What Is White Coffee and How Should Con Panna Be Served?

A customer ordered a Starbucks con panna and received it in an ordinary 350ml paper cup, with the espresso sunk at the bottom and the cream floating on top, making the drink hard to consume as intended. The classic Italian drink is normally served in a small espresso cup so the coffee and cream can be tasted together in one sip.

After the incident spread on social media, Starbucks employees said the practice does not match official production standards, which call for 60ml espresso cups, or small paper cups for takeaway. The episode has drawn attention to quality control and barista training across chain coffee shops, and to how drink standards are maintained in daily service.

A classic espresso con panna is meant to be served in a small espresso cup, letting the customer enjoy the blend of espresso and cream in one sip. However, when a customer ordered this drink at Starbucks, they received an "awkward creation" in a regular 350ml paper cup, with the coffee sunk at the bottom and the cream floating on top, making it completely undrinkable. After the incident fermented on social media, many Starbucks employees came forward to point out that this practice does not conform to official production standards. Was it a shortage of cups, unfamiliarity of the staff, or a flaw in the training system? This discussion about con panna is bringing the quality control and vocational training issues of chain coffee brands to the forefront.

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Recently, a customer shared their experience with Starbucks con panna on social media, which attracted many netizens to watch and discuss.

The poster said that they ordered a con panna at a certain Starbucks store, repeatedly explaining to the staff that they wanted to enjoy it in-store, but what they received was a drink in an ordinary paper cup. The store's product was seriously inconsistent with expectations, making the customer very dissatisfied and directly complaining: "The con panna is just a little bit, plus the cream on top, in a paper cup, it's impossible to drink."

It is understood that con panna is a classic Italian coffee drink, usually made by squeezing an appropriate amount of cream on top of espresso. Because of this, the portion of this drink is much smaller than regular coffee, and coffee shops generally choose smaller cups to serve con panna.

But from consumer feedback, the Starbucks store's staff used a paper cup with a capacity of no less than 350ml to make the con panna, resulting in the finished drink all sinking to the bottom of the cup. When drinking, the customer couldn't feel the dual flavor of espresso and cream at the same time, and the experience plummeted, leaving them in a dilemma of not knowing how to drink it.

In response, some Starbucks employees explained in the comments. According to official regulations, stores usually use 60ml small espresso cups to serve con panna, making it convenient for customers to drink in one sip. If customers need to take it away, they should also use small paper cups for espresso. So from the photos posted by the customer, the store's staff using a regular takeaway cup for con panna actually does not conform to the store's production standards.

As for why such a mistake occurred, some believe that the store happened to have no available espresso cups or lacked paper cups of the right size; others speculate that the staff responsible for making this con panna might not understand the production standards for this niche drink, leading to a momentary mistake in picking up the wrong cup.

But more people think that the reason Starbucks staff make such mistakes may be related to inadequate store training. In their view, although not many customers usually buy con panna, since Starbucks has included this classic Italian coffee in the store menu, it should train employees accordingly and require them to make and serve it in the correct way.

But in fact, many long-time users feedback that in recent years, Starbucks seems to have omissions in vocational training for employees, so that some staff make drinks with quality control that does not meet official requirements, such as flat white with rough milk foam, con panna with the wrong cup, etc.

Many netizens pointed out that as a chain coffee brand, Starbucks has always been an industry benchmark in the minds of coffee lovers, but substandard coffee products make users feel that the staff lack professionalism, and also affect its brand image and consumers' favorability towards Starbucks. They bluntly say that the official should pay attention to the professional quality of store employees, strengthen staff skill training, and unify store production standards.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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