NYC cafe accuses Starbucks of stealing their unicorn drink
Two coffee shop unicorns are sharpening their horns to wage a legal battle.
NYC cafe The End is claiming that Starbucks stole the idea of a unicorn-themed beverage from them.
Back in January, the Brooklyn-based cafe garnered major headlines as word spread about their colorful and sprinkle-laden unicorn latte. The drink is served warm and contains no actual coffee. It's made with ginger, lemon, coconut milk, and e3 live blue green algae.
Needless to say, Starbucks' Unicorn Frappuccino contained none of those ingredients.
However, The End claims that the Unicorn Frappuccino was too similar in outward appearance to their unicorn latte. Both drinks prominently display bright colors, pink and blue in particular.
The End also felt that Starbucks' product launch was designed to overshadow their unicorn latte, with the lawsuit also noting that The End has had a trademark pending on the drink name since January.
Starbucks, of course, stated that the accusations have no grounds. And while part of us hates siding with corporate giants, we may have to agree with them here. It's very hard to imagine that Starbucks designed both their drink and their marketing campaign to purposefully overshadow a small cafe in Brooklyn.
The drinks are also fundamentally different to their very core. Starbucks' unicorn is all about sugary sweetness while The End's unicorn attempts to help people find energy through all-natural ingredients (algae!). Because of that, these two unicorn drinks automatically target two almost completely different audiences. You drink the latte when you want to keep your good vibes going after some restorative yoga, and you drink the frappuccino when you want to treat yo'self and feel really guilty about it later.
Maybe everyone should just move on and stop the unicorn trend altogether.
Christine is a Web Culture Intern at Mashable. She has previously written for FanSided and Saturday Down South. She has a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego and an M.S. from Hunter College. Before she started writing, she worked in education as a teacher and school leader for four years. Her special talents include being able to quote The Office on command, playing non-stop Overwatch for hours, and composing only the wittiest of Tweets (her own opinion).
