Happy New Year to all my readers and with the new year comes the Chinese New Year merchandise. 2012 is the year of the Dragon so the most prominent theme will be the character “龍” or the dragon itself. The first batch of the Valentines series will also be released as well as the new Dragon bearista.
Have a look at the new mugs, coin bank, candy holder, tea holder and tumblers released today.
Christmas is just around the corner and what better way to warm yourself up than sip the Christmas beverages at Starbucks. Furthermore, to make it merrier, Starbucks is launching the 12 Days of Christmas promo.
12 Days of Gifting
For 12 days starting from December 1, Starbucks store in mainland China will have a daily promo for their customers. Here are some of the promos that they’re having based from conversations with the baristas.
As of today, there’s 67 more days till Christmas. No more Halloween, let’s go straight to Christmas. This year’s Christmas items will be launched on November 8. Mark your calendars and choose from the items below for Christmas presents to your friends and loved ones.
My Starbucks Rewards VIP Night
Loyal customers will be given a chance to be one of the 500 people to get a first glimpse of the new Christmas merchandise. From now till October 31, MSR card members who would like to participate the VIP night must register online for a slot. On November 4, an SMS message invite will be sent to your registered phone which will be your ticket to the VIP night. Five hundred members of Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shenzhen will be pampered on the night of November 7.
First and foremost, I’d like to wish all my readers a belated Happy Mid-autumn festival! I would also like to thank Starbucks for the delicious box of Starbucks mooncake which they gave me for free! The box of mooncake came with 2 each of Espresso Coffee Cheese & Orange, Espresso Coffee Milk Chocolate, Green Tea Toffee Cheese and Espresso Blueberry Cheese mooncakes. They also included a buy one get one coupon for you to enjoy the mooncake with a friend drinking a cup of your favorite beverage. The box of mooncake was then placed in a recycled cloth bag in brown. This mooncake retails at RMB 298. Another box of mooncake retails at RMB 398 and has drawers in it. Thank you Starbucks!
Anniversary Collection
Every year in September, Starbucks releases their Anniversary collection aka The Mermaid. The Anniversary collection includes new tumblers, mugs and coffee blend.
Summer is just right around the corner and tomorrow, new merchandise and products will be launched at Starbucks. What are they? Here’s a short list of items.
However You Want It Frappuccino
Starbucks in China introduced three new frappuccino flavors: Soy Strawberry and Cream, Extra Coffee Caramel and Low Fat Mocha. Moreover, from May 24 to June 5, when you order the new frappuccino, you will get a free coupon for additional syrup or cream on your next frappuccino. I wonder how will the Soy Strawberry and Cream will taste.
I’m late! This was supposed to come out last 15 February. However, due to amount of work for the past two weeks, I didn’t get enough time to write this blog. Moreover, I still didn’t get any EDM from my favorite baristas. In any case, here’s the latest from China for this year’s Spring edition.
Bearista
The 100th edition bearista bear is out! If you’re a collector, this would be a good collector’s item. This pretty bear is dressed in a pink kimono top with ruffled skirt and pink flower on the ear. There’s no male counterpart and is considered as the 2011 Sakura bear. It sells so fast, that I had to post my experience on how I hunted this bear. This bear retails at RMB 128.
It’s summer sizzling hot in Beijing. It’s suffocating outside that going to a bar is like going to a sauna. For the second half of the summer, Starbucks theme is “Step into your oasis”. This would be great as you really need to cool down with the weather outside. So what’s new for Starbucks?
Beverage
I’m so glad that they got rid of the Black Sesame theme and introduced three new cold tea drinks and frappuccino. The first cold tea drink is the Black Currant and Raspberry Juiced Tea. I haven’t tried this one yet but I would imagine it would taste more berry. The next tea drink is the Hibiscus Mango Juiced Tea. It has a flowery mango taste and the mango doesn’t taste like Chinese mango flavor. Price: Tall for RMB 20, Grande for RMB 23 and Venti for RMB 26
The Coffee Jelly Frappuccino Blended Coffee is back. I’m not sure if the black jelly is the Chinese “Gui Lin Gao” but if it is then it’s good for you to have it in the summer months. Price: Tall for RMB 30, Grande for RMB 33 and Venti for RMB 36
Winter weather is finally out and Spring was cut short. Summer is now in the wind but it’s still relatively cool. If you’re planning to visit Beijing, do it now as weather in July and August is unbearable. In any case, the summer theme of Starbucks is “Black is Chill This Summer”
Promotions
From April 27 to June 27, every purchase of the Black is Chill merchandise or food product will entitle you a sticker. Collect 12 stickers to form a picture of the new summer drink and get a free Starbucks summer cloth bag. The stickers they will give you may be the same as your previous one so better befriend your local barista and they might give you the missing sticker you still need.
Collect 6 stickers and they will give you one free Black Sesame Green Tea Frappuccino Blended Cream drink.
My sisters came to visit me in Beijing but since they took the budget flight to Shanghai, I had to pick them up there. As usual, I have to stop by a Starbucks shop to purchase for my favorite collectors. There are several Starbucks in Shanghai notably in famous tourist spots like Xintiandi, Yuyuan and Nanjing Road. They still don’t have a store at the new Terminal 2 airport of Shanghai Pudong.
Unlike Beijing tumblers, Shanghai have box sets perfect for gifts. I was lucky enough to purchase a Shanghai box set and a Zhejiang box set. Each box set costs RMB 388 (Ouch!). What I like about it is, some of the tumbler designs are transparent and can only be purchased in a set. The Shanghai box set is composed of Shanghai, Xintiandi and Yuyuan. The Zhejiang box set is composed of Ningbo, Shaoxing and Hangzhou. Check out the pictures of these sets.
Chinese New Year is just around the corner and what better way to give gifts to your loved ones is to buy Starbucks merchandise. The coming Chinese New Year is the Year of the Ox. Merchandise shaped like an Ox are sprouting up everywhere. Some of them ridiculously expensive while others are dirt cheap. Not to be left in the dust with the other shops, Starbucks came out with the Chinese New Year merchandise.
Some of them are the coin bank which is shaped like an Ox. According to my cousin, my aunt have been collecting this coin banks for the past two years already. She already purchased the latest one which is an Ox. It seems like Starbucks merchandise collection runs in their family. Another Ox merchandise is the mug. It’s quite cute actually though I can’t remember how much it cost. There’s also a small tumbler with the Ox design which they don’t have on the website.