The Real Brand Behind Game of Thrones’ Coffee Cup Gaffe—No, Not Starbucks—Never Cashed In

Forget about White Walkers. Game of Thrones' final season was really all about Khaleesi's flat white. When a modern-day coffee cup found its way in front of Emilia Clarke's Daenerys Targaryen in Season 8 of HBO's fantasy series, the image went viral instantly. Some viewers thought it was hilarious that a $15-million-per-episode show had such an obvious goof, others thought the error was proof the fans cared more about the show than the creators and a few fans just wondered what Daenerys had ordered at Westeros' local coffeehouse. Though there were no discernable markings on the drink, it bore enough resemblance to a Starbucks to-go cup that the brand was printed in headlines. News outlets ran with it. And suddenly, Daenerys Targaryen went from a Breaker of Chains to a fangirl of coffee chains. How HBO Ignited House of the Dragon’s Marketing Campaign HBO released a statement at the time saying Starbucks wasn't behind the cup, which was digitally removed from the episode, but the headlines persisted. And with the release of Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon—whose Season 1 finale debuts Sunday—Starbucks is back in the news, with House of the Dragon creators joking about "hunting" for Starbucks on set. In addition, a small VFX error in one of the episodes also had the media bringing up the infamous coffee cup. Now, for the first time since the episode aired in May 2019, the real Belfast coffeehouse behind the cup—and no, it wasn't Starbucks—is speaking out. "It was such a disappointment that Starbucks was the immediate [assumption]," Mark Ashbridge, who owns Established Coffee with his partner, Dr. Bridgeen Barbour, told Adweek. "Like, who on Earth first said that? There was no discernable logo on anything." The true identity of the coffeehouse behind the cup has largely been a mystery. HBO claimed it was a craft services cup. Several shops around Belfast and Banbridge in Northern Ireland, where Game of Thrones filmed the Daenerys scene, were also the source of speculation, with some even taking credit for the vagabond vessel along the way. For a while, the owners of Belfast's Established Coffee thought it wasn't really their cup. "The actual scene was filmed months and months prior to ever hitting a TV screen, so you couldn't say someone was here yesterday when that happened," Ashbridge said. However, in the Season 8 Blu-ray commentary, released in December 2019, Emilia Clarke attempted to clear things up when discussing the coffee incident with the series showrunners. "[They were] like, 'It was Established Coffee,'" Ashbridge told Adweek, pulling up an audio clip of the moment, "She was saying, 'It's the best place for coffee.' I remember screen recording and going like, 'We should try to put this out there. This would be really good PR for us, and we didn't get any of the rub when it happened.' I remember seeing the headlines. It was equivalent to $6 or $7 million in free PR." But, to date, Established Coffee hasn't promoted the moment. And when it comes to Starbucks' free publicity, $7 million isn't even scratching the surface. Bridgeen Barbour and Mark Ashbridge, owners of Established Coffee. Stacy Jones, CEO and founder of Hollywood Branded, previously made headlines by estimating that the misplaced coffee cup was worth more than $2 billion in free PR for Starbucks within days after the episode aired, citing PR subscriptions service Critical Mention, which had tallied 10,627 mentions of Starbucks and Game of Thrones on the internet, TV and radio around the world. Since then, the total has more than doubled. Jones ran a new Critical Mention report that accounts for data from August 2020 until the beginning of August 2022—the same month House of the Dragon premiered—and added the data to what she had previously collected. According to Jones, conversations around Starbucks in conjunction with Game of Thrones received more than 22,000 mentions across media and reached an audience of more than 88 billion. In total, the coffee chain has racked up an estimated PR value of more than $4.25 billion since the moment aired. The actual total is likely much higher. Jones told us the report accounts for data before mid-June 2019 and after August 2020, as Critical Mention reports can only go back two years and she had originally only tracked until June after the episode aired. "I don't think there's anyone in the world who has not heard by this point in time about that cup being in Game of Thrones and having people believe that it's Starbucks," Jones told Adweek. "I still, on a weekly basis, have conversations where this is referenced to me." Before Adweek spoke with Established Coffee, Jones even guessed the real coffee shop behind the cup had been given an NDA to stop them from talking. After all, there had been no promotion since the show aired in 2019. “We kind of completely forgot about the whole cup thing,” Barbour told us. “So it’s funny that, actually, people were still interested.” Adweek's interview with Ashbridge and Barbour was the first time the couple had spoken publicly about the coffee cup incident. There was no NDA. Excessive promotion just isn't Nothern Ireland's style. "It's a funny thing, coming from Northern Ireland, people just don't get themselves too overexcited about things. I don't know if it was just the type of people we are of the country we came from. There was a war here for a long time, so you kind of feel there's always a lot of trauma that went on in Northern Ireland, a lot of PTSD that we all kind of grew up with, but it was normal," Barbour said. "When things like this happen... we always just wanted to treat people in the cafe like everyone else." Plus, there's another reason Established Coffee isn't kicking itself for missing out on a potential promotion. "If we were much busier than what we are now, I think a bit of magic would be lost," Barbour added. A history to pour over That magic started in 2013—two years after Game of Thrones premiered—when Ashbridge and Barbour first opened the doors on Established Coffee, looking to bring premium coffee, great food and welcoming