What the Mixue Insect Case Says About Drink Coffee Knowledge?

A consumer in Xiantao, Hubei found a small black insect in an unopened Mixue Bingcheng lemonade. The store's reply, asking what it could do about it, drew heavy criticism. The topic reached roughly 270 million views on Weibo, and headquarters said it would verify the matter with staff.

The incident adds to a run of food safety complaints as the chain pushes toward a public listing. For anyone following drink and coffee knowledge, the case shows how much service standards and quality control affect trust. Operators of all sizes face the same expectation: investigate complaints quickly and answer customers directly.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style) For more specialty coffee beans, please add the personal WeChat of Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex Mixue Bingcheng has once again been thrust into the spotlight. A consumer in Xiantao, Hubei, found a small black insect in an unopened lemonade, and the store's response was truly shocking. As the leader in store count in the new tea beverage industry, why do food safety issues keep recurring for Mixue Bingcheng even as it sprintes toward an IPO? This article will review the course of the incident, netizens' reactions, and the brand's frequent food safety scandals this year, and explore the bottom line issues of service and quality control in the food and beverage industry.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the personal WeChat of Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Once again, insects have been found in Mixue Bingcheng drinks! As the first listed company in the new tea beverage chain, while its performance grows rapidly, it is also frequently exposed for food safety issues!!

Yesterday morning, the topic #MixueBingchengExposedForInsectInDrinkMerchantAttitudeControversial# shot straight to the top of Weibo's trending list. As of now, the topic has been viewed as many as 270 million times. The incident began when a woman in Xiantao, Hubei, exposed that she had purchased lemonade from Mixue Bingcheng and found a small black insect in the drink while it was still unopened. In response, the store involved gave a reply that was simply jaw-dropping. The store said: "What can I do about it? I also don't know why there is an insect in the drink. If there's no way to handle it, then that's fine too."

Regarding this matter, the customer service of Mixue Bingcheng headquarters told a reporter from Southern Metropolis Daily that it would verify with the relevant staff.

Faced with this trending topic, netizens' discussions were almost one-sided. Many comments said bluntly that if a business cannot even shoulder basic responsibility, then it should not be in the food and beverage industry. Some complained: "This attitude is way too perfunctory. Even just apologizing or giving another cup would be fine, right? That request isn't excessive, is it? From what I remember, Mixue Bingcheng has already hit the trending list several times this year because of food safety. If this continues, it will close down sooner or later."

Another netizen sarcastically remarked: "The merchant's 'no way' translates to 'the insect flew in by itself, not my problem'; 'that's fine too' means 'a few insects like this won't kill you, just drink it.'" "This attitude is truly speechless. Shouldn't someone in the food business uphold at least the most basic safety bottom line?" "With this attitude, they're still in food service? They can even say things like 'no way, that's fine too'? Try drinking a cup with insects yourself! They don't even have the sincerity to give the customer another cup..."

Indeed, as netizens said, this is not the first time this year that Mixue Bingcheng has trended on Weibo because of food safety issues. According to incomplete statistics, from March to November 2022, the frequency with which Mixue Bingcheng hit Weibo's trending list due to food safety issues was about once every 15 days, with media exposure each time attracting a large amount of consumer attention.

Previously, the brand was fined multiple times for issues such as using expired frozen lychee juice, expired coffee powder, and expired food, and was also fined 12,000 yuan because an insect was found in its lemonade; in addition, incidents such as drinking out a wooden stick and drinking out a fly also made it onto the trending list one after another. By August this year, it was even continuously exposed for situations such as foreign objects in milk tea and insect eggs in tea bags...

Screenshots of some trending topics

Public information shows that Mixue Bingcheng was founded in Zhengzhou, Henan, in 1997. It is a brand built around ice cream and tea drinks, and rapidly expanded in third- and fourth-tier cities through franchising and a low-price model. After opening 22,000 stores this year, it officially headed toward listing with the achievement of ranking first in the domestic new tea beverage industry by number of stores, aiming to become the "first stock in the new tea beverage chain" on the A-share market. Its affiliated company, Mixue Bingcheng Co., Ltd., had its A-share listing application accepted on September 22, 2022, and formally pre-disclosed its prospectus.

Under an expansion speed of racing toward ten thousand stores, store management and control have not kept up with the pace of expansion. It has frequently trended on Weibo because of food safety issues, and such problems have repeatedly persisted despite bans. On the Black Cat Complaint platform, complaints about Mixue Bingcheng amount to as many as 4,139, with most complaints centered on foreign objects in food, poor staff attitude, and difficulty obtaining refunds.

The food and beverage industry has always followed the principle of service first. Whether customers can have a good experience includes employee service, food hygiene and safety, and the dining environment. If the food and beverage industry loses consumers' support and trust because of these basic principles, it basically means losing the entire market. Only strict management and improved product and service quality can bring long-term development to an enterprise.

Image source: Internet

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