Ed Sheeran has taken his “Autumn Variations” era to the source of fall flavors.
On Aug. 25, Sheeran posted a video to his Instagram account showing his latest service industry shift while on tour. The four-time Grammy winner has been popping up around the country working at local businesses: whipping up cheesesteaks in Philadelphia and serving hot dogs — and insults — in Chicago. So. ahead of his concert at Seattle’s Lumen Field on Aug. 25, Sheeran’s worked a shift as a barista at Starbucks.
“Launching the Pumpkin Spice Latte to celebrate the announce of Autumn Variations here in Seattle,” Sheeran wrote on Instagram. “Thanks for having me @starbucks, if you gave me your name I gave you a new one, for I am the barista of joy. Autumn is coming, September 29th.”
Indeed, autumn is both here already, thanks to the arrival of Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte on Aug. 24, and will be here again on Sept. 23, the actual first day of fall. But, autumn — as in “Autumn Variations,” the upcoming seventh studio album by the singer-songwriter is set to drop Sept. 29 and will include 14 songs written about 14 of his friends.
So, with that in mind, as the “barista of joy,” Sheeran made a few new friends, starting off the video by taking a shot of espresso with his new coworkers.
“I’m here in Seattle. I’m gonna go into Starbucks and launch the Pumpkin Spice Latte for ‘Autumn Variations,’ and here we go,” Sheeran says. The video cuts to a line of people around the block aching to be served coffee by the “Shape of You” singer himself.
After showing a supercut of his fellow friendly staff, Sheeran puts on an apron and an “Ed” nametag before getting to work, sort of.
“If someone says their name, I’m just gonna write a completely different name,” Sheeran says. True to his word, he gives a man named Rob a cup with “Daisy” written on the side, then “Dennis” to a woman named Erin. Sheeran then signed his own name (we assume) on one woman who excitedly declared she scored his signature on the shirt she was wearing.
All the cups handed out during Sheeran’s shift had a sticker on the side with the words “Autumn is coming” and a QR code leading to a dedicated page to preorder the star’s album.
“Right, so that has been my day at Starbucks, how did I do?” Sheeran asks other Starbucks workers, who say he did “amazing” and that he’s the “perfect barista.”
Friends and fans of Sheeran took to the comments to let them know how they felt about his performance.
“The perfect barista ✨🍁,” commented the official Starbucks account, to which the official Starbucks Partners account added, “Loved working with you today! We had a blast. 💚🍂.”
“Did you serve Cold Coffee,” wrote one user on Instagram, cleverly invoking Sheeran’s song from his album “5.”
“Yaaaas that’s my fav for the season 😋,” wrote singer Nicole Scherzinger.
“You are the barista of joy!! My girls and I got to meet you,” wrote another user, adding that they chatted with Sheeran’s wife Cherry Seaborn and friend Mark. “You’re so kind and so warm Ed! Cheers to this new season in life!”
No word on if the star is a PSL enthusiast, Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew lover or an Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato man, but hey, we’re just “Thinking Out Loud” here.
