A woman has a PSA for people who hoard half-finished drinks in their car.
“You guys, the most [expletive] disgusting thing ever just happened to me, and I have to share it,” TikTok user Sarah Reed (@itssarahreed) starts her video.
“This is for all the girls who have 15 cups in their car,” she adds.
Before diving into the “horrendous” incident, the content creator shows a Starbucks cup full of pink liquid. “This is my Starbucks drink. It’s cold. The ice is melted. It’s not even real. I just got water and added electrolytes to it,” she says.
Then, Reed reveals what went down. “So, I’m minding my business, driving down the road, go grab my drink,” she says of the electrolyte water.
After a moment of silence, she adds, “Let me show you what I [expletive] grabbed and what I put in my mouth.”
Instead of picking up her new drink, Reed says she grabbed an old, half-finished one.
Then, she shows the culprit: What once was an iced coffee now appears to be moldy liquid.
She says upon the sip, she knew something was wrong.
“I had to open this, spit it back in,” she recalls. “I scratched my tongue with my fingernails.”
The taste, she says, is one she wishes she could forget. “It’s a flavor that would unfortunately never leave my mouth. I think it lives there,” she says.
“Please, throw out your Starbucks cups,” Reed concludes with a warning.
@itssarahreed 🥺😩😖
♬ original sound – Sarah Reed
Her video racked up 306,000 views. Many found it highly relatable.
“Omg been there but with a mocha so foul,” one user revealed.
“As a fellow drink hoarder I try to at least take out the straw because I too did this once and have barely recovered,” a second recalled.
“This happen to me the other day,” a third wrote.
What happens to Starbucks drinks if you leave them in the car?
According to Coffeeness, which reviews coffee machines, one should store their coffee in a fridge or sealed container. In other words, you probably shouldn’t store your drink in the car if you are planning to return to it.
Black coffee will also maintain its flavor the longest. If you are planning to let your black coffee sit out, its best to drink it within 24 hours. And for coffee with milk in it, that time goes down to two hours. And heat will only expedite the spoiling process.
But Reed wasn’t returning to her old coffee by choice. So what happens if you accidentally drink spoiled coffee that has milk in it? You will probably be OK if you drank just a little bit, like Reed did. However, if you drink too much spoiled milk, you run the risk of getting food poisoning.
Update 1pm CT, June 20: Reed spoke with the Daily Dot about the negative reactions she received to her video.
“I’m just a girl lol people in the comments are acting like I’m this dirty nasty lazy girl,” Reed shared via TikTok direct message. “But whatever I’m human and I thought it was funny!”
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