What Luckin Coffee's Ruina Ice exit means for stores

Luckin Coffee will discontinue its entire Ruina Ice series, including Matcha Ruina Ice, after stores close on September 26. Baristas have long called the blended drinks the hardest items to make, and many celebrated the news on social media. Each order requires mixing syrup and jam in a blender, adding ice, blending to a slush, pouring, decorating and then cleaning the blender before the next cup.

With one blender in many stores, staff must wash tools and switch ingredients between drinks, so a single Ruina Ice can take as long as two or three lattes. Luckin plans a new collaboration event and items such as Coconut Mango Pomelo Sago, and some employees warn the replacements may be just as demanding. The change matters to anyone tracking Luckin Coffee's menu and how its baristas handle a different latte coffee milk ratio and prep routine.

Luckin Coffee's Ruina Ice series has always been regarded by employees as the most difficult drink to make, especially the Matcha Ruina Ice, which will be completely discontinued after stores close on September 26. This news has brought relief to many Luckin baristas, and voices of celebration can be seen everywhere on social media. However, some level-headed partners remind everyone not to celebrate too soon—next week Luckin will launch a brand-new collaboration event, and new products such as Coconut Yangzhi Ganlu may be even more of a headache than Ruina Ice. This article sorts out why Ruina Ice became an employee nightmare, the specific date it will leave the market, and the operational challenges that may come with the new products taking over. Front Street Coffee is also paying attention to this change and providing coffee lovers with the latest interpretation.

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If you ask Luckin store partners what they fear most encountering during busy hours, many people's answer would probably be "making Ruina Ice."

Luckin's Ruina Ice series has long been regarded by many netizens as a "Starbucks Frappuccino substitute," with sales especially booming in summer. But for baristas, this series is one of the drinks they least want to touch, for a simple reason: it is too much trouble to make.

Some Luckin partners have revealed that the production process for Ruina Ice is quite complicated. After receiving an order, you first need to pour syrup, jam, and other ingredients into the blender, mix them well, then add ice, blend into a fine slush, pour it into a cup, add decorations, and only then can you seal the lid and serve it. After the customer takes the drink, employees still have to clean tools such as the blender and put the ingredients back in the refrigerator before the order is truly complete.

If several Ruina Ice drinks with different flavors come in at once, and the store has only one blender, then you can only finish one cup, wash the blender once, then switch ingredients and make the next cup. Because of this, many Luckin employees feel no fondness for any flavor of Ruina Ice. During peak hours, as soon as they see a Ruina Ice order, they cannot help grumbling internally, and may even feel that the time it takes to make one Ruina Ice is enough to make two or three lattes.

Recently, however, Luckin baristas discovered while checking the latest operational notice that Matcha Ruina Ice has already appeared on the company's list of drinks to be discontinued. According to a screenshot provided by an employee, Matcha Ruina Ice will be directly discontinued after stores close on September 26. That is to say, starting September 27, as the last Ruina Ice item exits the menu, Luckin stores will no longer make the Ruina Ice series, and it will no longer be found on the menu.

Seeing this "annoying pest" finally about to disappear, Luckin workers were naturally overjoyed and left comments on social media to celebrate: "Goodbye Ruina Ice hahahaha," "I couldn't stop smiling when I saw it," "After closing, I will forever seal the blender," "Bye-bye Ruina Ice, don't come back, I don't want to love you," feeling thankful that they would no longer break down because of making Ruina Ice during order surges.

But some clear-headed Luckin partners poured cold water on their cheering colleagues: "Ruina Ice is gone, but something even more terrifying is coming."

According to gossip revealed by some social media accounts, Luckin will launch a brand-new collaboration event next Monday and simultaneously release several new products, including Milk Skin Latte and Coconut Yangzhi Ganlu. Among them, Coconut Yangzhi Ganlu, because of its rich ingredients and numerous steps, is regarded by many Luckin employees as a monster "even more troublesome than Ruina Ice."

From this, many people speculate that Luckin's nationwide stores discontinuing Ruina Ice this time are very likely "making room" for the upcoming Coconut Yangzhi Ganlu. Everyone also laments that the happiness of workers lasts only a few short days; when the new products launch next week, new troubles will arrive again.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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