‘To be fair, Panera calls theirs “charged”’: Viewers divided after gas station sells child ‘Hard-Charged Tea’ that contains 7% alcohol
A parent has sparked discussion on TikTok after revealing that a gas station accidentally sold her underage son alcoholic iced tea.
In a video with over 348,000 views, TikTok user Violet (@_luvsik_) shows her son holding a Voodoo Ranger Hardcharged Tea. Per the company’s website, the tea has 7% alcohol by volume.
“It literally says 7% alcohol. How do you not know it has alcohol?” she asks her son.
“It was next to Arizona. It said ‘Hardcharged Tea Peach.’ I didn’t expect alcohol,” the child responds.
In the caption, Violet writes, “This was a really innocent situation but imagine i get pulled over how do i explain it to a cop.”
Commenters were immediately divided by the situation. Many users believed the idea that this was an innocent mistake on the part of the child.
“I mean to be fair Panera calls theirs ‘charged’ and it's a lot of caffeine but no alcohol,” said a user, referencing Panera's controversial Charged Lemonades.
“If I didn’t know that alcohol was in some drinks like this, I’d think the word ‘charged’ had to do with caffeine,” added another.
“Arizona has alcohol now that looks identical to the regular cans,” noted a third.
A few even claimed that they’ve made or observed similar mistakes in the past.
“My dads English is horrible and doesn’t drink alcohol and I walked in a two empty twisted teas sitting on the table and him knocked out,” offered a user.
“My dad drank white claws on the way to work thinking it was like Liquid Death once,” shared a second.
“The arizona one almost got me in trouble,” wrote an additional TikToker. “I seriously didn’t know.”
However, a few users claimed that the child may have been trying to pull one over on his parent.
“Pretty sure he knew what he was getting,” stated a commenter.
“That don't look like liquid death, come on now,” said a further user.
@_luvsik_ this was a really innocent situation but imagine i get pulled over how do i explain it to a cop ????????♀️ #badparenting ♬ original sound - Violet Marroquin
The latter situation is unlikely. In comments, Violet says that they were not ID’ed for the drink and that her son is only 16 years old. He was the one who initially questioned why the drink did not taste as he expected, telling his mother that it “tasted bad.”
In a follow-up video, Violet says she returned to the store and found that the drink was placed with the alcoholic beverages, meaning either her son’s drink had been misplaced in the store, that the store changed its layout, or that her son was misleading her about how he got the drink.
Still, she says that what she experienced should be a valuable teaching moment for other parents.
“At the end of the day, when you're gonna buy an alcoholic beverage, especially if a child is holding it and he looks under 21, and he puts it at the register, it doesn't matter if I'm gonna pay. They're supposed to ID, and I'm supposed to pay attention,” Violet says.
@_luvsik_ Replying to @molicious4200 sorry i got aggressive at the end ???? not towrds you but towrds tiktok saying i broke community guidelines when Im just trying to spread awareness ???????????? #voodooranger #liquiddeath #badparenting ♬ original sound - Violet Marroquin
Commenters continued to support Violet.
“My guess is he saw the hard Arizona iced teas and stuff like that. Still not right but probably where it was found,” suggested a commenter.
“Someone could’ve put it back and threw it by the Arizona tea or something,” wrote another.
The Daily Dot reached out to Violet via TikTok direct message.
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