Ken Di Raimondo remembers well a nasty surprise one day in July 2018.
He stopped for a quick workday lunch.
"I grabbed basically a sandwich and a cold brew," Di Raimondo said.
The drink, he said, was a Califia Farms cold brew with a pop-top.
He drove a few minutes to his job site.
"Jumped out of the truck, had two feet on the ground, went to open the cold brew, it exploded. From there, I was really, really stunned. Essentially what happened is it exploded, the cap hit me in the lip," Di Raimondo said.
Photos show a serious injury to his lip.
"I put my hand up to see what was going on because honestly I thought I had lost all my teeth that's what it felt like, whole face was numb. I was seeing stars," Di Raimondo said.
Someone grabbed napkins for the blood and he drove himself to urgent care.
He ended up in the hospital getting 15 stitches in two inches of his lip.
"I'm just thankful that it didn't hit me in my nose or my eye," Di Raimondo said.
"It's a very strange and unusual situation," said attorney Kirk Davis, who filed a lawsuit against Califia Farms on behalf of Di Raimondo for damages of up to $75,000.
The suit claims Califia Farms violated state law and the "'consumer expectation test' because a consumer would not expect to open a coffee, and have it exploded with such force that it caused severe injury."
"Hopefully it's a wakeup call to Califia Farms to say, 'look you have a problem you need to do something about this,'" Davis said.
So, what happened?
Why did the cap blow off like that?
Davis said he's still investigating for the lawsuit.
"We have a couple of working theories. One, there was too much nitrogen in the container, or two, there was contaminant inside the can which led to fermentation, which led to the creation of gas, which were released upon Ken opening the cap," Davis said.
KIRO 7 reached out to Califia Farms to ask if the company has a theory of what happened or if other people have been hurt.
The company did not provide answers beyond a statement: "The health and safety of our customers is our top priority. Please know that as a brand committed to health and wellness, we value customer feedback and seek to develop great tasting foods and beverages. As a rule we do not comment on current investigations or pending litigation."
In court documents, the company denied liability.
Since the incident, Di Raimondo noticed the same cold brews are now sold with twist tops, instead of pop-tops.
Califia Farms did not answer KIRO 7′s question about a product design change.
Cox Media Group
