Starbucks Barista Blasts Customer Who Asked for Latte to "Match His Skin Color"

Starbucks prides itself on its nearly infinite customization options and drink combinations for its customers. Yes, there are some people who "take advantage" of this free reign policy and will craft some of the most overblown and bizarre drinks known to mankind. And even though there are plenty of baristas who will lampoon these orders on social media, corporate has remained steadfast in allowing its customers to create whatever their heart desires.

Many chalk up this cavalier attitude towards ordering customized beverages to the Starbucks app, where folks can scroll through the myriad of different flavor and menu options and tick off whatever boxes they feel like marking to Frankenstein the drink of their choice.

However, making this kind of gargantuan and uncommon drink orders/requests in person is probably a bit more daunting and folks are more inclined to order something closer to what is offered on the menu in front of them.

But that doesn't mean there haven't been some bizarre interactions with in-store Starbucks customers over the year and thanks to social media, they're freely available for folks to comment on.

Like this one uploaded by TikToker @angelrreyes which raised some eyebrows where a customer had a distinct way of putting how he wanted the color of his iced chai latte to look.

The Starbucks employee uploaded a video where he was pantomiming punching in numbers on a calculator with a text overlay that reads: "Me calculating why a grown white man told me he wanted his iced chai latte the same color as my skin."

He captioned the video with, "man when I tell you this took me by surprise!!!"

Some people in the comments section of the video joked about the interaction, stating that maybe the customer thought the barista was "a visual learner."

Others however didn't like the fact that the customer was commenting on the TikToker's skin tone, writing, "this isn't supposed to be funny, but it is." OP remarked by saying, "it's okay you can laugh!"

Others were just shocked that the customer would use that analogy to describe what he wanted his iced chai latte to look like. "THE CAUACITY" one commented. Others just posted skull emojis or "WHAT" to intone what they felt after seeing the TikToker's now-viral clip.

Then there were other folks who assumed that the customer was hitting on the barista, albeit in a roundabout way: "Babes he just likes his coffee like he likes his men 🙄."

There were some commenters who said they also worked at Starbucks and described similar encounters with customers, like @sweetlifeofmitch who wrote, "This happened to me during a Starbies shift and my manager pulled me to the side to ask if I was okay after that encounter😐."

To which OP replied, "nah cause my manager was in the back when this happened and the face of shock he had when i told him."

There are several articles written about the fetishization of skin color where writers are encouraged to not describe complexion using food/drink analogies. Phrases like coffee, honey, and chocolate, among others to describe skin tone are considered racist.