Maybe she was allergic to one of the other ingredients. Sometimes severe allergies pop up - happened to my brother. Several years ago he developed a severe apple allergy. Had a few incidents of anaphylactic shock. Gradually, though, the allergy subsided after a few years. Was scary there for a while.

When I worked at the bux, we were very VERY cautious about allergies. We were told to inform inquiring customers that all of our goods were potentially made with nuts or made by places that also produced nuts. I know that was the case with all of our pastries especially...with peanut allergies as severe as they are, you can never be too careful.

But of course, people tend to get a bit lax if they have no allergies themselves. I had a customer who informed me that she had a severe soy allergy and I told her I was hesitant about making her drink. The manager got pissy with me until I asked him if he was 100% confident that the all the pitchers and wands had been thoroughly cleaned since we'd made the last soy drink.

He hesitated and said "Yeah, I think so. She'll be fine," and the customer, who had originally protested about having to wait while I cleaned everything, changed her tune really quickly when she saw his hesitation.

Moral of the story: when it comes to allergies, don't assume.

As suebe said, it is possible she was allergic to something else in the parfait.

It is also possible she was allergic to something other than the starbucks item. It is possible she was allergic to something she didn't disclose eating. After all starbucks has lots of money...

As abandonedcouch said there is also the very real chance of contamination.

That being said the lady is a freaking idiot. It is a miracle she made it this long, assuming she isn't pulling some sort of scam.

If I was so allergic to nuts that I could die, I would be extremely cautious about what I ate. I wouldn't accept the word of some 19-year old minimum wage kid. I also wouldn't eat any granola food item as such things are quite prone to being contaminated with nut products.

Parfaits would definitely be on my taboo list as a nut topping is rather common.

I'm allergic to sulfur. It's commonly used as a preservative in dried fruits and nuts. I try to read labels, but it's not always listed, and sometimes I goof up.

My bad. My fault. I now carry an epi-pen, just in case.

It's MY HEALTH. No one else is to blame for what I put in my mouth. If I don't trust something, I won't eat it!

When I worked in a bakery we sold those mega muffins. Some would have nuts on top while others would have the giant sugar.

I once had a grammy come and ask me if one particular muffin had nuts on it because her grandbaby was very allergic. Being as they where shelved in the same case I told her I didn't think it was worth the risk.

Being that Starbucks is one of those places that sells items with nuts loosely on them, like cookies and biscotti, I wouldn't risk my health and order a food item from them.

I don't have any allergies, but I know how the schools react to the nut allergy that it must be quite a sensitive one.