A London cafe horrified customers by selling a nut-based smoothie in a swastika-emblazoned bottle — and made matters worse when the drink’s “rogue” creator refused to apologize.
Nin Com Soup was hawking the $4.90 “Nutzy” made from almond milk, vegan protein, banana, honey and other ingredients — until customer complaints forced the elixir off store shelves Sunday.
One woman said she left the shop “almost in tears” after her objections earlier this month fell on deaf ears, she told the Campaign Against Antisemitism.
“When I asked about the name of the drink, he said it was a play on ‘having the nuts,’ meaning ‘having the courage’ and was a pun as the drink contains nuts.
I told him how offensive that was for certain people. He asked why I would find that so offensive, to which I responded that I lost my family to the Nazi regime and that despite the Hindu use of the symbol, this along with the name of the drink was extremely offensive. He said that London is a free city.”
The unnamed woman added: “It proved to me how much antisemitism and fascism is still utterly present.”
A store manager declined comment, but blamed the offensive smoothie on its barista John Jordan, who admitted designing the drink, but refused to apologize for the tasteless name.
“The swastika was originally a Hindu symbol and ‘Nutzy’ is something that has lots of layers,” Jordan told The Sun. “I certainly have sympathy [for Holocaust survivors] but I don’t make any apology. It is something that was misunderstood.”
He added: “Of course, ‘Nutzy’ has a play on ‘Nazi,’ but it can also be for ‘nuts’ or ‘courageous.’ It depends how it is interpreted.”
By Sunday, the drink, and apparently the barista, were gone.
“Sadly, an employee deemed it appropriate to put a Swastika on a smoothie named The Nutzy.
This was unsanctioned and the bottles were removed immediately upon being alerted by our shop manager,” Nin Com Soup founder Ben Page-Phillips wrote in a message to customers on the cafe’s website.
“Needless to say the rogue employee has been dismissed.
This was incomprehensible, extremely insensitive, and upsetting to all of us. We unreservedly apologize.”
