Pablum with your coffee?

Cafes across several Gulf Arab states started selling coffee and other cold drinks in baby bottles this month, kicking off a new trend that has elicited excitement, confusion — and backlash.

The fad began at E instein Cafe, a slick dessert chain with branches across the region, from Dubai to Kuwait to Bahrain. Instead of ordinary paper cups, the cafe, inspired by pictures of trendy- looking bottles shared on social media, decided to

serve its thick milky drinks in plastic baby bottles.

Although t he f ranchise was no newcomer to babythemed products — a milk s h a ke wi t h c e r e l a c , t h e rice cereal for infants, is a long- standing bestseller — the unprecedented fervor over the feeding bottles came as a bit of a shock. All the stress and anxiety over the coronavirus pandemic appears to have spurred some to find an outlet in the strange new craze.

Li nes cl og ged Einstein stores across the Gulf. People of all ages streamed onto sidewalks, waiting for their chance to suck coffee and juice from a plastic bottle. Some patrons even brought their own baby bottles to other cafes, pleading with bewildered baristas to fill them up.

Soon, however, online haters took note — the baby bottle drinkers and providers faced a barrage of nasty comments.

L a s t we e k , t h e a n g e r reached the highest levels of government. Dubai authorities cracked down. Inspection teams burst into cafes where the trend had taken off and handed out fines.