Bubble tea with extra topping: Milksha customer finds dead baby cockroach inside nearly-finished drink

Azuki matcha drink with an extra side of protein?

One customer got more than he bargained for when he bought a cup of azuki matcha milk from Milksha, only to find what appeared to be a dead baby cockroach lying near the bottom of the cup.

A TikTok video posted on Thursday (July 14) by a user named Mangoplucker showed him using a straw to poke around at the red bean toppings within the near-empty cup.

The camera managed to capture the dead insect camouflaged among the remaining contents.

"So guess what I found in my Azuki matcha milk today..." he wrote, noting that it was his first time ordering from Milksha. 

In the caption to the short but stomach-churning clip, Mangoplucker added, "I feel so disgusted and wanna puke", along with the hashtag #nohygiene.

@mangoplucker i feel so disgusted and wna puke.. #nohygiene #milksha #sgtiktok ♬ original sound - Dglizz

When asked by a commenter about how he made the grisly discovery, Mangoplucker wrote that he'd almost finished the drink and was about to devour the red beans when he caught sight of the offensive ingredient.

"I wanted to eat the red beans after I drank finish the matcha and I opened it up with a surprise [sic]."

While the customer did not reveal the location of the outlet, he stated in the comments section that he had reported the incident to the bubble tea chain, to which they responded that they would compensate him with $20 in the Milksha app.

But that did little to appease him.

"Why would I still dare to buy from them after seeing that in my drink?" he said.

"I also asked what if I get food poisoning and they replied with 'we will definitely work out on the medical cost'."

While it is not clear if the TikTok user has been compensated, the clip certainly left commenters horrified, with many quipping that the additional topping constituted "extra protein".

Wrote one commenter: "I didn't know they got the option to add protein. [sic]"

Other commenters, however, recounted their bad experience with Milksha's customer service, with one noting how a friend had gone through a similar experience, but "instead of apologising and compensating, they stalked her social media and gaslighted her". Their comments could not be verified as of writing.

In its reply to AsiaOne's queries, a spokesperson for Milksha said that the TikTok user had contacted them via their website to inform them of the incident on Wednesday night (July 13).

"We immediately contacted him, apologised and offered a compensation of $20 for the inconvenience caused, and sought his cooperation to have him hand us the remaining beverage and insect so that we can conduct our internal investigations," said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson added that they had offered to pick up the item from him or he could have it dropped off, but it "did not get a definite response", and that "after which, the TikTok video surfaced".

According to the spokesperson, "this is a serious incident that has not happened before" and steps have been taken to ensure that it would not happen again.

"Milksha has always taken food safety and quality very seriously. We have taken immediate measures to ensure this does not happen again. We sincerely apologise for this."

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candicecai@asiaone.com