To eat alcohol whilst pregnant

[PickledElectricity]

I am 6 months pregnant and had the most ridiculous encounter in Paul this morning while buying my croissant and coffee.

I waddled in, excited for my Monday morning treat for coming into the office, and there was a new lady there. I ordered the almond croissant like I always do and she said "no" and something else that I couldn't make out. I thought she'd misheard me so I pointed to the croissant I wanted. She carried on. I couldn't make out what she was saying. Then her colleague stepped in to say "she says it is made with alcohol"

I had no idea this was the case but said ok that's fine.

Original lady continued to argue then someone called her into the back and I was served by her colleague who continued to give me funny looks.

Presumably the alcohol in a bloody croissant is negligible and isn't going to harm my baby, nor impede anyone. I've been having this exact croissant nearly every Monday for years, including all the way through my first pregnancy.

I feel quite cross now that my treat has been tainted by this exchange. There's a pret nearby but their almond croissants aren't as good.

I was once automatically served a decaf espresso in a café in France when pregnant when I hadn't asked for one.

I actually admired the waiter's observation skills - and knowledge about caffeine consumption during "la grossese" because I still only looked like I had perhaps swallowed a gooseberry whole and he was only very young, so wouldn't have thought things like that would have been of interest to him. It was quite touching really.

The coffee was undrinkable however. Naturally I left a generous tip because I react to confrontation with over compensation and being really, really nice.

Maybe the almond croissant was made with real rum in the almond paste but it's highly unlikely. Bit overzealous, never the less.

Thank you for the grammar lessons everyone, yes I meant negligible 😭

This reminds me of the time a barman in a pub grilled me and my friend, both obviously pregnant, over our drink choices of a bitter shandy and a wine and soda 🙄

At least we got to witness him being bollocked by the landlord when we complained and our meals for free 😃

This. I'm amazed that, if it contains more than trace alcohol, there isn't an advisory notice. Children could inadvertently purchase a croissant or Muslims for example. I would be tempted to write to the manager and say firstly that you were refused service (which was humiliating) and secondly that their product information is severely lacking.

Tell her to bog off.

It’ll be the almond extract but it’s a tiny amount and then the baking process does away with any actual alcohol leaving only trace amount. Most cakes are the same because vanilla extract is such a common ingredient and that’s without getting into specialist flavourings like orange extract etc. - they all contain alcohol. Generally the rule I go by is if you’d feed it your toddler then it’s ok with you’re pregnant so that’s a yes to cake without asking for an ingredients list, yes to almond croissants but no to Grandma’s sherry trifle!

This would explain a lot.
Almond croissants were my go to treat when pregnant with my youngest. I had one every Friday from Pret. And my youngest is totally loopy.
Explains it. Not genetics. Almond paste.

Marzipan is one helluva drug.

Ooh lovely, a boozy croissant!! That's hysterical OP.

Is she this assiduous about diabetics and their sugar consumption or the morbidly obese and their calorie intake?

Even Grandma's sherry trifle is unlikely to trouble your unborn baby...

I'm not sure this would be possible - lots of everyday foods (like orange juice) have trace amounts of naturally-occurring alcohols.

I'm often on Almond croissant drunken benders, thought this was the norm?

Mulled wine is usually between 7% and 15% proof, depending on how long it has been mulled. Do people really give it to children?

True, but in the case of these croissants an actual alcoholic ingredient has been used (apparently they use an amaretto glaze), so they could definitely mention that. I would have assumed that an almond croissant had crushed almonds or marzipan. Although as PP have noted, Pret report that it's 0.01% of the product, and that's before being baked in a hot oven, so we are close to homeopathy here.

I don't but did have it growing up

It was from a church as well so I'm sure it wasn't alcoholic

Edit - this particular church of my parents was heavily anti alcohol **

It is a choice to avoid alcohol when pregnant, although highly recommended, it's not against the law for a pregnant person to buy/ consume alcohol or products containing it.

They shouldn't refuse to sell it to you for that reason and presumably they don't even know whether you are ordering for yourself or someone else.

That's different to alcohol being an actual ingredient though.

If they are putting for example an almond liqueur in the croissant for flavouring then they should probably label that (especially as they seem to think it's enough that a pregnant person shouldn't have it).

Edit: Just seen on the website that it states the croissant contains alcohol.
They were right to make OP aware but it's still her choice to buy it or not.

There may be trace amounts of alcohol in any bread that is made with yeast. It pretty much evaporates during baking though.

I’m 6 months pregnant and I had a glass of wine with my pizza at pizza express the other night. If someone had dared question me I would have been furious!!!

wine in food is literally nothing even in like a chocolate

The server was clearly a crackpot, a colleague or manager overheard what was going on, called the team member away from the service counter, replaced her with someone more competent and the OP was served.

What are you suggesting OP should complain about - the lack of ritual stoning and humiliation of the woman that made a mistake?
OK an apology and maybe a free pastry would have been nice, but the issue was handled swiftly and professionally.

You weren't getting a caffeinated coffee to go with the pastry, were you OP? ☕😂

I'm afraid I had a flat white - in the spring it will be a double espresso! 🤣

I used to hate it when ordering a coffee pregnant and some servers said "decaff?" It felt more judgy than helpful.

No just regular caff thank you very much. My one coffee a day is the only joy I have left in this miserable pregnancy.

Does she refuse to sell pastries to fat people?

How dare she! I would be enraged OP.

that is utterly bonkers by the staff - but can I just say how lucky you are having to choose between a Paul and a Pret croissant, I am jealous as I have neither closeby - please do not tell us that you went onto have the Pret Artisan Prosciutto baguette for lunch.