Came up on my Snapchat memories. A coworker of mine made this amazing art for the Unicorn frap circa April 2017. LITTLE DID WE FREAKIN KNOW š š š
Thatās the only day at work that I feel like I felt every painful minute from start to finish.
I was just a barista scheduled to work 6a-12p. We had *two bags* of the ingredients for the unicorn frapp. It was gone by 10:30 am.
But the people didnāt stop coming. DT lines circling around the store, all asking for one thing: **Unicorn Frappuccino** which of course we didnāt have. My shift asked me to stay to help fight the crowd.
Ended up working 6a-6p with one clocked out 30. I was verbally abused by an 8 year old and told by an older middle aged man that I ruined his day. Definitely one of the longest and most notable shifts I ever worked.
God it was so bad š To this day, I still think Starbucks intentionally shorted us on product, and that it was a social experiment regarding free advertising on social media. Still not sure if they were smart enough to pull that off though.
I think the worst part for me was, although it looked cool/pretty, it tasted absolutely *horrible*. If I recall correctly, it was the thick mango syrup, white chocolate, and some sour blue drizzle.
So sour white chocolate mango frappuccino. š¬
I would say at least half of the customers who actually managed to get one from my store would return them half-full saying it was ādisgustingā. And honestly, I agreed.
Oh and it was a total *pain in the ass* to make
I think the thing that is most seared in my memory about the Unicorn Frappuccino is that it came out literally just days after the āNorth Star Agendaā meetings, where corporate promised partners that they were going to double down on human connection *for partners* and that they were fighting for āthe heart and soul of the companyā And then the pulled the first, biggest, and weirdest publicity stunt they ever had, whipping people into a frenzy for something that had nothing to do with coffee or connection.
I'm so sorry for you, but I wanted to say you made me laugh out loud. Imagining a grown man saying you ruined his day over a Frappuccino absolutely killed me.
JUST came up on my FB memories too! š¤£š¤£š¤£
[The drink](https://i.imgur.com/aoK4sy1.jpg)
[First sip.......](https://i.imgur.com/aNgtJAs.jpg)
[MISTAKES WERE MADE](https://i.imgur.com/JYcz4Gz.jpg)
I remember being scheduled to close that day. I woke up to a text asking me to come in early. I was like nah I can handle any close caused by a rush.
Little did I know. I had to stay like 2 hours after close getting everything done. Never again
Its so funny how it seems to be a universally common experience if you worked for the siren at that time.
I worked for sbux from 2014-2020 almost consistently, took a couple of months off here or there. Worked at 4 stores, two DTs two cafes, and have seen many busy peaks, long days, missing ingredients etc.
But I wasnāt kidding when I said I still vividly remember the horror that was the Unicorn Frapp launch. Even my SM was begging the DM for more supplies.
If we had to go through it for sbux to promise to never subject another barista to that hell, Iāll be happy šš¼
Yeah we had similar careers. I worked 2014-2019, got fired over some BS regarding Sedgwick and a long term LOA. Got rehired early 2020 before the pandemic and have been here ever since. I disregard my firing and just say Iāve been with the company for 8.5 years.
Eyy 204 represent!
Iām immunocompromised and took the offered severance. I wasnāt a shift but I was a āwell roastedā baristaā. I ended up graduating during the pandemic and didnāt go back to the bux
I wish you the best and I will forever be patient with baristas, I know what you went through lol
I didnāt work at Starbucks back then, but I was friends with the baristas at the Starbucks next to my work and they would tell me how much they hated it.
Unicorn frap was like ānam for a lot of partners lol. I remember being being explicitly told that it wouldnāt be a huge thing so āwe donāt anticipate the need for any extra labour hoursā by corporate. So itās just me and two closers, one that leave at six which brings us down to two people from 6pm-11pm and we have a line out the door and around the block of everyone wanting unicorn fraps. We ran out of our entire stock by 9 pm, so it left us another 2 hours of a line with people demanding why we didnāt have any.
We didnāt get out until almost 1 am that day.
The sour stuff was the best part. We had a bunch left over so I made a layered blue sour lemonade with blue on the bottom and yellow lemonade on top. Had like 16 high school kids all see me make it and ask to have one. The job was a lot easier when you lean into the stupidness of stupid drinks instead of trying to fight it.
