Chinese woman accuses tea shop of adding mercury to drink discovers boyfriend is culprit

Woman makes formal complaint after tasting ‘tough’ granules in her drink; investigation clears shop of any wrongdoing

A Chinese woman who accused a famous chain of milk tea shops of planting mercury in her drink was later found to be the target of poisoning by her boyfriend.

The woman, surnamed Zhang, from central China’s Anhui province, initially complained online that a Chagee shop laced her drink with mercury granules.

Zhang said her boyfriend bought the drink for her on April 27. The first few sips were fine, but later she felt little granules in her sips that “did not taste like tapioca bubbles”.

She chewed on them and noticed that they were very tough. She spat them out and saw tiny silver slithers that she identified to be mercury.

She called the shop to complain but the staff said it was “impossible for such thing to happen in our production process” and suggested that she should call the police.