Starbucks Customers Say Their Drinks Were Labeled With a Racist Slur: “There Is No Excuse”

A Starbucks customer is accusing the coffee chain of a racist incident after she shared a video showing two drink cups labeled with the word “chimp.” The customer said the two drinks were ordered on Aug. 29, according to a Facebook post she published after the alleged incident.

The video shared with the post appears to show the same word written on both cups in the area where Starbucks employees commonly write a customer’s name or a personal message.

The woman described the labeling as ‘racist, hurtful, and completely unacceptable’ and called on Starbucks to provide training, accountability and an apology. She also used the hashtags #RacismWillNotBeTolerated and #DoBetter while sharing the image.

Starbucks Has Been Putting More Emphasis on Handwritten Cup Messages

The timing is notable because handwritten messages on Starbucks cups have become part of the company’s renewed focus on personalizing the customer experience. Starbucks brought handwritten notes on cups back in October 2024 as part of its ‘Back to Starbucks‘ strategy, which was designed to return the chain to what it described as a more welcoming coffeehouse experience.

The practice has existed in different forms for years. Starbucks said baristas began writing customers’ names on cups as a standard practice in 2012, after the company decided to make the ordering experience more personal. The company described the change as a way for baristas and customers to be on a first-name basis.

The coffee franchise has since mentioned handwritten notes as one of the small personal touches it wants customers to experience in its stores. In a recent company story about its customer service efforts, They described baristas writing special messages on cups for customers, including notes of encouragement and birthday messages.

Starbucks has also acknowledged that handwritten messages can create questions about who actually wrote them. In September 2025, the company said it had policies prohibiting political slogans and negative messages on cups and that it reviews reports of violations individually.

The company also pointed out that the markers used to write on cups are accessible to other people. That means someone could potentially add a message after handing a drink to a customer, so the photograph alone cannot establish who printed the word shown on the two cups.

Starbucks Has Investigated Similar Cup Complaints Before

In its September 2025 statement, Starbucks said it had investigated social media posts involving allegedly offensive comments written on cups and reviewed timestamped in-store video footage as part of those investigations. The company said that, in the cases it discussed, Starbucks employees did not write the messages, and someone appeared to add them after handing off the beverages.

The company has not said that the same thing happened with the two cups shown in the Aug. 29 Facebook post. The post does not identify the Starbucks location or say who wrote the word.

The woman who shared the photograph did not respond to a request for additional information about the incident by The Mary Sue. Starbucks did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the image and the allegations.

For now, the photograph appears to show the same word on both Starbucks cups, but no one has established who wrote it or when.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]