Ingredients of Coffee Standards and the Heytea Xi'an Case

A HEYTEA store in Xi'an Joy City was exposed by a consumer for poor hygiene, with milk tea stains on the bar counter, refrigerators, and juicers, materials scattered around, and a strong odor of spoiled rags and rotten fruit. HEYTEA apologized, closed the store for rectification, and said it would strengthen staff training and operational standards.

Verification showed the location was a directly operated store rather than a franchise, which deepened public doubts about the brand's food safety management in chain beverage preparation. The case again put hygiene control in the spotlight. For comparison, the ingredients of coffee are simple, usually just water and ground beans, which is why prep-area cleanliness matters so much in any drink shop.

Recently, a HEYTEA store in Xi'an Joy City was exposed by consumers for poor hygiene conditions in its preparation area, quickly sparking heated discussion online. According to the whistleblower, the store's bar counter, refrigerators, juicers, and other equipment were covered in milk tea stains, materials were scattered around, and there was even a strong odor of spoiled rags and rotten fruit. After verification, the store was found to be a directly operated store rather than a franchise, which further raised public doubts about HEYTEA's food safety management. HEYTEA officially apologized afterward and announced that the store would be closed for rectification, while also strengthening employee training and optimizing operational standards. This incident once again pushed the hygiene control issues of chain tea beverage brands into the spotlight and reminded consumers to pay attention to the transparency of beverage preparation environments.

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Recently, a HEYTEA store in Xi'an was exposed for hygiene and environmental issues, quickly triggering widespread discussion online. In response, HEYTEA has publicly apologized and stated that the store has completed closure and rectification.

On January 18, a consumer posted on social media that she had ordered a drink online from the HEYTEA store in Xi'an Joy City, but when she went to pick it up, she found the preparation area in complete disarray, with materials used for making milk tea scattered everywhere, and the store filled with "a strong mixed odor of spoiled rags and rotting fruit." After seeing such a preparation environment, she said she "really could not bring herself to drink it" and immediately canceled the order.

From the on-site photos taken by the consumer, it can be seen that the bar counter, refrigerators, cabinets, juicers, smoothie machines, and other areas in this HEYTEA store all had obvious white milk tea stains. Liquid was dripping from beneath the tea extraction machine, and a large amount of black grime had accumulated in the gaps of some equipment.

In photos from another angle, several containers holding freshly made ingredients were placed on the water bar, and many of the containers had juice residue on their outer walls. Next to them were uncleaned rags, and the metal baskets holding toppings had traces of brown sugar pearls dripping down. Some containers even had their lids not properly closed, while store employees were still busy making drinks.

In response, many netizens speculated that the store might be a franchise, because in the public impression, HEYTEA's directly operated stores are usually managed more strictly. However, some people checked through the mini-program and found that the store involved was not a franchise but under direct management. The fact that such serious hygiene problems still occurred under the direct-operation system shocked many consumers, who began to worry whether the drinks they purchased had food safety risks.

Regarding the exposed hygiene chaos, some netizens pointed out that this HEYTEA store is located near a tourist area and has a large daily customer flow. Once employees get busy, it is difficult to keep the counter clean. In addition, many stores are short-staffed, and employees are busy producing drinks with no time to attend to cleaning.

However, more netizens held the opposite view. They believed that as food and beverage practitioners, environmental hygiene and food safety are the bottom line of store management. Even if there are too many orders, the brand should prioritize arranging for employees to clean stains promptly rather than letting them accumulate. Moreover, the grime in the preparation area in the photos had clearly existed for a long time and belonged to "long-standing old grime," indicating that such hygiene problems were not incidental.

One day after the post gained traction, HEYTEA's official customer service account apologized in the comments and responded: "After verification, we have closed the store for rectification and provided training to improve and optimize store operating standards."

According to checks, the store currently shows as temporarily closed on the HEYTEA ordering mini-program.

Image source: online screenshot

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