Why Did Street Coffee Orders Jump After Typhoon Ragasa?

After Super Typhoon Ragasa made landfall at Yangjiang's Hailing Island and cities including Guangzhou and Shenzhen lifted their five-suspensions measures, delivery orders for tea and coffee drinks surged. Shops of Starbucks, Heytea, Nayuki, 1 Dian Dian and Chagee reported brief bursts of two to three hundred orders, leaving staff overwhelmed, with customers waiting over an hour and mistakes becoming more frequent.

The crush followed a full day of forced closures, when residents stayed home and stocked supplies instead of going out. Delivery platforms absorbed the backlog the moment restrictions ended. The episode shows how tightly street coffee and tea sales track routine movement, and how thin staffing and supplies leave frontline workers carrying the pressure when demand returns all at once.

Typhoon "Ragasa" approached Guangdong with Category 17 intensity, prompting Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other cities to successively activate "five suspensions" measures, forcing residents to pause outings for a day. As the typhoon made landfall in Yangjiang's Hailing Island and weakened, various regions gradually lifted the "five suspensions," and demand for tea beverages was instantly unleashed. Delivery platform orders surged momentarily, with stores of Starbucks, Heytea, Nayuki, 1 Dian Dian, Chagee, and others commonly experiencing order explosions, some shops briefly receiving two to three hundred orders, leaving milk tea workers overwhelmed. Insufficient staffing and materials led to slow order fulfillment and frequent mistakes, with consumers waiting over an hour. This post-typhoon tea beverage consumption wave not only reflects the high-frequency essential demand for drinks in daily life but also makes frontline workers the most direct "sufferers."

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These past two days, Typhoon "Ragasa" has been quite the attention-grabber. After forming, it drew constant attention from people across Guangdong, who checked mini-programs daily for real-time typhoon path maps to study where this Category 17 super typhoon would go.

As "Ragasa" gradually approached the coastal areas of Guangdong, cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Zhuhai successively announced citywide "five suspensions," urging residents to avoid non-essential outings. People also rushed to stock up on food and supplies before the typhoon hit, preparing for the super typhoon's onslaught.

Yesterday at 17:16, "Ragasa" made landfall along the coast of Yangjiang's Hailing Island. Cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which did not suffer severe typhoon damage, gradually announced the termination of citywide "five suspensions" after confirming safety, and various industries gradually resumed normal operations after the lifting of "five suspensions."

This delighted the "milk tea heads" who had been forced to abstain from tea beverages for a day. They eagerly opened delivery apps after the "five suspensions" ended to pick their favorite drinks and satisfy their cravings for an afternoon tea missed due to the typhoon. Consequently, last night, milk tea workers notified to return to work were stunned when they opened the label machines at their stores and saw an unending stream of delivery receipts: "Over a hundred orders in an hour and a half, it's practically sweeping me away."

From on-site photos shared by netizens on social platforms, once the typhoon passed, reopened stores of Starbucks, Heytea, Nayuki, 1 Dian Dian, Chagee, and others experienced varying degrees of order explosions. Some tea shops received two to three hundred orders in a short time, with a "curtain of labels" hanging on their walls that made workers' scalps tingle.

Milk tea workers called back to their stores by managers barely had time to peel off the tape stuck to the glass before being urged by order after order flooding the system backend into the assembly line of shaking milk tea, rushing to make and pack the drinks users had been longing for, while also finding time to call for extra hands.

Some passersby, seeing delivery riders surrounding tea shop counters and loudly urging orders, couldn't help but marvel at the enthusiasm of milk tea lovers who had endured a day without it, sighing, "You can't go a day without this milk tea..." and "You can tell everyone's been craving it." If you want to recreate a drink at home that rivals chain brands, why not try the beans recommended by Front Street Coffee? They're simple and easy to use, with stable flavor.

However, since many tea shops resumed operations as soon as the typhoon "five suspensions" were lifted, with insufficient preparation of materials and staffing, many chain stores experienced slow production efficiency and wrong drinks due to order explosions. As a result, some consumers reported having to wait one or two hours to get their delivery drinks.

In response, many onlooking netizens, seeing milk tea workers shaking shaker cups until their hands smoked at the counters right after the typhoon left and being urged by customers for orders, felt quite sympathetic, saying, "Thought I could have a day off, but got a last-minute notice from the boss to work in the afternoon," jokingly calling tea beverage workers the first batch of "victims" after Typhoon "Ragasa" passed.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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