Back in May, Andrew Chifari of Dallas made headlines when he ordered the most expensive Starbucks drink and ended up getting it for free. Well since then, his record has been broken – several times, in fact.
Consumerist reports that a woman named Sameera from Florida ordered a Caramel Crunch Sexagintuple Frappuccino. She came well-prepared, bringing in her own jug and alerting the media ahead of time. The initial drink total came out to $61, but she scored the drink for free after using her rewards card and a drink coupon. She fell $2 short of the current record-holder, whose drink took over an hour to make.
Technically, these super-drinks are against Starbucks policy. The coffee chain responded to the latest stunt with this statement to Consumerist:
With over 170,000 ways to customize beverages at Starbucks, we know that personalization is a big part of the Starbucks Experience for both our customers and our partners (employees), however this particular customization was excessive and something that we do not encourage. We want to ensure our customers receive the highest quality and most delicious tasting food or beverage products from us and, we don’t believe that this particular beverage choice was reflective of that. Per our existing policy, beverages larger than Trenta size (31 oz.) cannot be made or served. This includes personal cups that exceed 31 oz (or a Trenta-sized cup). For blended beverages and espresso drinks, those cannot be made or served in sizes larger than a Venti (24 oz cold cup/20 oz hot cup).
As for Chifari, he’s fine with losing his title. He says he didn’t expect to hold the record for very long, and admits that it’s not very hard to do.
“Anyone with $60 or a free drink reward and a big vessel can walk into Starbucks, find a cooperative barista, and break the record,” he says.
But Chifari still thinks his drink is visually more appealing.
“Coffee shouldn't look like this,” he says, referring to Sameera’s frappuccino. “In the overhead shot, it looks like a plate of poutine.”
Chifari looks forward to the day that someone order a two-gallon, $100 drink.
“Until someone goes way bigger and breaks it by a considerable margin - and breaks it well with a good picture and a good tasting drink - I don't feel the need to regain the title,” he says.
