OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
1:40 PM – Friday, September 19, 2025
Starbucks has ordered its staff to write Charlie Kirk’s name on coffee cups if customers ask them to do so in honor of the assassinated Turning Point USA (TPUSA) co-founder.
Since Kirk was fatally shot last week at an event at Utah Valley University, a clip posted on Kirk’s TikTok in July resurfaced from a previous event hosted by TPUSA, where a student asked him for his Starbucks order. The student noticed him “carrying a Starbucks cup around all day,” and made a few guesses as to what he was drinking.
“It is literally just Mint Majesty Tea with two honeys and I drink like nine of them a day, otherwise I’d lose my voice,” Kirk answered.
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Those mourning Kirk’s death have been ordering his favorite drink under his name in remembrance of the conservative activist.
A TikTok video came out on Monday, allegedly filmed at a Starbucks located in Yucaipa, California, depicting a woman asking for Kirk’s name on her cup, and the barista refusing, saying, “We can’t do political names.” She offered to write “Charlie,” and the customer told her to “forget it.”
Starbucks responded to the controversy in a statement on Tuesday.
“Starbucks is a company built on human connection,” the company said. “Having a name, rather than a number, attached to a customer order has been a core part of the Starbucks coffeehouse experience for decades. Most customers use their own name. And when a customer wants to use a different name — including the name Charlie Kirk — when ordering their drink in our café, we aim to respect their preference.”
The statement went on to explain that they had previous instances where people “tried to abuse the system” to get baristas to shout slogans or words that were “sexually explicit or otherwise offensive,” in place of names. Starbucks baristas have been coached to “respectfully ask the customer to use a different name when attempting to use political slogans or phrases in place of their name.”
“We are clarifying with our team now that names, on their own, can be used by customers on their café order, as they wish,” Starbucks stated.
The coffee giant updated the statement on Wednesday:
“There are no restrictions on customers using Charlie Kirk’s name on their order, and we are following up with our team,” the update read.
A movement has also spread throughout social media of mourners’ plans to order Kirk’s drink on what would have been his 32nd birthday, October 14th.
In addition to the October tribute, Kirk’s supporters are petitioning Starbucks to name the Mint Majesty Tea after him. A petition on Change.org asks Starbucks to change the name to “Kirk Special or “The Charlie Kirk.” The petition currently has 3,747 verified signatures.
One supporter commented on the petition, “We haven’t been to Starbucks in over 8 years, but would go there to buy the drink that Charlie loved.”
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