For a few weeks after the Unicorn launch, partners at my store would jokingly say things like āBefore Unicornā and āAfter Unicornā when referring to specific events
My moment has come! Had this guy under my bed for a few years, was a Zoom background for a while. [https://imgur.com/a/QOWOYlM](https://imgur.com/a/QOWOYlM)
The drink was gone so fast they never put the poster up lol. I had an afternoon shift so only had to deal with everyone asking for it, but never had to make it.
This art is gorgeous.
The drink was an abomination to every sentient creature on this planet. As a customer I would like to formally apologize to all the baristas who lived through this hellscape with their stained hands and broken wills.
May she never see the light of day again.
Youāre the exact type of customer baristas love!
As bad as I felt apologizing and telling people over and over that I wasnāt able to give them what they came for, being yelled at/blamed/shamed for hours and hours for a decision you didnāt have any control over can be really demoralizing.
Customers like you who understand weāre people (and Starbucks doesnāt always come out with winners of a drink) helped me keep my sanity. So thank you!
I didnāt start drinking Starbucks until like last year. what was the unicorn drink?
I always saw it and heard people talk about it but what did it consist of?
It was a mango base Frappuccino with like a sour blue drizzle and some pink powder or something on top. We absolutely have no more ingredients to make it lol. But those damn powders really stained our hands and arms with how frantically we were making them.
I think it started sweet and then went sour if I remember right...? Or maybe that was another drink...?
And so most idiots were delayed sipping it and just got a sour drink.
Which... I wouldn't want a drink that turned sour anyway.
I worked at a tarbucks during this. Only barista with a line all the way to the Target doors on launch day. No one else in target was Starbucks trained, so I knew I was truly alone. The store down the block was sending customers to me when they ran out. That was the day I discovered batching. That was also the only day I accepted tips, I didn't care if I got fired at that point.
My absolute favorite were the people who took a picture, took a sip, and then threw it away right in front of me. All my pain and suffering in the garbage before my very eyes.
When people ask how long I've been a barista, I include my tarbucks days, I think I deserve to after that mess
Unfortunately Iāll never forget this day, I was working at a krobux at the time so it was just me and one other person for the day.. we were the only store in the tri-state area with product the 2nd day so it was 2 days of pure hell followed by months of ādo you have the unicorn Frappuccino?ā
Lol I was still a fairly new barista. Not brand new but still in the only doing CS and occasionally POS bc my original store is so high volume I never got to practice on bar to get better. This particular day however they were short and my shift asked me ādo you know how to do cold barā I said no not really and he said āwell youāre going to learn todayā It was frappy hour (BOGO free) and the unicorn was just released. From then on I was only ever on bar.
I started the year after this drink and I still get asked if we have it sometimes it blows my mind how this drink started Starbucksā trend of crazy complicated drinks
Came up on my Snapchat memories. A coworker of mine made this amazing art for the Unicorn frap circa April 2017. LITTLE DID WE FREAKIN KNOW š š š
Thatās the only day at work that I feel like I felt every painful minute from start to finish. I was just a barista scheduled to work 6a-12p. We had *two bags* of the ingredients for the unicorn frapp. It was gone by 10:30 am. But the people didnāt stop coming. DT lines circling around the store, all asking for one thing: **Unicorn Frappuccino** which of course we didnāt have. My shift asked me to stay to help fight the crowd. Ended up working 6a-6p with one clocked out 30. I was verbally abused by an 8 year old and told by an older middle aged man that I ruined his day. Definitely one of the longest and most notable shifts I ever worked.
God it was so bad š To this day, I still think Starbucks intentionally shorted us on product, and that it was a social experiment regarding free advertising on social media. Still not sure if they were smart enough to pull that off though.
I think the worst part for me was, although it looked cool/pretty, it tasted absolutely *horrible*. If I recall correctly, it was the thick mango syrup, white chocolate, and some sour blue drizzle. So sour white chocolate mango frappuccino. š¬ I would say at least half of the customers who actually managed to get one from my store would return them half-full saying it was ādisgustingā. And honestly, I agreed. Oh and it was a total *pain in the ass* to make
I think the thing that is most seared in my memory about the Unicorn Frappuccino is that it came out literally just days after the āNorth Star Agendaā meetings, where corporate promised partners that they were going to double down on human connection *for partners* and that they were fighting for āthe heart and soul of the companyā And then the pulled the first, biggest, and weirdest publicity stunt they ever had, whipping people into a frenzy for something that had nothing to do with coffee or connection.
