We've Got A Starbucks-centric Satanic Panic Just In Time For Christmas

Like clockwork, the holiday season brings with it festive decorations, the same 40 songs playing on a loop in retail chains, and outrage at Starbucks' holiday cups.

This year, the holiday hatred for the coffee chain was launched by one Twitter user named @AllBiteNoBark88, who posted a Starbucks cup with a demonic creature looking at a crying child drawn on it.

Starbucks Coffee Cups
Just in time for Christmas.
"I like my Coffee Black like my Soul" pic.twitter.com/ngERv2mXBo

— The White Rabbit (@AllBiteNoBark88) November 29, 2022

As spotted by The Daily Dot, the post went viral in conspiracy circles on Twitter and Facebook, where aggrieved adults cried that Starbucks was indoctrinating their children with Satanic messages.

"They are literally putting Satan’s image in full view for people, and normalizing Satanism," wrote one user. Others voiced their intent to boycott Starbucks, posted the hashtag "#SaveTheChildren," etc., etc.

As one might surmise, the cup itself is not a Starbucks production. Instead, it's the work of a Seattle tattoo artist named Mike Tidwell, who doodled Krampus on a coffee cup and posted it to his Instagram way back in November 2015. AFP interviewed Tidwell in their fact-check of the claim that Starbucks was selling Satan cups, where he said:

"I got bored one day and decided to pick up a Sharpie marker and draw on my cup. I posted it on social media, as did my friends and it got noticed by the public, and along with it came the rumors that Starbucks made them. Totally false."

So, there you have it. Starbucks is not selling Satan coffee cups this holiday season, though there is almost definitely a certain subset of people who'd love it if they did.