Rabbi Sholem Fishbane had just stopped at the rest stop in Montvale, New Jersey, the last one on the Garden State Parkway right before Monsey. “I saw a frum couple walking in my direction. They were both holding ice-cold Starbucks Refreshers, complete with the cut lemons or limes inside,” he tells me. Starbucks Refreshers contain white grape juice concentrate, which falls into the forbidden category of stam yeinam. Those citrus fruit slices are also problematic because they are “sharp.” When a lemon is cut with a treif knife, it becomes treif. Rabbi Fishbane nodded hello and then said, “By the way, I work in kashrus. You probably don’t know, but those drinks aren’t kosher.”

Read the article from Ami Magazine here, featuring Rabbi Sholem Fishbane, cRc Kashrus Administrator.

This article first appeared in Ami Magazine on July 19, 2023 and is reprinted here with permission from Ami Magazine © (www.amimagazine.org).