 Starbucks’ bottled coffee Frappuccino sometimes is hard to put a cap back on once it’s opened and it leaks after it is screwed back. / Korea Times Photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
Staff Reporter
Frappuccino, Starbucks' bottled coffee, is available at convenience stores and ``middle houses'' on golf courses, providing alternatives for fresh brews from coffee shops.
But some consumers complain about its leaky caps. They say that the caps are hard to put back on the bottles, once they are opened. Even if one succeeds in screwing the cap on the bottle, it sometimes leaks. This can pose a problem to the drinkers, especially when the bottle contains about 0.3 liters of coffee and drinking it all at one gulp is not often plausible.
This drinking pattern makes for the convincing case of the necessity of caps that don't leak.
``I often drink Frapuccino to boost stamina during a mid-way stop while playing,'' an amateur golfer said. ``A couple of times, when I put the cap back on after a sip, it leaked, soiling the pants of my playmates as well as mine.''
When asked about this leaking cap during a recent interview, Darrel Kim, a Starbucks official in charge of the so-called ready-to-drink products in East Asia, said that he was not aware of the problem but promised to get back after investigations.
In a recent e-mail missive, he explained through his PR representative that the cap has its reasons for being leaky.
``It is a press and twist or PT cap, which is often used for bottling milk because it can maintain a close seal for high-temperature sterilization,'' the e-mail said, adding that its weak point is that the bottle can't be completely sealed once opened.
Kim kindly explained that this is because the mouth of the bottle has screw threads but the inside of the cap doesn't (a check inside the bottle, however, shows it does have screw threads but no rebuttal is made in this article, considering room for misinterpretation on the related parts in the message). In other words, Starbucks thinks that it is a choice between food safety and convenience and it has decided to pick the former. Kim also disclosed efforts are under way to improve the sealing.
foolsdie@koreatimes.co.kr
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