“After ordering a drink, I drank the barley tea I brought in my tumbler, and now I’m being treated like a troublemaker.”
An individual recently shared their experience of being scolded by a café owner for drinking barley tea from a tumbler after ordering a drink. The post, “Personal Drink at a Café,” was shared on October 30 on the popular online community Nate Pann.
The author explained, “I don’t usually drink café beverages, but my friend suggested we go to a café.” They continued, “Even though I wasn’t planning to drink anything, I thought a café was the best place to chat, so we headed there.”
The author said, “I ordered an Americano, even though I wasn’t planning to drink it, and my friend ordered an orangeade.”
The trouble starts when the author, feeling thirsty while chatting with their friend, pulls out a tumbler from their bag.
According to the author, the drink in the tumbler was barley tea. However, when the café owner saw this, they pointed out that “outside beverages are not allowed” and reprimanded the author for their actions.
The author explained, “I ordered a drink according to the number of people, and I explained that I was drinking barley tea, but the café owner just kept emphasizing that ‘outside beverages are not allowed,’ no matter what the drink was.”
The author argued that they weren’t drinking a beverage purchased from another café and that they had followed the café’s “one drink per person” rule. They felt that the owner’s response was overly rigid and lacked flexibility.
Public Reactions: Support for the Owner vs. Support for the Customer
The post sparked a lot of debate online. Many people sympathized with the author, commenting things like: “Do you have to pay for water at a café too?”, “This is why I avoid independent cafés,” “The owner really knows how to drive customers away,” “If I had just asked for a glass of water, I bet the owner would have had a meltdown,” and “I get that the owner was probably upset when they realized it was barley tea, but it seems like an ego battle because neither side wanted to back down.”
On the other hand, some people criticized the author’s actions, pointing out that “It’s common sense that outside food and drinks aren’t allowed in cafés,” “Just because you paid doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want,” “They probably sell tea drinks, so why not just order one of those?” and “If the owner had let it slide, other customers might have seen it and followed suit. Then they’d ask, ‘Why is that customer allowed to do that?’ the owner would be in a tough spot trying to explain.”
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