Ariana Grande is vegan, but her new Starbucks collaboration isn’t

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 14 March 2019

Vegan fans of Ariana Grande are angry after it turned out that the new drink she’s launched with Starbucks does not suit an entirely plant-based diet. Grande herself being vegan you would have thought she might have noticed.

When she announced the Caramel Cloud Macchiato earlier this month, she did suggest it was vegan, encouraging fans on Twitter to “try the soy version”. However, replacing the milk in the drink with a non-dairy alternative, as Buzzfeed points out, does very little to improve its vegan credentials.

The issue is with the drink’s toppings. The ‘cloud foam’ that gives it its frothy head is made with egg whites, while the caramel sauce on top of that contains butter. You could make it vegan by removing those, but then it would just be a macchiato, which isn’t new or directly endorsed by Grande. Though that’s seemingly what many Grande fans have walked out of the coffee shop with – a number of Starbucks staff having written on social media that they’ve been inundated with requests for a vegan version of the drink.

Grande’s endorsement of Starbucks seems relatively recent. It has been pointed out that in the past the music star has joked about her dislike of the coffee chain on Twitter. It’s almost as if this is a cynical brand partnership more about money than anything else.

Anyway, Grande hasn’t commented. Perhaps she’s too busy drinking caramel cloud macchiatos. Or not. Is it worse to say she does or doesn’t drink them?

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