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Starbucks Sochi Winter Olympics

Those Starbucks coffee cups (thank you, NBC) vanish from view at the Sochi Olympics

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By Noel Young, Correspondent

February 21, 2014 | 3 min read

Suddenly, no Starbucks cups are to be seen outside NBC's offices at the Sochi Olympics.

Warning to Starbucks fans

After a Wall Street Journal article on NBC's very own Starbucks at the winter games, spotlighted by The Drum,the stream of free coffee to outsiders has stopped.

The 15 baristas that NBC is paying to staff the coffee bar are now handing over steaming Starbucks cups only after ascertaining that recipients don't intend to leave NBC offices.

Starbucks is not of course an Olympic sponsor. The sponsor serving branded coffee at the Games is McDonald's, whose McCafes are selling a variety of specialty coffee drinks.

After the Journal article, NBC coffee enthusiasts showed up at their private Starbucks found a new warning sign. "Please enjoy your Starbucks within NBC space only," the announcement said in capital letters.

"Do not leave NBC space with your Starbucks cup."

Then, security guards began stopping NBC employees trying to exit the premises carrying cups "with the verboten green-and-white Starbucks mermaid,” as the WSJ put it.

"The same guards that won't let people in now won't let Starbucks out," one person with access to the coffee told the Journal . He declined to be identified for fear of retribution.

Some NBC employees had been bringing Starbucks coffee for friends and acquaintances at the Games. After all, the drinks—served round the clock—cost "customers" nothing?

Now the free coffee flow has stopped. Someone trying to leave the NBC offices with a Starbucks cup was told by a guard: "No gifts. No gifts. Pour it out or go back and drink it."

The person said that he and his colleagues were told that NBC was working on getting new, unbranded cups to allow employees to travel more freely with their “elite” coffee. Some orange-and-brown generic cups had shown up by Wednesday.

Baristas are said to have have been taken to asking whether "customers" plan to consume their coffee on the NBC premises or outside the broadcaster's cordoned-off area. If the employees agree to stay within the NBC compound, they can get a coveted Starbucks cup; if they plan to travel to the outer world, they receive a generic cup, the coffee drinker said.

To serve the roughly 2,500 people NBC sent to Sochi, and to serve guests to the NBC compound, the network flew in baristas from around Russia.

NBC says its private Starbucks"isn't stepping on McDonald's toes" because the special coffee is a "personal item" and not on sale to the general public.

Starbucks Sochi Winter Olympics

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