What happens when a coffee machine part ends up in a drink?

A customer who bought a Mixue Ice Cream & Tea drink found a piece of white plastic at the end of the straw. Instead of criticism, the comment section filled with Mixue staff asking for the part back, calling it a veteran employee. The plastic was the star tip nozzle from the ice cream machine's dispensing outlet.

Without that nozzle, the machine cannot give extruded ice cream its sharp, three-dimensional shape, and staff said the missing part would come out of their own pay. The incident points to two things at once: the small equipment details that food service outlets have to track when using coffee machine or ice cream machine equipment, and consumer concern about food safety.

Recently, a customer posted a video on social media claiming to have found a piece of white plastic foreign object in a drink purchased from Mixue Ice Cream & Tea. Unexpectedly, the comment section did not erupt in criticism of the merchant. Instead, many Mixue employees left comments pleading with the customer to return this part, which they jokingly referred to as a "veteran employee." It turns out this piece of plastic is the star tip nozzle accessory on the ice cream machine's dispensing outlet. Once lost, it not only affects the product's appearance but also means the staff member will have to pay compensation. Behind this incident lies not only the detailed challenges of equipment management in food service outlets but also consumers' ongoing concerns about food safety.

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Recently, a consumer uploaded a short video on social media, claiming that something that shouldn't be there appeared in a Mixue Ice Cream & Tea drink she purchased.

From the footage she shot, a piece of white plastic was stuck at the front end of the straw, with a rather distinctive shape. Judging by appearance alone, it's hard to determine the original purpose of this plastic piece, but what is certain is that it absolutely should not appear in a sealed cup of beverage.

Normally, when netizens see someone has found a foreign object in their drink, their first reaction is to remind the person involved to preserve evidence and demand reasonable compensation from the merchant. And food service workers who follow this type of complaint content will also rush to the comment section to offer explanations.

However, the comment section of this video took a somewhat different turn. People did not express anger over the consumer's rights being violated. Instead, they were full of sympathy for the staff member who had accidentally dropped the plastic piece into the customer's cup.

According to Mixue employees' explanation, the white plastic the customer found is actually a part of the store's ice cream machine — a star tip nozzle installed at the dispensing outlet, whose function is to make the ice cream extruded by the machine take on a "sharp-edged" three-dimensional shape.

Many employees also posted photos as evidence, saying that if the ice cream machine is missing this plastic star tip nozzle, the extruded ice cream turns into a "lazy-haired look-alike" — the portion actually becomes larger, but the appearance is really not very appealing.

Employees emphasized that during routine cleaning of the ice cream machine, the dispensing outlet is a key area for cleaning and disinfection, and the star tip nozzle accessory is also removed and washed daily before being reinstalled. Therefore, even if it accidentally falls into a drink, customers need not worry excessively that the accessory itself would contaminate the food.

However, when Mixue staff members discover that their "veteran employee has run away from home" while dispensing ice cream, most can't help but let out a scream — "feels like the sky is falling," "the store must be searching frantically."

They revealed that this plastic accessory may look unremarkable, but once lost, besides making the ice cream look less appealing, the store may also have to spend a considerable sum on purchasing a replacement part. "The accessory is crazy expensive, the boss is heartbroken," "Because of one male employee's mistake, all of us had to chip in to pay."

For this reason, Mixue Ice Cream & Tea employees all pleaded in the comment section for this customer to "return their veteran employee," so that the worker who accidentally made the mistake could avoid paying compensation and being punished. Some netizens even joked that the customer might as well hold onto this machine part first and wait for "the store manager to bring money to redeem his veteran employee."

According to the customer's subsequent feedback, after discovering the mistake, the store proactively contacted her, not only issuing a refund but also compensating her with a new drink. As for how the "veteran employee" was ultimately dealt with, the customer did not disclose.

Jokes aside, many users also felt worried about the presence of a foreign object in the drink. From the employees' explanation, it's not hard to see that the star tip nozzle accessory, due to routine cleaning and maintenance of the machine, does carry a risk of easily coming loose. So in some people's view, "where there's one, there will be more" — the machine accessory might fall into a customer's drink again at some point in the future, causing a food safety incident.

Therefore, as consumers, most people believe that Mixue Ice Cream & Tea employees should learn from this lesson and check more carefully when serving drinks to prevent the same situation from happening again.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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