Starbucks Releases Black Cat Frappuccino Days Before Crucial Holiday Season, Ignoring Several Centuries Of Folklore

SEATTLE—Starbucks this week released a limited-time Black Cat Frappuccino, a chocolate-brownie crème drink, in select U.S. stores ahead of a holiday quarter that analysts describe as an important test for the chain—a decision folklorists called ‘bold.’

“You don’t let a black cat cross your path right before the biggest season of the year,” said Ines Varga, a fictional professor of retail superstition. “Next they’ll be launching a Walk-Under-A-Ladder Latte and a Broken Mirror Macchiato.”

Customers appeared unconcerned. “It’s brown, it’s cold and it has a cat on the cup,” said a fictional barista in Tacoma. “Nothing bad has ever happened to anyone who wanted that.”