When Starbucks released its holiday merchandise this year, it probably wasn’t planning on causing all-out chaos. It’s not really the kind of vibe you plan for over the festive period, unless you’re having Christmas lunch with my family. 

But after teasing customers with the November 6 release of the Starbucks ‘Bearista’ cup – a glass mug shaped like a bear, with a green hat for a lid – with promises it would bring “instant joy to every sip”, some kind of mass temporary insanity took hold. People started camping outside Starbucks stores before they opened, hoping to be the first to get their hands on one. 

Related story: Queue the drama: why do people line up for hours to buy food?

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Starbucks (@starbucks)

When it turned out that things really hadn’t been organised that well and no one had seemed to have really put any thought at all into preparing for the huge demand that the massive company-led Bearista hype-up would create, things got a tad ugly. Bear cups sold out fast. Very fast. Some stores only had a few to sell. Some had none. People started accusing staff of stockpiling them for themselves. Fights broke out among grizzly customers. Police were called to break up a pre-dawn Bearista brawl in Texas. Non-bear baristas were brought to tears. 

@jerjericciardi2 People are insane ! #starbucks #bearista #fyp #teddybear #christmas @Starbucks ♬ original sound – JERJERICCIARDI

People took to various social media platforms to vent their frustration. How were they supposed to drink their coffee – out of a regular cup? What kind of grown adult wants to drink coffee out of a regular, non-bear-shaped cup? Future historians would surely mark this dark time as the beginning of the end of civilised society. 

Starbucks issued a statement by way of apology, but no one really bothered to pay any attention to that – they just wanted their bear cup. Priorities, you see. 

Related story: Who invented the flat white? The contentious origins of this simple coffee order

The cup, which retails for US$29.95, was soon selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay and Facebook Marketplace. With Bearistas scarce on the ground (perhaps they’re hibernating), people started desperately searching for dupes to fill the great big, empty bear-cup-shaped hole in their lives. They’re selling an almost identical one on Amazon. Walmart has one, too. ALDI is releasing one today. 

Will this finally sate our rapacious bear-induced mania? Here’s hoping. Have we, as a collective society, learned anything from this? Probably not. I’ll see you all at the Great Catpuccino Cup Riots of 2026. 

Related story: Singapore McDonald’s gets fish nuggets while Australia watches on like a sad seagull