Ariana Grande hits back after being criticised for working with Starbucks

On Tuesday, Ariana Grande announced she would be collaborating with Starbucks on a new drink ‘The Cloud Macchiato.’

The drink, which is essentially an espresso with foam on top and comes in caramel or cinnamon flavours, was rumoured to be part of a collaboration between Grande and Starbucks for International Women’s Day.

Clouds are a big part of Grande’s brand right now – her perfume is called cloud, and her music videos have previously played around with cloud imagery.

Grande’s fans immediately loved the drink, heading to stores to try it and sending her their praise.
“she makes FANTASTIC drinks, as well as her music. thank u ily @ArianaGrande,” one tweeted.

“iced caramel cloud macchiato with soy milk. so so so so so good,” said another.

However, she was met with backlash, with some people accusing her of profiting off feminism.

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“ariana grande selling a custom starbucks drink on international women’s day is like. you cannot write better parody of woke capitalism than the actual thing,” tweeted podcaster Rachel Millman. The sentiment was retweeted over 9000 times.

Grande responded to the accusation, saying, “women’s day the 8th.”

In a statement to Business Insider, Starbucks clarified that the Cloud Macchiato was separate to their International Women’s Day plans.

“With more than 4,000 songs in rotation, Starbucks playlists are created for our stores and include a wide range of music,” a spokesperson said. “Additionally, this week we will be featuring a playlist for International Women’s Day and this is the second year we have done so. Separately, We’ve long been fans of Ariana Grande — and we’re both fans of clouds — so we were excited to work with her to introduce the new beverage to customers and fans alike through fun social posts. The celebration will continue next week with a playlist in our stores that features Ariana’s favorite music (including some of her hits) as one of multiple playlists available in our U.S. and Canada stores.”

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The drink appears to currently be only available in the US, with no word on when it’ll be made available internationally.