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Ten Minute Halacha - The Starbucks Controversy
Ten Minute Halacha - The Starbucks Controversy
Speaker: Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz
Given On: Sunday March 06, 2011
At Yeshivat Lev Shlomo - NY
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Grateful to you and Rav Schachter
Ozer Glickman
the last point you make is the real leniency here. The non kosher food is simply nosen ta'am l'fgam in the coffee, but kashrus agencies would never rely on that unless the item is a davar pagum to begin with because they don't want to deal with judgment calls. On the other hand, if keilim that contain various frapucino syrups that aren't kosher are washed together, it may be nosen ta'am l'shvach
1) My daughter in Israel worked part-time at a (full service) Starbucks before making Aliya. At her location and time they washed the latte steamers in a special sink next to the machine--if they would wait to put them in the dishwasher the milk would cake on. The brew baskets didn't even fit in the dishwasher, and the sandwiches were always given to the customers with the wrapping still on so no kli ever touched them. 2) Even according to the Hazon Ish there is a problem only if the volume of the bliah released from the treif kli is more than 1/60th the volume of water. How do we assess that? 3) Did giving food to a Gentile expert to taste stop working as a matter of halacha or metziut? Because if the lattes tasted of ham and cheese sandwich even in the slightest bit, I am sure many of the coffee snobs in a Starbucks would complain vociferously. Certainly my daughter heard customers complain about lesser problems with some frequency.