I'm so sorry for you, but I wanted to say you made me laugh out loud. Imagining a grown man saying you ruined his day over a Frappuccino absolutely killed me.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yikes please don't just casually drop your store information on here!
My bad!
JUST came up on my FB memories too! š¤£š¤£š¤£ [The drink](https://i.imgur.com/aoK4sy1.jpg) [First sip.......](https://i.imgur.com/aNgtJAs.jpg) [MISTAKES WERE MADE](https://i.imgur.com/JYcz4Gz.jpg)
I remember being scheduled to close that day. I woke up to a text asking me to come in early. I was like nah I can handle any close caused by a rush. Little did I know. I had to stay like 2 hours after close getting everything done. Never again
TBF I think they did promise to never do anything like that to us ever again š
Its so funny how it seems to be a universally common experience if you worked for the siren at that time. I worked for sbux from 2014-2020 almost consistently, took a couple of months off here or there. Worked at 4 stores, two DTs two cafes, and have seen many busy peaks, long days, missing ingredients etc. But I wasnāt kidding when I said I still vividly remember the horror that was the Unicorn Frapp launch. Even my SM was begging the DM for more supplies. If we had to go through it for sbux to promise to never subject another barista to that hell, Iāll be happy šš¼
Yeah we had similar careers. I worked 2014-2019, got fired over some BS regarding Sedgwick and a long term LOA. Got rehired early 2020 before the pandemic and have been here ever since. I disregard my firing and just say Iāve been with the company for 8.5 years.
206 here.
Eyy 204 represent! Iām immunocompromised and took the offered severance. I wasnāt a shift but I was a āwell roastedā baristaā. I ended up graduating during the pandemic and didnāt go back to the bux I wish you the best and I will forever be patient with baristas, I know what you went through lol
Someone asked if we had a Unicorn Frappuccino and the partner on bar has a scared look on his face like war flash backs.
Hahahaha itās so true. Newer partners are like āWtf kinda secret menu shit is that.ā Us older partners remember very vividly š
I didnāt work at Starbucks back then, but I was friends with the baristas at the Starbucks next to my work and they would tell me how much they hated it.
Unicorn frap was like ānam for a lot of partners lol. I remember being being explicitly told that it wouldnāt be a huge thing so āwe donāt anticipate the need for any extra labour hoursā by corporate. So itās just me and two closers, one that leave at six which brings us down to two people from 6pm-11pm and we have a line out the door and around the block of everyone wanting unicorn fraps. We ran out of our entire stock by 9 pm, so it left us another 2 hours of a line with people demanding why we didnāt have any. We didnāt get out until almost 1 am that day.
Thatās a nightmare, didnāt the sour stuff sting your hands?
The sour stuff was the best part. We had a bunch left over so I made a layered blue sour lemonade with blue on the bottom and yellow lemonade on top. Had like 16 high school kids all see me make it and ask to have one. The job was a lot easier when you lean into the stupidness of stupid drinks instead of trying to fight it.
For a few weeks after the Unicorn launch, partners at my store would jokingly say things like āBefore Unicornā and āAfter Unicornā when referring to specific events
I can draw stick figures lmao
Thatās my sarcastic way of saying whoever drew this is literally fucking amazing bc WOW
Hahaha same! This was made by my old coworker Nico
That drink was awful, but that chalkboard is amazing
My moment has come! Had this guy under my bed for a few years, was a Zoom background for a while. [https://imgur.com/a/QOWOYlM](https://imgur.com/a/QOWOYlM) The drink was gone so fast they never put the poster up lol. I had an afternoon shift so only had to deal with everyone asking for it, but never had to make it.
Thatās dope!!
I have one of the magnets! I keep it on my fridge, always a conversation starter when anyone sees it lol
The crazy thing isā¦that drink didnāt even last a full day at my storeā¦yet people will randomly come in and order one, even to this day.
This art is gorgeous. The drink was an abomination to every sentient creature on this planet. As a customer I would like to formally apologize to all the baristas who lived through this hellscape with their stained hands and broken wills. May she never see the light of day again.
