taylor’s Version)” drops Friday, Nov. 12.
The coffee franchise began to stoke the fires of “Swiftie” fandom with a tweet on Monday, Nov. 8: “It’s Red Season,” they declared, with a string of emojis.
Swift is known for hiding Easter eggs in virtually every video, social media message and promotional material, so fans took Starbucks’ tweet and ran with it, like “autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place.”
“I love to communicate via Easter eggs,” Swift told Entertainment Weekly in 2019. “I think the best messages are cryptic ones.”
But “Red” anticipators and Starbucks drinkers alike seem to be losing patience over this one.
“TELL US WHAT U KNOW,” demanded one Swiftie in response to Starbucks’ tweet.
Starbucks leaned into the rumors.
“We know all too well how exciting this time of year is, and we’ll forever & always love it: Our red holiday cups and drinks are back,” the company replied to one user, using two popular Taylor Swift lyrics, with “all too well” a reference to the “Red” hit of the same name.
The company didn’t stop there. In response to an outraged fan that wrote, “BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN,” Starbucks teased an already-exhausted fan base further: “We’re just in a holiday vibe right now, not a lot going on at the moment otherwise,” they wrote, referencing an infamous Swift social media message posted soon before she surprise-dropped her album “Folklore.”
Fans are even linking a recent Swift Instagram post as a hint to the upcoming collaboration.
In a video dedicated to all things fall, Swift recreates one of her Tumblr posts. Eagle-eyed watchers will notice the singer grabs a Starbucks cup to drink out of during the video. In fact, the moment Swift is drinking from the cup is the thumbnail for the grid post.
Social media exploded with theories, guesses and excitement.
The gossip Instagram account @deuxmoi posted a “blind” to stories of someone alleging, “As of 11/12 if you order ‘Taylor’s drink’ it’s a nonfat caramel latte.”
In a TikTok video, one user shared the blind posting and an alleged release sent to Starbucks employees detailing the Starbucks-Swift collaboration. The release, the validity of which is unconfirmed, said the collaboration will include Swift’s music being played in stores, custom labels for drinks and, of course, a “Taylor’s Drink” on the menu.
In the comments, fans complained that the drink should have instead been a maple latte.
The Twitter account @TaylorSwiftSociety posted an array of anonymous direct messages from Starbucks workers that confirmed the alleged release.
Another TikTok video excitedly announcing the news noted that reactions from baristas were split in the comments, saying the rumor was true and that it was false. The user declared “blondie’s a genius.”
Everyone except Jake Gyllenhaal may want to run, and don’t walk, to Starbucks on Nov. 12, because it would be “casually and cruel” for Starbucks to not come through with this collaboration.
