For many of us, our day usually doesn’t start well and proper till we get our morning coffee fix.
We usually wouldn’t expect a simple pleasure like this to go wrong. But recently, one customer of Flash Coffee found a mysterious lumpy texture floating in her beverage.
Flabbergasted, she contacted the coffee company for an explanation.
Flash Coffee explained in a statement that the residue was milk skin. They have apologised to the affected customer and offered her compensation.
The customer, Ms Chia, or @jelynchiaa, first uploaded a TikTok video about the rather unusual “ingredient” on 3 Jun.
Using a spoon to lift the curdled texture, she wrote in the caption that she found it in her Flash Coffee drink.
She lifted the coffee-coloured residue higher for a clearer picture and asked, “What do you think this is?”
After the clip was posted, many TikTok users felt worried and immediately tagged the company to ask for an explanation.
As many tried to identify possible factors, some commented that this type of residue typically forms when the coffee machines aren’t cleaned thoroughly, resulting in residue build-up and “ejects all at once”.
One person pointed out that the milk has probably curdled.
The mystery was solved right after Flash Coffee learnt of the incident.
Speaking to MS News, Flash Coffee’s PR and Communications Manager said they were made aware of the incident and immediately conducted an investigation.
They deduced that the residue was milk skin, explaining that such precipitates may form when the milk is “left out for too long”.
Unfortunately, one of their baristas left the milk for over 10 minutes, resulting in the substance forming.
The manager added that they have taken corrective action by retraining the relevant staff. They have also reached out to Ms Chia to address the issue and also compensated her appropriately.
Below is the company’s full statement:
Delivering a consistent and high-quality product and customer experience is at the core of what we strive to achieve at Flash Coffee.
Upon learning of the incident, we deployed our Quality Assurance and Operations teams to launch an investigation to gain a better understanding of what had happened. We believe that the substance was milk skin – which can form if milk is left out for more than 10 minutes.
Unfortunately, this was a result of a lapse in our barista executing the correct Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), and we have taken corrective action by retraining the relevant staff. We will continually work to ensure that our teams prescribe to our high training and service standards so that this incident will not happen again.
We do sincerely apologise for Ms Jelyn Chia’s experience and have compensated her appropriately.
The incident was regrettable, but human error does occur once in a while.
But it serves as an essential reminder to F&B companies to ensure that their staffs are well-trained to adhere to the SOPs so that such incidents wouldn’t occur again.
As for consumers, we guess it doesn’t hurt to inspect your drinks every now and then after buying them.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from @jelynchiaa on TikTok.
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