Hope you downed your morning Joe before reading this.
Reports are drowning the web of “toilet water” coffee being served at a Starbucks in Hong Kong. Photos of a “Starbucks only” water sprout prompted customers to think that the coffee-brewing giant may be using H20 from a lavatory to make their coffee blends, Huffington Post reports.
Hong Kong tabloid Apple Daily started posting a series of photos from its Bank of China tower location along with a report that Starbucks staff was fetching water from the bathroom in the building’s parking garage several times every day to make beverages. While reporters went to investigate the practice, it was noted that the baristas filtered the water before brewing and it’s believed that the procedure has been done since the location’s opening in 2011.
Starbucks spokeswoman Wendy Pang said that the store had no dedicated water source and confirmed that the water used to brew coffee at Starbucks’ Bank of China Tower location was taken from tap in a restroom. She explained that the water was put through a filtration system in order to meet standards established by local authorities and the World Health Organization, according to the Agence France-Presse.
“There is no direct water supply to that particular store,” Pang told AFP, “that’s why we need to obtain the drinking water from the nearest source in the building.”
She said that the store is now using distilled water to ease customers’ concerns.