What does the coffee making process share with fruit tea prep?

Heytea brought back its guava series before Valentine's Day, and the guava grape tea sold quickly, but back-kitchen staff describe hand-squeezing guava puree and peeling green grapes for hours. The repetitive work has led to frozen shoulder, tenosynovitis, and hand allergies among store employees.

The drink itself is simple: wash, top and tail, cut and juice the guavas, blend the juice with ice, then pour it over green grapes already in the cup. A ten-second video hides the volume of orders behind it. Labor load like this echoes concerns in the coffee making process and coffee production process, where repetitive motions also add up.

Last spring, Heytea's guava fruit tea series won over a large number of consumers with its refreshing taste, and its removal from the menu after the season became a regret for many. On the eve of this year's Valentine's Day, the guava series finally returned amid widespread calls, and the refreshing guava grape tea went viral on social media as soon as it was launched, with store orders flooding in. However, while fans were raising their glasses for photos and check-ins, Heytea employees in the back kitchen were facing baskets of fresh guavas on the verge of tears. Manually squeezing fruit puree, peeling green grape flesh, and long hours of repetitive labor have caused many store staff to develop health problems such as frozen shoulder, tenosynovitis, and hand allergies. Behind a cup of seemingly simple fruit tea, what exactly is hidden in terms of production process and labor intensity? This article takes you through the real working conditions of milk tea workers.

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Last spring, Heytea's newly launched guava fruit tea quickly built up a large loyal following with its fresh flavor, but as the guava season ended, the series was quietly taken off the menu, becoming a regret that many consumers could not forget for a long time.

A year later, amid continued calls from fans, the guava series chose to relaunch on the eve of Valentine's Day. As soon as the refreshing guava grape tea was introduced, it swept across major social media platforms, attracting a large number of customers rushing to place orders just to taste the sweet flavor of this store bestseller.

But while fans happily raised their pink fruit tea and tried to take good-looking photos, Heytea employees in the back kitchen faced baskets of fresh guavas on the verge of tears, hoping only that this year's guava season would end soon.

Judging from the daily work videos recorded by store staff, the production steps of the recently popular refreshing guava grape tea are actually not complicated. Fresh red-fleshed guavas are washed, topped and tailed, cut into pieces and juiced, then the juice is blended with ice into a smoothie and poured into a takeaway cup already containing green grapes and other toppings.

However, a production video of just over ten seconds does not mean making a cup of the drink is really easy. Staff said that after the guava pieces are blended into puree, they still need to be put into filter bags, and only manual squeezing by employees can produce that large basin of pink juice seen in the video. In addition, if a store is not equipped with a special peeling machine, the green grape flesh placed at the bottom of the cup must be peeled one by one by hand, a process that is both time-consuming and labor-intensive.

A part-time worker at Heytea during the holiday revealed that every day in the prep room they constantly peeled grapes, cut mangoes, and peeled green grapes, and with the double test of apple juice and guava juice, after a long time, although their right arm, which did the work, had developed biceps, it could no longer bear the load. Any exertion caused severe pain, and they have now been diagnosed with frozen shoulder.

This experience immediately resonated with Heytea juicers, many of whom admitted they had similar feelings during long-term work. Some said, "I also feel like I'm about to peel my way into tenosynovitis," some said, "I feel it now too, especially when washing things after closing," and others said, "My hands cramp from peeling grapes," and "Every squeeze leaves me with no strength."

In addition to health problems in the shoulders and arms, some store staff also posted photos of their hands allergic from soaking in disinfectant and fingers cut by sharp edges such as cup lids, sighing helplessly, "My arms hurt from scooping ice, my fingers get cut when making drinks, my fingers get burned by hot drinks, I'm allergic to disinfectant during deep cleaning—the buffs are stacked full."

Perhaps in the eyes of young people looking for part-time work, being a milk tea worker at tea drink shops such as Chagee or Heytea means earning some pocket money while also getting free drinks. But when they are busy like spinning tops between the prep room, the service counter, and all kinds of machines and equipment, barely touching the ground, and stop to catch their breath only to notice their battered hands, they suddenly realize that this job is far from as easy and comfortable as imagined.

Many employees report that tea drink brands are currently competing to pursue real ingredients, yet they have not added staff to stores to handle these fresh fruits and vegetables delivered daily, resulting in an generally excessive burden on existing employees.

Some even develop occupational diseases such as rotten hands, frozen shoulder, and tenosynovitis due to overloaded work, requiring hospital treatment to relieve the pain caused by work. So some young people helplessly mock themselves, saying they did not expect to face health troubles just after entering the workplace, and that they have even applied medicinal plasters to their worn-out bodies earlier than their parents.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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