This employee is spilling the (pink) drink.
A former employee of Starbucks revealed in a TikTok that the coffee brand has allegedly stolen recipes from creators — including those that are on the “secret menu.”
The Tiktok, which was posted in mid-January, received nearly 182,000 views.
Laschnella’s video was in response to another one asking “Why do restaurants be mad as f–k when TikTok make a food item popular?”
“So, if y’all don’t know, the secret menu was a popularized menu from Starbucks that wasn’t official, but it was honored,” she said. “Like, if you brought in the ingredients, you knew what you wanted, it was honored.”
“But, the thing about the secret menu was a lot of those drinks were actually stolen from Asian creators who would create like really pretty drinks, overall,” Laschnella continued.
According to the former employee, the brand’s “pink drink” — which was officially added in 2017 — was one such stolen creation.
“So, when those types of drinks got popular, Starbucks immediately, immediately stole those drinks. They immediately put those on the menu as soon as they figured out how,” Laschnella said. “Now, these menu items that these Black people is coming up with, no they’re not. They’re not honoring it.”
“[Is] it demographic control or am I being racy?” reads the text in the video.
Some TikTok users also voiced their own opinions.
“As a Starbucks barista it’s annoying to say whatever they named it bc we don’t know what it is and when we give you the price yall shook,” said one user.
“I work at Starbucks now it’s ridiculous the stuff that they come up with,” said another disgruntled employee.
“When I worked sbux ppl would get SO mad I didn’t know what they were trying to order,” chimed in a third person. “Too much stress for min wage.”