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Starbucks barista claims customer asked for drink to match his skin colour: ‘Happened to me too’

‘The amount of times I’ve heard this’

Amber Raiken
New York
Monday 11 April 2022 22:21 BST
Comments
(@angellrreyes/TikTok)

A man who claims to work at Starbucks has revealed how a customer requested his drink to be the colour of the barista’s skin.

In a recent video posted to TikTok, @angellrreyes recalled the “surprising” way a customer at Starbucks recently ordered his drink, with the barista writing in a text caption on the video: “Me calculating why a grown white man told me he wanted his iced chai tea latte the same colour as my skin.

In the caption, he added: “Man when I tell you this took me by surprise!!!”

As of 11 April, the clip has more than 116,00 views, with many TikTok users in the comments stunned by the situation.

“BRUH NO WAY??!” one viewer wrote, while another said: “I’M STILL THINKING ABOUT THIS.”

Many others, who said that they’ve also worked in food services, chimed in, expressing how they’ve also had experiences like @angellrreyes’s.

“Omg that happened to me too!” one TikTok user wrote. “I didn’t even know what to say.”

“Literally the same happened to me with a lady at the drive thru saying: ‘I want my iced coffee the colour of your skin,’” another TikTok user added.

According to someone else who works at Starbucks, the same also happened to them. “This happened to me during a Starbies shift and my manager pulled me to the side to ask if I was okay after that encounter,” they claimed.

In response, @angellrreyes noted how his supervisor wasn’t around when the customer made the remark towards him.

“Nah cause my manager was in the back when this happened and the face of shock he had when I told him,” he wrote.

However, he still tried to find some humour in the incident, as one person in the comments said: “This isn’t supposed to be funny but it is,” to which @angellrreyes responded: “It’s OK, you can laugh!”

The Independent has contacted @angellrreyes and Starbucks for comment.

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