Starbucks is partnering with Ariana Grande on its latest coffee offering. The coffee chain and singer both posted twin cloud emoji tweets on Monday. Grande tagged @Starbucks, leading fans online to piece together that she was teasing the new "Cloud Macchiato," which Starbucks ($SBUX) officially launched this week. She followed those up with a pair of new tweets Tuesday morning showing the singer decked out in a Starbucks apron sipping on one of the new bevvies.
Internal documents showed that Grande was helping the company launch the new beverage, according to Business Insider.
Grande might already be considered an unofficial brand ambassador given how many times she's been snapped holding a Starbucks drink. Starbucks has not confirmed that it has a partnership with the "Thank U, Next" singer, though BI reported that as part of the promotion some stores will also feature Grande-approved playlists and songs.
The Cloud Macchiato is a twist on an Italian coffee staple. The "macchiato," literally translated to "stained" is a shot of espresso with a bit (stain) of frothed milk. Starbucks gained success bastardizing that and other Italian cafe classics with iced versions, caramel drizzles, and mocha. The Cloud version will come in cinnamon or caramel versions with a dollop of whipped cold milk foam, according to the press release.
Jared C. Bass, senior director for Higher Education at the Center for American Progress, joins Cheddar News to discuss how schools are navigating the Omicron variant.
Martin Fischer, president of technology supplier for cars and commercial vehicles ZF North America, joined Cheddar to discuss the company's solutions for next-generation mobility in autonomous vehicles and its plans to usher in the next phase of electric vehicles. He also talked about the rising demand for self-driving technology on a global scale. "Whereas we are really active also there for passenger cars and commercial vehicles, what we showcase at CES now virtually is our autonomous shuttles," he said. "So, what that means is we bring these vehicles to busy city centers and can take traffic levels down."
Pfizer and BioNTech are working to develop an mRNA-based shingles vaccine following the success of the COVID-19 shot. This latest collaboration will mark the third time the pharmaceutical companies have worked together on a vaccine.
On Monday, President Biden announced his new plan to take on inflation by taking down the big meat monopolies - turning to the federal government's antitrust authorities to investigate the major meatpackers that control a significant share of the market. The White House plans to devote one billion dollars to aiding independent meat and poultry producers in an effort to undercut the few powerful meat producers that have control of the sector. Austin Frerick, deputy director of Thurman Arnold Project at Yale, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Flight cancellations remain high nearly two weeks after the Christmas holiday, with more than 1,400 counted on Tuesday. Carriers are facing a number of factors including staff shortages linked to COVID-19 spread as well as inclement weather.
SGH, formerly known as Smart Global Holdings, reported Q1 earnings after the bell on Tuesday. The holdings company reported solid net sales, up a whopping 60 percent from the same period last year, marking its seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth. SGH also announced a two-for-one share split in the form of a share dividend of one ordinary share for every one ordinary share owned. Mark Adams, CEO, SGH and Former President, Micron, joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
For the first time in 90 years, General Motors has officially been dethroned as the top car seller in the U.S. after Toyota sold 2.3 million vehicles last year. Paulina Likos, an investing reporter at U.S News & World Report, said that the Japanese auto giant's 2021 success is linked to its large stockpile of semiconductor chips that allowed it to continue producing vehicles while others lagged behind. Likos noted that both GM and Toyota noted that this is unlikely to be a long-term trend and pointed to both automakers' push to become EV leaders. "I think what's great in this EV market is that there are so many different competitors, and certainly both GM and Toyota are trying to be leaders in this space," she said.