How a Coffee Culture Magazine Sees the Stir-Fried Pearl Storm
ChaPanda has asked stores to buy woks and has allocated tapioca starch so employees can hand-roll balls and stir-fry pearls fresh. The news followed a run of new products such as wheatgrass juice, bell pepper fruit and vegetable tea, and Shenyan strawberries. Customers welcomed the idea, while frontline workers complained about the added workload.
Most tea brands use semi-finished pearl powder balls to keep production efficient and consistent, so fresh pearls are seen as a texture and flavor upgrade. In coffee culture circles, the case raises the same question brands face in specialty coffee: how to balance rapid innovation against store staffing and the labor behind each cup.
Tea Baidao has been launching new products frequently lately, with wheatgrass juice, bell pepper fruit and vegetable tea, and Shenyan strawberries taking turns on the menu. Now it has been revealed that stores are being required to purchase woks and are being allocated tapioca starch, so that employees can hand-roll balls and stir-fry pearls fresh. As soon as the news came out, milk tea lovers were full of anticipation, but frontline workers were wailing everywhere, saying bluntly that "my heart is dead" and "I want to escape." Can freshly made pearls really improve the taste? How can the contradiction between a brand's pace of innovation and store staffing be resolved? This article takes you through this storm caused by pearls.
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Over the past month, Tea Baidao has been going full throttle in new product development, with items such as wheatgrass juice, bell pepper fruit and vegetable tea, and Shenyan strawberries appearing on the menu one after another, allowing consumers to taste something new every week.
Such a high-frequency launch pace has also led fans to speculate: will Tea Baidao's next new product include even more unexpected fruits and vegetables? In response, store workers waved their hands, saying that the next new product is not completely consistent with netizens' guesses. They revealed that the company recently required stores to purchase woks, and some regional managers even recommended wok brands to employees. At the same time, stores would also be allocated tapioca starch, with plans for employees to hand-roll balls and stir-fry pearls fresh.
This news excited many milk tea lovers. They said that soft and chewy pearls are absolutely a bonus for a cup of milk tea, but most tea beverage brands on the market usually use semi-finished pearl powder balls to ensure production efficiency and quality control, then process them before adding them to milk tea.
Therefore, in consumers' eyes, freshly rolled and freshly stir-fried pearls may be superior to semi-finished powder balls in texture and flavor, and also healthier. So much so that fans who heard the news are already full of anticipation for the new product, saying, "I have to try a cup of this."
However, the workers who revealed the news were not happy at all, and instead complained about the R&D department one after another. They said bluntly that since the brand launched the "Super Veggie" series, going to work every day has felt like undergoing a tribulation, saying, "Every day I squeeze this and then squeeze that, and several strainers have been worked to death!"
If a store gets a surge of orders, the orders flooding into the back end make things even worse for the workers. After dealing with the peak period, they feel as if they have just been through a chaotic battle and are too tired to speak.
Based on this, after employees learned that what the brand planned to launch was freshly stir-fried pearls, wails almost filled the entire comment section, with comments such as "I'm giving up," "I'm on the morning shift this week, my heart is dead," and "This is too torturous." Some even said bluntly that their "desire to escape Tea Baidao has reached its peak at this moment," while others said that after learning the store was about to stir-fry pearls, they had already decisively chosen to run away, saying, "I resigned immediately."
Some employees said that many Tea Baidao stores now have only one employee responsible for the morning shift, and the continuous stream of fruit and vegetable drinks requires employees to spend a great deal of time and energy preparing ingredients. On top of that, if the brand also asks employees to hand-roll pearl balls themselves and then stir-fry pot after pot of milk tea toppings, then for morning shift workers it is undoubtedly a terrifying nightmare.
However, some workers also revealed that before the new drinks and freshly stir-fried pearl toppings are launched, the brand may adjust the menu and remove some products that are cumbersome to make and receive mediocre market feedback, so as to reduce the burden on stores.
But even so, many employees still called out to the brand, suggesting that the R&D staff who come up with all kinds of strange new products should go to the frontline and experience the daily misery they endure. They said that while launching new drinks, the brand should also "consider whether the store staff live or die," simplify production processes, and save production time, rather than trapping people in the back kitchen with cumbersome ingredient preparation work, making them not only shake milk tea but also act as "chefs" in a beverage shop.
Image source: Xiaohongshu
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
