Some Starbucks coffee addicts were getting their caffeine fix for free Friday, as the company's computer system failed across North America.

News of the failed system spread quickly across Twitter as customers celebrated getting their hand-crafted beverages gratis.

A hashtag — #thefrappening — was gleefully adopted.

CBC News in Vancouver visited two stores on Robson Street to order drinks and were told the tills were down, and that the drinks would be free. Staff could not say when things would be back to normal.

Other tweets say the stores are now accepting only cash.

As the outage persisted into the evening, Starbucks said it would close its stores early as well as its Evolution Fresh and Teavana stores that were also affected.

""The outage was caused by a failure during a daily system refresh," the company said in a statement, adding that all of its stores are expected to open on Saturday as usual.

Confirmed - free tall coffee or tea at the Starbucks at Water and Cambie <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Vancouver?src=hash">#Vancouver</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/VancityBuzz">@VancityBuzz</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/thefrappening?src=hash">#thefrappening</a> <a href="http://t.co/EgvpjPvMFl">pic.twitter.com/EgvpjPvMFl</a> —@MissBriannaM

Thanks for the free caramel macchiato, <a href="https://twitter.com/Starbucks">@starbucks</a>! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/thefrappening?src=hash">#thefrappening</a> <a href="http://t.co/DpXdbjAnLG">pic.twitter.com/DpXdbjAnLG</a> —@vygreatwiseone

Considering they're giving away free drinks, this <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Starbucks?src=hash">#Starbucks</a> is surprisingly empty <a href="http://t.co/Vv9LYXzG5C">pic.twitter.com/Vv9LYXzG5C</a> —@SpiderRider3

Starbucks downtown Vancouver free coffee today because computer network is broken. LOL <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/starbucks?src=hash">#starbucks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/vancouver?src=hash">#vancouver</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/coffee?src=hash">#coffee</a> <a href="http://t.co/bUiPHuAfBB">pic.twitter.com/bUiPHuAfBB</a> —@anthonymaw