hospitality to Belfast. Funnily enough, the pair had originally met when working at Starbucks. But on a trip to London in 2006, the couple had coffee that they were amazed didn't taste "burnt" and hatched the beginnings of the idea. Today, Established Coffee has grown into a popular cafe and roastery, seating around 40 people at a time. But it had much more humble beginnings. "When we opened, people thought we were crazy, like actually crazy," Barbour explained. In addition to the pressures of running a business, the couple had two young boys at home, and Barbour was also pursuing her Ph.D. "Mark was there from morning to night," Barbour said. "I suppose when you first opened something like that, you realize how clueless you are, and it's only your own stubbornness and your work ethic and fear." Before Established, there were no specialty coffee shops in Belfast, Ashbridge explained. Whether because of Northern Ireland's history or other extenuating factors, things take time to come to the city. "Even people that were in the industry and enjoyed it said, 'It's a nice place and all, but Belfast is not ready for that yet,'" Ashbridge said. "Thankfully, we proved that it was, and we're still here almost nine years later." It's fitting that Established Coffee may have been the shop behind the cup. The cafe was a frequent stop for the show's cast and crew. Established Coffee was a regular stop for the Game of Thrones cast. "All the Game of Thrones [cast and crew] always came into Established, so we got to know them. But you kind of didn't get to know them because we just didn't bother them," Barbour said. "They all came in to have a coffee. It was always the kind of cafe that I hoped that people felt they could just come in." Peter Dinklage would bring in his family, Kit Harington and Rose Leslie would stop together in the early days of their relationship and, yes, Emilia Clarke was also a regular customer. Ashbridge confirmed that if the coffee in the show was Clarke's, then it was likely a flat white. "Classically, that was exactly what she got," Ashbridge said. "We didn't convert her to filter," Barbour added. Ashbridge guessed that what made Established Coffee so popular with the cast—other than customers generally leaving them alone and the owners occasionally stepping in when they weren't—was that it gave them a taste of what they were missing at home. The Established Coffee owners recalled that early on in Game of Thrones' run, there were headlines that circulated—especially around Belfast—with the cast disparaging the area for not having much to do. Belfast has since flourished with businesses and tech, and Game of Thrones completely changed tourism and the film industry in the area, but Ashbridge explained that, at the time, the complaint was "factually true." "Belfast, no, you can't go for a drink at three o'clock in the morning. No, we are quite backward. Things are closed," Ashbridge said. But Established Coffee's uniqueness made it a draw. "Like Belfast, there was no one doing green juices, soy flour, oat milk, salad bars or just the kind of stuff that these people probably become accustomed to in bigger cities," Ashbridge said. "That was the big thing; you felt maybe you were providing a little bit of that for them." Ashbridge and Barbour explained they started Established Coffee as a place for everyone, and the couple took pride in the fact that the cast and crew could come into the store and essentially go unbothered, regardless of whether they got any promotion or not. A latte of little opportunities Khaleesi, your order is ready. "What most businesses see as the opportunity is, if we can get a photo of that person being in here and put it on social media, that is really good promotion. And we even got our coffee cup in the show and still don't get that promotion," Ashbridge joked. "Even that is fine. It's annoying to some degree. But again, we don't hate Starbucks. We met there, so how could we? But they get all that PR when they don't need it, the size of the business. And then a small business that works their butt off doesn't. That, you can't help." However, in addition to Starbucks, other industries also cashed in on the coffee cup. "I think that it shifted the paradigm as far as people understanding the value of product placement," Jones told Adweek, saying she's also heard of companies getting funding based on the incident. "The investment community has seen this as being a qualification or a qualifier or proof that product placement works to create conversations." As for Established Coffee, the owners are just happy about the little ways the show has impacted them. Over the years, they grew friendly with the cast and crew, many of whom became regular customers. Kit Harington even took a photo in his Game of Thrones gear for the Established Coffee Instagram page, and Tommy Dunne, a weapons master for Game of Thrones, invited the whole team at the shop to come down and sit on the Iron Throne. Piracy Numbers Shed Light on House of the Dragon and Rings of Power’s Fantasy Faceoff "It was fantastic, even with two boys, and they were smaller. And they're sitting on this going, 'I don't know what the hell this is, but mom and dad think it's great,'" Barbour said. "So lots of little opportunities, and maybe in some ways we probably should've capitalized monetarily. But it was great." In terms of promotion, Established already has a webshop and social media presence for its coffee and cafe, which is regularly busy. And though Ashbridge has played the audio of Clarke for "a few people" over the years—and the couple contemplated being a stop on a Game of Thrones tour or creating a specialty drink during our call—the owners don't have plans to use the cup any further. "I think we'd probably be very smart to do so. But sadly, I don't think we will," Ashbridge said. "In many ways, I still wouldn't 100% believe that it's ours. Although our design is very, very simple. So if it's turned a certain way, you're not going to see the logo on the cup." If you think a big marketing push is coming, then you know nothing, Jon Snow. "We're happy to go down in folklore, and the people who know, know," Ashbridge said.