Cockroach Found in Starbucks Coffee?! Starbucks Official Response!

On March 10th, a netizen revealed that they found a cockroach—and it was alive!—in their Starbucks Tahitian Macchiato Cold Brew. Within two days of the post, another blogger with millions of followers also shared the photo with the caption "Help!!! Found a cockroach in my Starbucks drink!!!" Less than two hours later, Starbucks surged to the top of the Weibo trending topics...

The original Weibo post didn't attract much attention on the day it was published. Most netizens who responded expressed disgust and reminded the blogger to prepare for the March 15th Consumer Rights Day by calling 12315 for consumer rights protection. The original poster also didn't make any follow-up responses on March 10th.

It wasn't until March 12th, when another blogger posted about it, that the incident started trending. However, most netizens remained skeptical. Many expressed that the incident seemed highly unreasonable, especially finding a live insect in a finished food product—such "luck" would be worth buying a lottery ticket. Some netizens believed the blogger likely placed the cockroach there themselves to gain trending status.

Former Employees Weigh In

As the incident escalated, former Starbucks employees appeared in the comments section, providing detailed explanations of the Tahitian Cold Brew preparation process. They believed the probability of finding a live cockroach in this particular iced beverage was extremely low.

Netizens Call for Evidence

Despite the absurdity of the incident, netizens approached the situation with considerable calm. Many expressed hope to review surveillance footage before discussing the matter further.

Original Poster Responds

Facing numerous doubts from netizens, the original poster responded as follows:

The blogger also claimed that a similar incident occurred with the same drink purchased from the same branch in 2021. This addition further increased netizens' skepticism about the incident's authenticity, with many questioning why they didn't complain at the time but waited until now to mention it.

(⬇️: Images in "View Pictures")

Further Developments

That wasn't enough—the original poster posted on Weibo again, and the result was...

Faced with these highly "shocking" photos, netizens seemed to have developed strong resilience...

Media Investigation and Responses

After the incident trended on Weibo, media outlets contacted the original poster, who responded: "I'm very confused by netizens suggesting I deliberately put it there. I posted online just to vent about a rare incident. I didn't demand compensation and have already provided feedback to customer service. They refunded this order and promised to improve hygiene management in the future."

Starbucks also responded with the latest investigation progress. They stated that on the day in question, store partners strictly followed the beverage preparation procedures and used disposable bee-proof packaging specifically designed for takeout orders. They also mentioned that the involved store invited a third-party pest control company for on-site inspections on both March 10th and 11th, with no related pest issues found.

Image Credits

Image sources: Weibo screenshots, Singularity Financial Video screenshots, Starbucks China Weibo screenshots

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