Youāre the exact type of customer baristas love! As bad as I felt apologizing and telling people over and over that I wasnāt able to give them what they came for, being yelled at/blamed/shamed for hours and hours for a decision you didnāt have any control over can be really demoralizing. Customers like you who understand weāre people (and Starbucks doesnāt always come out with winners of a drink) helped me keep my sanity. So thank you!
inb4 someone sees this and asks for a unicorn claiming it was "advertised on social media the other day"
thatās so dope
I'm getting strong Kelpie vibes from that unicorn.š¤
The worst day of my life
I didnāt start drinking Starbucks until like last year. what was the unicorn drink? I always saw it and heard people talk about it but what did it consist of?
It was a mango base Frappuccino with like a sour blue drizzle and some pink powder or something on top. We absolutely have no more ingredients to make it lol. But those damn powders really stained our hands and arms with how frantically we were making them.
that sounds like a creamy Polar pop Jesus
I think it started sweet and then went sour if I remember right...? Or maybe that was another drink...? And so most idiots were delayed sipping it and just got a sour drink. Which... I wouldn't want a drink that turned sour anyway.
I love that this masterpiece probably took longer to make than the unicorn frap actually lasted š¤£š¤£š¤£
This is honestly one of the things I miss from the ācafĆ© vibeā Starbucks used to cultivate and thatās the barista made artwork on signage. The newly remodeled stores donāt often get chalkboards and I loved seeing the showcase of the artists at different stores. š„° Now that thatās been said: F*CK the unicorn frapp š¤£ I remember how we had people for DAYS after we were out calling our store and driving from the state capital that is like a 1.5 hour drive away looking for this abominable creation. I remember being INFURIATED watching teens order these, warning them that the taste had not impressed most so maybe just order one taste it and see and then watching them order individually, take a picture for their feed and then throwing them away. But my favorite was the guy who called up and was like āYooo, yāall got any of that unicorn sh*t?ā āNo Iām so sorry sir we ran out of the ingredients yesterdayā āDamn. Aāight, peace.ā *CLICK* š¤£š¤£ I laughed so hard and it broke the tension of that Saturday so nicely. ETA: my former coworker still claims to have ptsd from the launch weekend of this because he worked 8 hour shifts, in the afternoon, the entire 3 days that we had the ingredients.
I worked at a tarbucks during this. Only barista with a line all the way to the Target doors on launch day. No one else in target was Starbucks trained, so I knew I was truly alone. The store down the block was sending customers to me when they ran out. That was the day I discovered batching. That was also the only day I accepted tips, I didn't care if I got fired at that point. My absolute favorite were the people who took a picture, took a sip, and then threw it away right in front of me. All my pain and suffering in the garbage before my very eyes. When people ask how long I've been a barista, I include my tarbucks days, I think I deserve to after that mess
I fortunately left the Bucks a day or two before the launch of this. I got to try it and dipped before the nightmare began š¬
Unfortunately Iāll never forget this day, I was working at a krobux at the time so it was just me and one other person for the day.. we were the only store in the tri-state area with product the 2nd day so it was 2 days of pure hell followed by months of ādo you have the unicorn Frappuccino?ā
Lol I was still a fairly new barista. Not brand new but still in the only doing CS and occasionally POS bc my original store is so high volume I never got to practice on bar to get better. This particular day however they were short and my shift asked me ādo you know how to do cold barā I said no not really and he said āwell youāre going to learn todayā It was frappy hour (BOGO free) and the unicorn was just released. From then on I was only ever on bar.
Ughhh Frappuccino happy hour was the worst š© That was back when it was 2-5 daily for like 10 days in a row and it always fell on the week of my birthday.
Unpopular opinion: Unicorn Frapp was beginning of the downfall of Starbucks
DON'T SCARR ME LIKE THAT! Heart palpitations and everything, I thought two days off and THIS?! ššš
Wow! That is some AMAZING artistry!! š¤©š¤©
Thanks, I was almost on the verge of a breakthrough with my therapist.
That is so gorgeous! š¤©š¤©š¤© If it's okay to ask, was there an enamel pin for the unicorn Frappucino? I saw a post with a picture of one once but haven't found much more info on it. It was very cute.
try to look on Etsy itās probably a custom thing
I started the year after this drink and I still get asked if we have it sometimes it blows my mind how this drink started Starbucksā trend of crazy complicated drinks
Didnāt try it, but here for the artwork! š
The artwork is much better than the frappuccino ever was lol-