The dad has reported the cafe to the Food Standards Agency because of the error
A father has been left fuming after a cafe put coffee in a hot drink for his 18-month-old son.
Conor Stapleton had ordered a babycino for his son, a drink that usually just consists of warm frothy milk.
However he claims that staff at Riverstation cafe put one and half shots of espresso in the drink, resulting in the toddler being up until 11pm.
After ordering the drink for his son on November 24, which cost him £4, Stapleton claims that he discovered fragments of coffee beans in the cup after taking a swig of the drink.
He told BristolLive: “I went back to Riverstation to speak to the barman and I asked if there was coffee in the babycino – to which the guy said ‘Well should there not be?’
“I spoke to one of the other managers or supervisors who asked me if I was alright and I told him about the coffee in the babycino. He said that that’s how they do it here.
“The bloke even told me that they’ve made five other ones the same way.
“It got me thinking that if they made five that day, how many more of those have they served before?
“I was even more shocked when he turned around to say to me: ‘What do you want me to do, top up with more milk?'”
Stapleton said he has reported the eatery to the Food Standards Agency.
He said: “My son didn’t even go to bed until 11 pm and my partner and I were exhausted as parents.
“You gave my son one and a half shots of coffee and all I got back was ‘thank you for your constructive feedback, I hope the rest of your visit was fine’.”
Because of the error, Stapleton says that he no longer uses the term ‘babycino’ so as to avoid any confusion in the future. He also admitted that he takes some of the blame himself.
“A part of me feels I should have tried it as soon as I made the order, but every so often when I’ve ordered a babycino such as Costa or my local deli, they all know what it is anyway,” (sic) he said.
“Next time, we’ve just decided if we’re ever going to a café, we will just ask for warm milk instead of a babycino because it’s making us wary if every place will know what that is now.”
A spokesperson for Riverstation said: “We are taking the matter extremely seriously and have taken action to ensure that all staff fully understand what customers are requesting when they order a babycino.
“The safety and wellbeing of all our guests is our top priority and we have apologised directly to the customer and thanked them for making us aware of the incident.”
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