About
15 Minutes Late With Starbucks is an expression mocking someone who is late to a meeting or event because they appear to have stopped for coffee on the way.
Origin
On September 3rd, 2012, Twitter user emre published a tweet which claimed that pop singer Taylor Swift looked like someone who would show up late to class with Starbucks. Within the next six months, the tweet received over 1,000 retweets and 700 favorites.
taylor swift looks like those white girls who show up 10 minutes late to class with starbucks every day
— emre(@chanelpuke) September 3, 2012
Spread
On February 17th, 2013, Redditor koobaxion submitted a post to the /r/homestuck[1] subreddit featuring a screen of a Tumblr post with a Homestuck character carrying Starbucks coffee. Within 17 days, the post received over 160 up votes and 10 comments.