DUBAI, UAE – Cafes in several Gulf Arab states began selling coffee and other cold drinks in bottles this month, starting a new trend that has sparked excitement, confusion and reactions.
Fashion began at Einstein Cafe, a smooth dessert chain with branches throughout the region, from Dubai to Kuwait to Bahrain. Instead of normal paper cups, coffee, inspired by images of modern-looking bottles shared on social media, decided to serve its thick dairy drinks in plastic bottles.
While the franchise wasn’t a novelty in children’s-themed products (a cereal milkshake, baby rice cereal, it’s a long-time sales hit), the unprecedented fervor over baby bottles was a shock. . All the stress and anxiety over the coronavirus pandemic seems to have spurred some to find a way out of the weird new fashion.
“Everyone wanted to buy it, people called all day, telling us they would come with their friends, they would come with their father and mother,” he told The Associated Younes Molla, CEO of the Einstein franchise in the United Arab Emirates. Click this week. “After so many months with the pandemic, with all the hardships, people were taking pictures, having fun, remembering their childhood.”
The lines obstructed Einstein’s stores across the Gulf. People of all ages were schooling on the sidewalks waiting for the chance to suck coffee and juice from a plastic bottle. Some patrons even took their own bottles to other cafes, begging the bewildered baristas to fill them.
Images of baby bottles full of colorful drink kaleidoscopes drew thousands of likes on Instagram and bounced off the popular social media app TikTok. A cure for the uncertainty of the world? A response to some primordial instinct? Either way, a trend was born.
Soon, however, online enemies took note: bottle drinkers and vendors faced a barrage of nasty comments.
“People were so angry that they said horrible things that we were‘ aeb ’in the face of Islam and Muslim culture,” Molla said, using the Arabic term for shame or disgrace.
Last week, rage reached its highest levels of government. Dubai authorities repressed. Inspection teams stormed the cafes where the trend had premiered and handed out fines.
“This indiscriminate use of baby bottles not only goes against local culture and traditions,” the government statement said, “but mishandling the bottle during filling could also contribute to the spread of COVID-19.” , an apparent reference to those who take their used bottles to other cafes.
Authorities, the statement added, had been “alerted by social media users about the negative practice and its risks.”
The reaction also came from Kuwait, where the government temporarily closed Einstein Cafe, and from Bahrain, where the Ministry of Commerce sent police to cafes armed with live cameras and warned all dining establishments to serve drinks in bottles “violates the customs and traditions of Bahrain. ”
Oman urged citizens to report bottle sightings to the Consumer Protection Authority hotline. Saudi Twitter users and media personalities condemned the trend in the harshest terms, with the popular news website Mujaz al-Akhbar lamenting that the “daughters of the kingdom have suffered a loss of modesty and religion.”
It is not the first time that the guardians of local customs in the Arab countries of the Gulf have focused their anger on social media phenomena. Vague laws throughout the region give the authorities broad power to eliminate public immorality and indecency. Emirati agents last spring, for example, arrested a young expatriate for posting a video on TikTok in which he sneezed at a banknote, accusing him of “damaging” the reputation of the UAE and its institutions.