This Sunday marks the sour end of the whimsical craze that started this past Wednesday. For 5 days that simply magical purple and blue beverage has consumed our Instagram feed, dominated twitter trends, and pissed off quite a few Facebook divas users. But through all the chaos of glee, gluttony, and wrath comes five unanticipated concepts we can grow from.
1. Surprise!!! Starbucks Frappuccinos Contain Sugar
I personally have not purchased a neon drink that was praised for its nutritious value to begin with so the shock over the high sugar value really came as no surprise to me. The same people that liked to post selfies sipping on their fav Java Chip Frapps were now bombarding my feed with infographics like the one that compared one Venti Unicorn Frapp to 3 Snickers bar. Then came the chain reaction of Keto crazers who protested the beverage, as if one drink from Starbucks would absolutely crush their entire life. Unless you are part of the 9.3% of Americans that are diabetic, one drink will not cause irreparable harm.
So where does the Unicorn Frapp really stand in the Starbucks sugar line up?
2. Limited Time = Limited Quantity
The frustration is real, but true aggression is not necessary. When hearing the term “limited time” we as consumers need to really read this as “limited supply.” Plan accordingly, and try to grab your piece of the pie early, because as we learned this past Thursday, once it’s gone…it’s gone for good. It’s easy to say as an uninvolved party that they should over supply the stores, expecting the largest crowds; I mean serving customers sounds better than turning away customers, financially speaking. But in reality there are many risks that lay in something like this.
First there is the risk that what seems like your gangbusters idea may come out to be quite the flop. Let’s look at it this way, how many times have you written an essay thinking you aced it and instead it came back with a C? Or how about wrote that FB post you just knew would fly viral but instead not even your own mom shared it? (no offense mom) Supply is a cost, should this unicorn beverage not be successful, the store is sitting on unusable product, and unusable product comes out of the bottom end.
Second risk would be investing in a beverage you know is disgusting. No really, there was no way that the big wigs were not fully aware just by simply reading the list of flavors that this could come back to slap them in the face. They had to gamble that the gossip of how putrid it was would not be publicized on You Tube or Facebook Live before the magical images on Instagram lured Millenials and Gen Z’ers in without question. Which is a great segue to my next point…
3. Half of Us Will Buy Anything that Says Unicorn, No Questions Asked
When I read the ingredients I began to gag immediately, but of course I am not a fan of fruity flavors. I was hoping for more of a chocolaty vanilla blend of the Unicorn Hot Chocolates that were all over Instagram this past winter. Instead Starbucks embraced the idea of color and Spring and went with a more fruity blend. My daughters of course went nuts over the drawing of the Unicorn, so I let them split a tall, embracing myself for the sea of mom shaming that would most likely result after sharing that I had allowed my kids any sugar. Better you than me, I thought, as I took a quick sour sip and then handed it to my toddler who guzzled it with no hesitations.
It surprised me the number of people shocked be the taste. Did they not ask? Did they not look it up? But at the end of the day, if you thought it was disgusting, that’s okay. At least you can say you have been there, you have tried that. No regrets.
4. The Other Half Have a Real Grudge Against Unicorns
Maybe some people just hate a craze. Perhaps they lack any true originality so have to make themselves special by lashing out. It could be as simple as they did not have enough Lisa Frank as a kid, but whatever the reason the whining and complaining about “why are people so excited about a drink” got a bit old.
I’m excited because it’s fun…joy killer.
5. Life is Too Short to Not Be Magical
All of this is to say, let’s stop taking ourselves so seriously. The Unicorn Frappuccino was something that was designed to offer a sensation of whimsy and wonderment. Like a rainbow piercing through our frustrations so that we could, if only for the 5 seconds of soaking in those pink and purple sprinkles magically scattered like pixie dust, feel a sense of hope and possibility.
- For five minutes a week I challenge you to allow yourself to forget about calories, or sugar intake.
- Put off hesitation; embrace an opportunity to try something new. Don’t be afraid to hate it, that’s okay, disappointment is part of the journey to learning who we are.
- Spend less energy holding others back from their bliss, and spend more time discovering your own.
- To live is such a wonderful adventure, and we should allow ourselves the time to immerse ourselves in the possibilities of what could be…even if it is as outlandish as riding a unicorn over a rainbow.
