Can someone please explain what is happening in this gif? Like, we know what it’s depicting: a 1-kilo container of Oatly original oak milk has a steam wand jammed in it, spewing foamy alternative milk everywhere. But what is happening here? The Sprudge team has been scratching their collective heads over the last half hour or so about it, thereby invoking our corporate Slack Rule: if it wastes more than 20 minutes of company time, we must write about it. So here we are.

The incredibly disturbing moving image came to our attention via the Twitter account of Kristina Jackson—creator of the Boston Intersectional Coffee Collective and Intelligentsia shift lead—with the appropriate caption: “WTF is this GIF?”

WTF indeed. Here’s what we know or think we know. Based on the bubbly mess, the foamin’ was foamin’ long before the start of the gif. We believe the machine to be a La Marzocco GB5. There was a bit of internal debate as to whether it was a GB5 or one of those older Nuova Simonelli, early-phase Aurelia-type espresso machines, but the metal attachment on the rounded base under the drip appears like it could say “La Marzocco,” and that’s exactly where it would appear on a GB5.

But what we don’t know—and really the most pressing questions of the day—is who and why? Wasn’t there an Oatly shortage? Who would be so cavalier with such a sought-after commodity? Is this coffee’s version of those beer bros who buy $100 bottles only to film themselves pouring them down the drain to righteously piss off other beer bros? The production quality of the gif is pretty good; is this perhaps a Wendy’s/Moonpie-esque #viral Twitter marketing strategy? “This ain’t your granny’s oat milk,” the ad says, before panning out and it’s actually your specific grandmother. Is this some sort of Infinite Jest-ian samizdat? We can’t stop watching it, so we think it might be. Is it Daniel G?

We don’t know, but we really, really need to. If you have any information about this truly befuddling gif, we implore you to contact us at 1-888-55-SPRUDGE. We must know more.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

Top image via Kristina Jackson

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