Why does the shape of coffee powder art vary between cups?

Heytea ran a limited winter warm-up campaign in which self-pickup customers who bought designated drinks could randomly receive a pet pattern sprinkled onto milk foam at no extra charge. Many customers ordered specifically for the pattern, but cups often arrived with the powder smeared and unreadable, prompting complaints that the drink did not match the advertisement.

Store employees say the result depends on powder-sprinkling technique, and that pet patterns are harder than the usual Heytea character, since a shaky hand or a slight angle change can ruin the shape. Matcha powder on white milk foam leaves little margin for error, so much of the outcome rests on the barista, not the recipe.

Heytea recently launched a limited winter warm-up campaign. In addition to themed merchandise, its offline stores also set up a free Easter egg — sprinkling Heytea pet patterns onto the milk foam of designated drinks. Many fans made special trips to stores for self-pickup just to get this "limited-edition pattern," but the products they actually received frequently had patterns smeared into a blur, with no recognizable shape at all. Some consumers complained that the product did not match the advertisement and questioned whether the staff were just going through the motions; store employees, meanwhile, cried foul, saying whether the pattern takes shape depends heavily on powder-sprinkling technique, and that pet patterns are much harder to execute than the usual Heytea character, since a shaky hand or a slight angle deviation can cause a fail. In this controversy over a cup of milk foam powder art, who should take the blame?

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Recently, Heytea took advantage of the winter warm-up season to launch a series of limited-edition sets and themed merchandise, attracting a large number of fans to place orders. It is worth mentioning that during the campaign, offline stores also arranged a hidden Easter egg: customers who bought designated drinks through the self-pickup channel could randomly receive one Heytea pet powder pattern.

This small surprise, offered at no extra charge, made many fans feel it was fresh and fun, and many even placed orders specifically for it and chose in-store self-pickup. When receiving the drink with the customized pattern from the staff, almost everyone could not resist raising their phone to take a photo and immediately sharing this little bit of happiness on social media.

However, not every customer could get a clear and complete limited-edition pattern as they wished.

One consumer bought the drink precisely for the Heytea pet powder pattern. She posted the cup she had just received — matcha powder had indeed been sprinkled on the snow-white milk foam, but the outline of the pattern was completely unrecognizable. She said that when picking up the order, she found the staff had not sprinkled the powder according to the order requirements at all, and only after she reminded them did they add it.

For customers, the pattern on the milk foam is like latte art on the surface of a latte. Although it does not affect the taste of the drink itself, it is the finishing touch — good-looking and emotionally satisfying, making people want to capture the moment.

But when the drink in hand not only fails to show the long-awaited pattern but instead turns into a blob of powder with an indistinguishable shape, it is hard not to sigh that "the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment." Some consumers could not help joking: are the staff unhappy about this free customization service and venting their work frustrations through it?

Faced with the criticism, many Heytea employees cried injustice. They explained that the pattern customers received was not the result of them being perfunctory, but rather that this powder-sprinkling craft really tests one's skill.

From videos of employees at work taken by netizens, the whole process is not complicated: the staff place a powder-sprinkling stencil on the surface of the prepared drink, gently shake matcha powder over it, then remove the stencil, and a customized pattern outlined by matcha powder appears on the smooth milk foam.

Although to onlookers sprinkling matcha powder may seem like something "anyone with hands can do," workers say that in actual operation, the distance between the stencil and the liquid surface, the angle of sprinkling, and the amount of powder released — every variable directly affects how the final pattern turns out.

In addition, some employees revealed that compared with the regular Heytea character powder pattern, this pet pattern is harder to form and has a higher chance of failure. So if the employee responsible for sprinkling lacks experience, or their hand shakes during the process, the pattern on the milk foam is very likely to smear into a blur, making it impossible to tell what it is.

Some Heytea employees also said that they actually understand the feelings of customers who buy drinks specifically for the powder pattern, and when producing the drinks they try their best to pursue a perfect pattern, hoping consumers leave satisfied. But as the saying goes, "even the best horse may stumble." Even a tiny mistake during the process can lead to an unsatisfactory result.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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