As people age, most of us forget the taste of breast milk and very few people want to get reacquainted to the taste of mom’s natural drink. Coffee Smiles, a cafe in Perm, Russia, has been going viral after opening up about launching a breast milk-infused latte for its customers.
Grown adults have been squirming in discomfort at the thought of sipping on real human breast milk from a complete stranger. Even though people aren’t fully sold on the idea, this cafe started ramping up on marketing efforts to push this product out into the hands of the customers. There were posters in the community advertising this ingredient for coffee products like lattes and cappuccinos.
Coffee Smile owner Maxim Kobelev released a promotional video stating that the cafe will be using real breast milk contained in pharmacy-grade bags.
“I recently went on maternity leave and saw that a lot of breast milk is required. I have a lot of it,” a young mother, with an abundant supply of breastmilk, said in the video. “The child eats just a little, so I thought: why not earn extra money? I’m a hairstylist, but you can’t cut much hair with a child. I even made coffee with breast milk for my husband, he liked it.”
Kobelev has attempted to ease the anxiety of customers by explaining that the mothers supplying the breast milk are all tested to ensure the safe consumption of the product. As a starting point, only about 40-45 doses of breast milk-infused drinks will be served then production will climb to about 1,000 products by the end of the year. The price of one drink will be $8.
People who watched the promotional video thought this drink advertisement must be an absurd prank. There were others wondering when the food safety commissions are going to get involved since this drink hits all the red flags.
“Isn’t it really disgusting for someone to drink someone else’s breast milk, let alone a strange woman’s?” a person asked.
“This is a joke, right?” another person said.
Local officials who saw the video assured the public that they would investigate the matter. A local deputy kicked off a poll, questioning people if they will give this a taste. In the results, 46 percent of people said ‘never,’ while 23 percent were ready to experiment with the drink.
After the drink created a stir among media outlets, Kobelev clarified to everyone that he never planned on actually using breast milk as an ingredient. He wanted to promote his business by shocking people with an unusual ingredient and this outrageous idea worked as it turned heads towards his business. This idea was brought to him by a young breastfeeding mother at a company meeting.
“In fact, we did not prepare or sell coffee with breast milk,” Kobelev said. “When the news was buzzing, people began to come in and ask in all seriousness for coffee with breast milk. We explained that we do not sell it. There were many of my friends who wanted to try this coffee. For them, I prepared a drink with a mixture of goat and almond milk. The taste is very similar — I know this because, as the father of two children, I also tasted the real thing.”
“Using breast milk to make coffee is illegal, which is why we didn’t do it,” Kobelev added.