Starbuggs? Starbucks is now turning to natural food colorings, using bugs? The bad news for vegans and those who keep kosher.
It might not be able to turn a profit in Paris, but Starbucks coffee has a sizeable presence in the Middle East, operating in nine countries, employing thousands and serving up coffee and treats since 1999. Coffee drinkers take note: those frothy beverages (aka strawberry creme frappuccino) that glow a pretty shade of pink now get their delicious hue from a crushed cochineal beetles instead of coal tar. Technically – if you don’t keep kosher, that is — it’s a real food, as Jess Zimmerman from Grist reminds us.
“Lots of folks eat bugs — people in most developing countries…But almost nobody thinks coal tar or petroleum are foods, and it turns out that’s the other available option,” he writes.
What’s more, given the choice of a fru-fru beverage that is eons away from natural roasted beans, we can thank the coffee giant for choosing the natural colorant, providing a source of income for those who crush te critters and extract their bright bug juice, and making us want to gag at the thought of ingesting a petrol by-product.
If this makes you want to consider swearing off coffee and you’re not sure, remember the mind-blowing effects of coffee and sex.
For the rest of the coffee drinkers out there, just make sure the milk you use in the real deal, not something, like, human milk made from a cow.
Read More Coffee and Weird Drink News:
The Mind-Blowing Effects of Coffee and Sex
Udderly Creepy? Human Milk From a Cow?
Make Authentic Turkish Coffee Like a Native
I got what you meant crystal clear, I was talking about the “eww bugs are disgusting but petrol is fine” crowd. Also, dietary rules are very fine by me, hence the comment. Thanks for replying. 🙂
The outrage for me is that there are so many hidden petro chemicals in our food chain. Personally, I’m glad they are going buggy. And yes, the kosher crowd, which is sizeable in certain parts of hte world, won’t be drinking there anytime soon…thanks for commenting.
I don’t know for other schools, but bugs are Halal for Sunni Malekits, that why we eat snails and locusts in Morocco, the Portuguese used to call us locust eaters pejoratively, go figure.
Cacao, flour and many other food products have residues of bugs in them anyway, so I don’t see the reason for the outrage here, unless you eat Kosher of course.