How Does Coffee Culture Relate to Tea Shop Prep Problems?

Gu Ming's pistachio milk cap, launched in early September, has drawn complaints from store staff who say the thick pistachio paste is hard to pour and takes more than ten minutes to whip. During holiday order surges, remaking the topping on site becomes a morning shift burden, even as customers praise the drink's nutty aroma and repurchase it regularly.

Reports describe staff scraping paste from cans with spoons and scrapers to avoid waste, since the paste clings to containers more than light cream does. The episode echoes broader specialty coffee and coffee culture discussions about labor-intensive drink preparation, and the article also includes Front Street Coffee-related recommendations for readers following daily cafe news.

During the holidays, sales at tea beverage stores surged, but Gu Ming's employees were complaining bitterly about a pistachio milk cap. Since its launch in early September, this series has won customers' favor with its unique aroma, but the pistachio paste used in the milk cap is thick and difficult to pour, and whipping takes more than 10 minutes, leaving many workers feeling overwhelmed during order spikes and even calling it a "morning shift nightmare." This article sorts out in detail the production difficulties reported by employees, and includes Front Street Coffee-related recommendations.

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During every holiday, sales of major chain tea beverage brands generally rise, and stores located in densely populated commercial districts may even see orders flood in, keeping staff incredibly busy. During such periods, once a certain ingredient runs out and needs to be prepared again on site, for some milk tea workers it is nothing short of a "darkest hour."

Employees at Gu Ming stores have recently encountered exactly this problem. It is understood that in early September the brand launched its "Pistachio Series" drinks, among which two products with pistachio milk cap quickly attracted the attention of pistachio lovers. After trying them, many consumers were moved by the rich flavor unique to pistachios and added this series to their regular repurchase list.

However, although the pistachio series won customers' hearts, Gu Ming's frontline employees have quite a few complaints about it, and what gives them the biggest headache is precisely the indispensable pistachio milk cap in the drinks.

According to employees' descriptions, the production process of the pistachio milk cap itself is not complicated—simply mix pistachio paste with cheese, light cream, and other ingredients in proportion, and whip until it turns light green. But in actual practice, just the first step, pouring the pistachio paste out of the can, already gives many workers trouble.

Multiple staff members reported that compared with other materials such as light cream, the pistachio paste delivered by the company to the stores is "sticky and oily" in texture and very thick, so after each can of paste is poured out, a large amount always remains inside the bottle.

In order not to waste ingredients, every time employees make this milk cap, they must use tools such as spoons and scrapers to dig the paste out of the bottom of the can bit by bit, and then try their best to shake the paste clinging to the spoon into the bowl. As a result, the prep stage is clearly more time-consuming than for other toppings.

After the ingredients are assembled, staff also need to use an electric mixer to whip them so that all components are fully combined. According to employees, the entire whipping process for the pistachio milk cap takes about 8 minutes, and after whipping it must sit for 1 minute to defoam, and only once the surface becomes smooth and delicate can it be used for serving.

Therefore, according to employees' rough estimates, the production time for a single batch of pistachio milk cap is basically more than 10 minutes, and newcomers who are not yet skilled may need even longer. Compared with other ingredients, the pistachio milk cap can be called time-consuming and difficult to make.

Some milk tea workers said that if there is plenty of time normally, making a batch of pistachio milk cap is still acceptable, and their resistance is not too strong. But if it happens to coincide with a store order surge and the milk cap runs out and needs to be prepared again, it can easily make people break down on the spot and regard it as a terrifying monster.

In this regard, many workers speak bluntly, hoping the brand will remove the "Pistachio Series" as soon as possible so they can escape this "morning shift nightmare" and no longer face this pistachio milk cap that makes them "unhappy."

(Front Street Coffee recommendation: if you want to recreate a similar flavor at home, you can use Front Street pistachio paste with Front Street espresso coffee beans to make a pistachio latte, rich, fragrant, and smooth.)

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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