Shopgirl Must Know!
- What will you allow yourself for five minutes of adventure this week?
- Did You Try the Unicorn Frappuccino? What did you think?
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Shop Girl Anonymous 
I’ll have to ask my daughter who works at Starbucks how the craze affected her, although she is in college so only works on the weekends and may not have experienced much of it first hand. I love your 5 minute idea! Thanks for stopping by my little blog! Have a great Sunday.
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I missed the unicorn drink…can’t say I am too sorry about that.
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Haha
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me too, Anna – would feel like a sucker if I got sucked into ‘buy it now before it’s gone’ manipulation.
tx for another fine post, shopgirlanonymous
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Vaguely heard about this fad, mostly from blog posts like this. I don’t drink anything from any of these type stores, but the advice, “Spend less energy holding others back from their bliss, and spend more time discovering your own.” is magical. Thank you for sharing and hope this week is treating you kindly. 🙂
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“Spend less energy holding others back from their bliss, and spend more time discovering your own. ” This is pure genius. Wish as a society we could do this more. Great post.
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I’m not big on coffee, but do love their tea. But life without sugar is pointless so unicorn vibes all the way.
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Well this craze just zipped by me. I had no idea it was a “thing”. But anything with that many colors HAS to be loaded with sugar. And why would anyone be looking for nutrition in Starbucks anyway? I see it as a place to treat myself to a ton of calories. Ha!
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Thank you for this informative post.
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I haven’t tried it, I’m not a huge huge fan of frappucinos, I like ice tea or cold brew coffee a lot. I know that the look is probably what gets peoples attention more. Not my cup of drink I totally get what people like it.
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Glad I didn’t fall prey to this @ Starbucks…lol. I can’t believe the nutritional breakdown. Thanks for posting that. My birthday is next week and the weather is warming up. The last thing I want to do is increase my weight 🙂
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I, like you, don’t really revel in fruit flavors, particularly from a place like Starbucks. That said, it IS a very pretty drink, and from what I understand, far more painstaking to craft than most drinks at SB.
I still wouldn’t get one, but it looks good.
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Spend more time finding your own bliss whether than killings other joy. That is a good quote. I am a Starbucks girl and I did not try the drink based on flavors, but I thought about it because as you said. Anything that says unicorn catches my eye!
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hahaha, Unicorns are Magical! Who couldn’t resist?!
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hahaha, great post! I can’t say I was a hater, but I definitely avoided Starbucks for the past week. The ingredients looked awful. At least some cool photos came about from the craze!
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OMG I have seen some amazingly hilarious ones!!! Oh the dark and desperate places Twitter users will go for my amusement. 😉
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Love this post Jess! I don’t get the obsession and the flavor mix sounds so disgusting. Guess we will talk about anything Starbucks now.
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Looks sooooo magical! Glad someone finally mentioned the sugar content though. All those pinks and blues didn’t come from fairy dusty.
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LOL! Right?!
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I shamelessly (shamefully? ha!) tried it and was underwhelmed. But I’m such a consumer! Glad the fad was here and gone faster than we can say “unicorn!” 😉
http://www.thehiveblog.com
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It was a fun whirlwind!
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And here I was getting pretty jazzed that my local grocery did a BOGO on Folgers coffee….
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Haha, now that IS something to get jazzed about!
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if Starbucks was “really” cool….they would have featured…..well,you already know,right?
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I can’t believe the reaction of some people. It’s not like anyone is mainlining the stuff into their children. Thanks for the infographic, that says a lot.
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haha, exactly. And it was only available for five days…it won’t become a lifestyle. 😉
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I don’t think Starbucks is the right place for the health nuts really. They should just leave the sugary drinks to those of us who can handle them!
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I’m super disappointed in myself. I can’t believe I’ve been depriving myself of so much sugar every year; my go to has always been the Coffee Frapp.
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I don’t like frappucinos, and I’m really loving my plain cold teas- however, I hope that everyone who tried it liked it! While it’s not my cup of tea (pun intended), I totally get that I’m simply not the target audience 🙂
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Mmmm cold teas…just black or do you like any flavored teas?
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Anything but green tea!!
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Daughter had to try it and hated it. Money well spent
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Lol!
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