Starbucks has responded to the viral controversy surrounding orders for a drink associated with far-right activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot earlier this month. The trend began when a TikTok user tried to order Kirk\u2019s favorite drink \u2014 a Mint Majesty tea with two honeys \u2014 and asked for \u201cCharlie Kirk\u201d to be written on the cup. A barista refused, saying they couldn\u2019t write political names, which sparked outrage online and led many of Kirk\u2019s supporters to make the same request as a tribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement, Starbucks clarified its policy on customer names. The company said it encourages customers to use their preferred names, including \u201cCharlie Kirk,\u201d but noted there have been past cases where people abused the system by using political slogans or offensive words as their \u201cname\u201d to create disruptions. Starbucks emphasized it wants its caf\u00e9s to be welcoming spaces and has reminded staff to only decline names when they are clearly political slogans or inappropriate phrases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starbucks also addressed allegations that offensive messages had been written on cups, stating their investigation showed these comments were added after<\/strong> the drinks were handed off, not by Starbucks employees. They reviewed timestamped video footage to confirm this and said they take such reports seriously to maintain a positive environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company concluded by reaffirming its commitment to respect customers\u2019 preferences while ensuring a safe, welcoming space. \u201cWe hope our customers visit us with the same positive intent,\u201d Starbucks stated, thanking both staff and customers for being part of their community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Starbucks has responded to the viral controversy surrounding orders for a drink associated with far-right activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot earlier this month. The trend… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":703,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7043,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7041\/revisions\/7043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}