What went wrong in the calcium coffee milk tea delivery case?

During the May Day holiday, group leaders in Shanghai's Putuo and Jing'an districts organized group buys of Yidian Dian milk tea, with more than 8,000 cups shipped across provinces and taking a night or nearly 24 hours to arrive. The group buy price was double the official price, and the organizer was accused of making about 250,000 yuan.

The milk tea was rebranded as a calcium-supplementing tea polyphenol decoction to pass delivery checks into residential compounds. Total bacterial counts rose sharply as the drinks sat at room temperature, and some consumers reported gastroenteritis symptoms. The brand said it was shocked by the high-price reselling and urged buyers to use compliant channels, a caution that also applies to coffee brewed with milk.

During the May Day holiday, "group leaders" in multiple Shanghai communities organized group buys of Yidiandian milk tea, with over 8,000 cups of drinks transported across provinces from out-of-town stores, taking overnight or even nearly 24 hours to reach consumers. The group buy price was double the official price, and the proxy buyer was accused of profiting about 250,000 yuan. The total bacterial count in these milk teas skyrocketed over time at room temperature, and some consumers developed gastroenteritis symptoms after drinking them. The Yidiandian brand subsequently issued a statement expressing shock at the high-price reselling and reminding consumers to choose compliant channels carefully. This article reviews the incident, food safety data, and responses from all parties, while offering coffee lovers professional purchasing advice from Front Street Coffee.

Although milk tea and coffee are not necessities for survival like vegetables and meat, they carry people's spiritual comfort. As the May Day holiday arrived, having a cup of milk tea to relax was only reasonable. But milk tea is not a guaranteed-supply item and cannot be obtained through official group-buying channels, so someone had the bright idea of rebranding it as "calcium-supplementing tea polyphenol decoction (professionally brewed)," which surprisingly allowed it to be delivered into residential compounds. This is how the incident of over 8,000 cups of milk tea being transported overnight across provinces to Shanghai, with staggering profits in between, came about.

On the first day of the May Day holiday, more than 400 community "group leaders" in Shanghai's Putuo, Jing'an, and other districts launched group buys for Yidiandian milk tea. The drinks arrived as scheduled, and everyone finally got to drink the cup they had been craving.

However, starting May 1, the situation began to spiral out of control. The milk tea originally scheduled to arrive that afternoon was delayed until 11:30 p.m. But who would choose to drink milk tea in the middle of the night? Many people drank a cup in the afternoon and then suffered from insomnia at night, let alone drinking it late at night, which was simply pushing physiological limits.

Late-night delivery was only the tip of the iceberg. Regular milk tea consumers would notice that the cup bears a label showing the product name, price, ticket issue time, and the store where it was made.

When consumers eagerly opened the long-awaited milk tea, they discovered that these Yidiandian drinks were not from local Shanghai stores but from out-of-town shops hundreds of kilometers away. They then found that some milk teas had been made 6 hours, 8 hours, or even nearly 24 hours before delivery. In addition, the actual specifications of the milk tea received differed from what was ordered.

In fact, as early as August 2021, the Shanghai Consumer Council conducted a special test on the question of "how long it takes to finish milk tea," commissioning professional institutions to measure the total bacterial count and its trend over time. The results showed that as time passed, the total bacterial count climbed sharply every hour. Even for unopened oat milk mango pomelo sago, the growth in total bacterial count was startling: 2,700 CFU/mL at 2 hours, 81,000 CFU/mL at 4 hours, and 95,000 CFU/mL at 6 hours. Because of this, consumers can often see a notice on milk tea labels saying "Please drink within XX minutes/hours."

These cups of cross-provincial milk tea were essentially mobile petri dishes of bacteria. Ordered in the morning, received at midnight—could such drinks still be safe to consume? Many consumers raised this question.

The official price of milk tea of the same specification is about 15 yuan per cup, while the group buy price was as high as 28 to 30 yuan, double the price. Such considerable profits spawned a deformed supply chain. A netizen revealed that the "group leader" initially claimed that the milk tea shop was located within Shanghai and had all three required licenses. But with the pandemic compounded by the May Day holiday, scrutiny of outside personnel became stricter, and the "cross-provincial milk tea" incident could not be concealed after all.

A netizen on Xiaohongshu exposed that, according to an incomplete tally by a group of "group leaders," this proxy buyer profited about 250,000 yuan. The netizen also mentioned that the transport vehicle seen at delivery was not a cold-chain truck but a private car with a Shanghai license plate.

After the incident drew attention, the "group leaders" demanded bulk refunds and then simply disbanded the WeChat groups.

On May 2, a reporter contacted the logistics manager responsible for dispatching delivery vehicles. The person responded that due to the pandemic, Yidiandian's raw material warehouse in Shanghai had been sealed off, and the remaining materials at local stores had all been used up by April 30. The reporter also contacted the Hangzhou store that made the milk tea and asked whether milk tea left for too long was still drinkable. The store said that anything made that same day could be drunk.

On the evening of May 3, some residents reported that after drinking, through a certain group-buying channel, a 35-yuan Yidiandian blind box milk tea made at 10 a.m. on May 1 and consumed on May 2, they developed diarrhea and were diagnosed with gastroenteritis after seeking medical treatment, accompanied by fever symptoms.

On the same day, the Yidiandian brand published "A Letter to Yidiandian Fans" on its WeChat official account, saying it was shocked by the matter. In special times, reselling supplies at high prices is not tolerated by law and also violates Yidiandian's management rules. Long-distance procurement and delivery, as well as improper storage that makes drinks prone to spoilage, seriously harm consumers' rights. It called on everyone to choose compliant purchasing channels carefully.

An article on a WeChat official account pointed out that the so-called group buy organized by a milk tea physical store manager was merely a cover; in essence, several people were reselling milk tea. When netizens looked up this person and the store, even Yidiandian headquarters said no such person could be found.

Netizens further dug up that the group leader of the group-buying group was actually a hair salon worker, and exposed the hair salon brand to which this "milk tea Tony teacher" belonged. Many netizens went to the brand's Dianping page to leave questioning comments. The hair salon involved said it had called the police and stated that the individual's behavior had nothing to do with the store.

On the Xiaohongshu platform, some netizens shared their personal experience with this group buy. Some "group leaders" also revealed that after telling the truth in the group chat, they were removed from the group.

People outside lockdown-controlled areas may find it hard to understand what a cup of milk tea really means. Buying daily supplies still required reporting for approval. After waiting desperately, a chance to group-buy milk tea finally appeared, only to be dashed by the crooked schemes of certain people. For consumers who truly love coffee and drinks, choosing reliable channels is crucial. Front Street Coffee suggests that in extraordinary times, priority should be given to buying coffee beans or drink ingredients through legitimate platforms. Front Street Coffee's everyday beans series is a good choice, with stable quality and traceable origins.

Image sources: Boss Union Broadcast Weibo video, Yidiandian WeChat official account, Xiaohongshu, Dianping

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.