You may have seen a warning on social media today that two new Starbucks beverages have been mistakenly billed as dairy-free. A local CBS affiliate ran the mistaken headline Starbucks releases 2 new dairy free drinks! Which as of this writing looks like this on the station's website:
This has spread rapidly with some pages on Facebook attributing the error to advertising. Starbucks is not to blame as far as I can tell; their website discloses ingredients on both products. It appears that this was a well-intentioned error on the part of a CBS station.
Quoting the Starbucks website on both products, boldface added for emphasis:
Iced Coconutmilk Mocha Macchiato:
White Chocolate Mocha Sauce [Sugar, Condensed Skim Milk, Coconut Oil, Cocoa Butter, Natural Flavor, Salt, Potassium Sorbate, Monoglycerides], Caramel Sauce [Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar, Butter, Heavy Cream, Water, Nonfat Dry Milk, Natural Flavor, Salt, Distilled Monoglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Caramel Color]
Caramel Sauce [Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar, Butter, Heavy Cream, Water, Nonfat Dry Milk, Natural Flavor, Salt, Distilled Monoglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Caramel Color], Cinnamon Dolce Topping [Sugar, Cinnamon, Salt, Extractives Of Butter (Milk) And Other Natural Flavor].
This type of thing is confusing and frustrating but it is also not too difficult to correct. After confirming the error I looked up the station's telephone number, informed a staffer at their news desk of the error, and sent an email with the reference links. The CBS staffer (who was not the author of the article) was professional and welcomed the correction.
It took about five minutes to check the sources, place the call, and follow up by email. Have requested a correction to the piece, citing health concerns if people who suffer dairy allergies get misinformed by the original headline.
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