Pink Bearista Cup Returns—and the Internet Learns Nothing from Last Time

Starbucks is testing whether its customers have the memory of a goldfish, and based on the launch chaos, the answer appears to be a resounding yes.

The coffee chain has unleashed a new blush-colored Bearista Cup on the world, this time dressed up to celebrate the wildly popular Pink Drink. Instead of the original green beanie, this version sports a white ball cap topped with a pink strawberry. It’s summery, it’s cute, and it launched on July 13 to the kind of frenzy you’d expect if Starbucks had announced free coffee for life. Except, well, people couldn’t actually get them.

Here’s the thing: Starbucks literally apologized last year when the original Bearista Cup sold out faster than concert tickets, leaving customers frustrated and empty-handed. The company acknowledged the shortage, promised to do better, and presumably invested in inventory planning. So when the pink version dropped, surely everything would be smooth sailing, right? Wrong. Within hours, customers reported the same soul-crushing experience—items mysteriously vanishing from shopping carts, checkout glitches, notifications that they’d have to wait in line to purchase a plastic cup. One frustrated fan lamented being ghosted at the very moment of checkout:“Had one on my cart, had message I had to wait to check out&then it sold out.”

The internet’s response was equal parts humor and genuine trauma. One customer joked about PTSD from the original launch, while another added their prayers for“all the baristas.”Because apparently we’ve created a collectible cup market so intense that retail workers need spiritual intervention.

Merchandise strategy lead Kap Pitarys waxed poetic about bringing the Bearista back“in a fresh, joyful way for customers around the world,”but the fresh, joyful part seems to have applied only to Starbucks’bottom line. For actual customers, it’s been the same chaotic experience—just with pink.

The silver lining? Dupes are already flooding online marketplaces. Because if you can’t beat Starbucks’limited-edition madness, you can at least buy a knockoff from someone who actually had stock.