Ladies and gentlemen, the bar has just been raised.
A guy named Andrew had a Starbucks Gold card (which gets you a free drink of your choice after you buy 12) and a single goal: to beat the previous world record for the most expensive Starbucks drink ever.
As anyone who has accomplished anything in life will tell you, thorough prep is key to achieving your goals. With 128-ounce glass in hand, Andrew stepped into Starbucks and enlisted the help of his friendly local Starbucks baristas.
Thus, the legend of the Sexagintuple Vanilla Bean Mocha Frappuccino was born. Total cost: $54.75. But for Gold-card holding Andrew, it was free.
Amazingly enough, unlike the previous world-record-holder, this concoction was actually still drinkable. For Andrew, that was really the key. Why waste a free drink, right? He told Consumerist:
“It took a few minutes to figure out all the math, but in the end, it took about 55 shots [of espresso] to get us over the $50 line, and we just rounded it up to 60 to make it easy.”
How much caffeine is in 60 shots of espresso? Values are approximate, due to variations in brewing and measurement, but Starbucks estimates that a single shot of espresso contains around 75 milligrams of caffeine. That would make the SVBMF weigh in at a whopping 4500 mg of caffeine.
For the record, the Mayo Clinic advises that up to 400 mg of caffeine per day is safe for adults to consume—more than 500 or 600 mg can result in nasty side effects like a fast heartbeat, insomnia, and muscle tremors.
Don’t worry, Andrew didn’t drink the whole thing. He told Consumerist that he only drank about a third, then put the rest in the fridge for later.
Seattle Weekly News contacted Starbucks PR Rep Linda Mills, who said:
“This type of beverage order is totally excessive and not something we encourage people to do. After they make that beverage, it’s pretty inedible. Nor is it safe…They get excited about that Birthday beverage, but [in this case] had a little too much fun with it.”
No word on the location of the Starbucks store in question, although Mills thought the photos of the store “looked like Dallas.”
