What Happened With the Starbucks Coffee Machine Part?

A Beijing customer ordered two Starbucks lattes through the Eleme delivery platform and found a black plastic piece at the bottom of one cup. The drink was ordered after 8 a.m. on April 9, and the customer posted video of the object to Weibo and Douyin that same day.

The store said the employee who prepared the drink is deaf and did not hear the part fall, which then sank and blended with the coffee color. The order was refunded with five drink vouchers, and Starbucks began checking coffee machines across its Beijing stores for loose parts. The case raises questions about takeaway food safety and routine machine maintenance.

Ordering a takeaway coffee is supposed to save trouble, but a consumer in Beijing drank a coffee machine part in a Starbucks latte, and the incident quickly sparked widespread discussion. The store involved explained that the employee who made the drink was a deaf-mute partner, and during operation did not hear the sound of the part falling off. In addition, the part sank to the bottom and its color was similar to the coffee, so it was not discovered. The store has already refunded the entire order and compensated with five drink vouchers. Starbucks has also launched an inspection across all Beijing stores for loose coffee machine parts. This incident not only draws attention to the food safety of takeaway coffee, but also triggers discussion about routine coffee machine maintenance and the working environment of employees with disabilities.

Not wanting to make coffee by hand in the morning and ordering a Starbucks through a delivery platform is a hassle-free choice for many people. However, after a Beijing netizen ordered two Starbucks lattes through Eleme, they actually found a coffee machine part at the bottom of one of the cups.

On April 9, a Beijing netizen posted on Weibo that they had drunk a coffee machine part from a takeaway coffee bought from the Starbucks Lecheng store in Beijing. Yes, a part from the coffee machine. The netizen also asked on Weibo whether the part needed to be returned to the store.

After 4 p.m. that day, the netizen recounted the incident in detail on Weibo: the takeaway coffee was ordered after 8 a.m., and after drinking it, a black block-shaped plastic object was found at the bottom of the cup, so a video was immediately recorded and posted to Weibo and Douyin. By after 4 p.m., Eleme customer service called to say that the Starbucks store was looking for the person involved and hoped the part could be returned. However, because the part had already been thrown into the trash can, and considering hygiene issues, the netizen was hesitant about whether to return it.

There was also a post with identical content on the Xiaohongshu platform. A comment suspected to be from a Starbucks employee pointed out that this black foreign object was a component on the coffee machine. Although it would not normally come into direct contact with food, it was prone to falling off. Because coffee machines are expensive and not mass-produced, accessories are hard to find, and repair costs are also quite high.

With a foreign object appearing in takeaway coffee, food safety is naturally the issue everyone cares about most. After all, a solid object was mixed into a liquid drink. Some netizens said that fortunately this part was large enough; if it had been a small part, the consequences of swallowing it would be unimaginable.

Since the part was not small in size, logically it should have been discovered and removed. Why was it still left in the coffee? In response, the manager of the Starbucks store involved replied that the employee who made this cup of coffee was a deaf-mute person and could not hear the sound of the part falling during operation. The part fell at noon and sank to the bottom of the cup. The espresso liquid covered it, and because the color of the part was close to that of the coffee, the employee did not notice it.

When asked whether the part was hygienic, the store manager said that the part was not dirty and was disinfected every 30 minutes. However, on the Xiaohongshu platform, netizens had different views on this.

The manager of the store involved confirmed the Starbucks customer's online description and said that a full refund had been given to the consumer, along with five drink vouchers as compensation. Because this was the first such case in Beijing, the probability of loose parts is relatively higher on older coffee machines. Starbucks attaches great importance to this and has already conducted a survey across all Beijing stores on whether this part is loose, and may reinforce the coffee machines afterward.

Some netizens did not accept the explanation of the store manager involved.

Some netizens also believed that the problem was not with the barista, but was an accident caused by the coffee machine not being regularly inspected and maintained.

At the same time, some netizens commented that as early as 2013 they had encountered a coffee machine part in Starbucks coffee, and at that time they also received 5 drink vouchers. This shows that this incident was not the first occurrence.

The store manager further explained that this order of coffee was made by a deaf-mute Starbucks partner, so during operation the sound of the part falling was not heard, and because the metal part was relatively heavy, after falling it sank to the bottom of the cup and was not noticed. Even so, such a problem in the final product clearly should not have happened. The Starbucks store involved has compensated the consumer in question. What do you think about this?

Image source: Weibo, Xiaohongshu, internet

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.