The Chain Gang

NBC’s Private Sochi Starbucks Serves Free Coffee 24/7

They even write your name on the cup.
They even write your name on the cup. Photo: Megan Kerry Spencer/Twitter

The coffee chain isn’t an official Olympic sponsor, but NBC sneaked a working Starbucks kiosk into its Sochi command center anyhow. Here, baristas serve espresso drinks to employees free of charge and around the clock. Network personnel reportedly aren’t necessarily sharing with their Olympic Park peers, the Wall Street Journal notes, and pretty much everyone else is stuck with McDonald’s, which has the exclusive rights to coffee sales with its McCafé option. But the limited access hasn’t stopped some from repurposing their leftover green-and-white logo-stamped cups into a sign of exclusivity. “It’s a status symbol,” says Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, who’s (sadly) been refilling his paper cup with unbranded coffee at various vendor stands. “It shows I’m not some kind of lowlife.” [WSJ]

NBC’s Private Sochi Starbucks Serves Free Coffee 24/7