Pandemic-induced rise in app ordering has given birth to the “appuccino”, a phenomenon driven by TikTok, where customized Starbucks drink suggestions go viral
they're way more likely to request like, triple bacon triple cheese at a McDonalds kiosk than when speaking to a human https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
BuzzFeed NewsKatie Notopoulos
Context & Ripple Effects
The appuccino is the payoff of a decade-long interface shift: Starbucks has been moving ordering off humans since it unveiled a virtual assistant for messaging and voice orders in 2017, and McDonald's has spent years testing kiosks and voice AI after finding that customers request far heavier customizations — 'triple bacon triple cheese' territory — to a screen than to a person. The pandemic pushed volume onto those apps, and TikTok turned the resulting customization freedom into shareable content.
What makes this more than a novelty is that TikTok is no longer just an accidental marketing channel: it later moved to capture the value directly by co-launching TikTok Kitchen with Virtual Dining Concepts, turning viral food trends into a delivery business. The appuccino shows the same loop running in reverse through incumbent brands' own apps.
First-order effects
Starbucks baristas absorb the cost of the phenomenon: viral recipes drive app-order volume with complex, non-menu customizations that slow service lines while the brand gets the marketing for free.
Second-order effects
Rivals have a template to copy — McDonald's kiosk and voice-AI buildout is positioned to harvest the same over-disclosure effect at scale, since screens remove the social friction that limits add-ons.
Third-order effects
Menu engineering shifts from fixed items to customizable platforms, and social platforms graduate from unpaid trend engines to commercial intermediaries — the direction TikTok Kitchen and Instacart's Gen-Z group-ordering app Fizz both point toward.
The trend: Food ordering is migrating to software interfaces precisely because customers reveal more demand — and generate more viral content — when no human is on the other side of the counter.
Go read @katienotopoulos story for @BuzzFeedNews about how TikTok trends are making Starbucks orders obnoxious https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
This is fascinating: ordering through the Starbucks app “mitigates the possible embarrassment of ordering a weird drink in person, and gives the budding alchemist the extra time needed to ponder which extra pumps to add” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
I wrote about how viral custom orders are the now the future of Starbucks, which now sells more iced drinks than hot ones. Between pandemic-induced increase in mobile ordering and a massive TikTok influence, this is just what Starbucks ~is~ now. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
When I was a barista, whenever someone asked for something too complicated (see: “frozen hot chocolate,” anything with >2 extra ingredients) I'd always say “we're out of that” and wait for them to order something I knew how to make. Obv I got fired. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ …
Appuccino, Please: How TikTok Is Permanently Changing Starbucks https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... by @katienotopoulos Dear Gods. I've heard from “coffee” drinkers that they drive through a McD or a Dunkin' in a pinch. When was the last time you bought a coffee at Starbucks?
Great story & it's bigger than Starbucks: the move to app-based / kiosk ordering removes a “shame barrier” in how ppl order fast food—they're way more likely to request like, triple bacon triple cheese at a McDonalds kiosk than when speaking to a human https://www.buzzfeednews.co…