Starbucks is discontinuing a blending powder for drinks after particles went ‘airborne’ and left baristas coughing and falling ill

When Jasmine Leli, a Buffalo, New York-based Starbucks barista, trialed the company’s new blending powder last month, she was greeted with a plume of dust that irritated her nose and throat for hours afterward.

The powder was introduced last month as part of the Seattle-based coffee chain’s seasonal rollout of blended energy refreshers—a bright-colored, slushy fruit beverage—with the ingredient intended to help keep the drink a consistently-blended texture. (Starbucks has a line of iced refresher beverages available year-round that do not require this blending.) But pouring the contents of the package into storage containers, and then into blenders to prepare the beverage, seemed to always result in residue from the product dispersing everywhere, the barista said.

“You pour the contents of this package into this container, and it’s very airborne,” Leli told Fortune. “It doesn’t matter what you do to try and decrease the effects of it going into the air. It’s like a cloud.”

Last week, Starbucks discontinued the blending powder from its U.S. stores. A spokesperson told Fortune the move was part of a “regular seasonal menu transition.” At this time, Starbucks does not have plans to bring back the blending........

© Fortune