What Is Coffee Made Of and Why Did the Pink Cream Top Fail?

Luckin's Luojia Sakura Latte returns each spring, and this year the chain upgraded the cream top to pink. The first buyers, however, found the cream lying flat across the cup instead of holding the swirl shown on the poster, and staff responded in the comments to apologize. The gap traces back to how the drink is built and assembled.

The latte combines espresso, milk, sakura flavoring and a whipped cream topping. Former employees point to likely causes: inadequate training for new staff, unfamiliarity with the cream charger, and whipping cream stored in poor condition. Temperature also matters, since heat can break down the foam before it reaches the cup, a detail specialty coffee shops watch closely.

In the spring of 2021, Luckin launched a limited-edition drink called "Luojia Cherry Blossom Latte," which quickly became a hit thanks to its pretty pink appearance and lingering floral aroma, and it has returned every spring since. This year the drink was upgraded again, with the cream top making a comeback and turning pink, further boosting its visual appeal and drawing a large number of consumers to place orders. However, the first customers to receive the drink found that the actual cream top looked vastly different from the official poster—the cream lay flat across the surface of the cup, mockingly described as "cream crapped in the cup." Neither iced nor hot drink buyer photos were spared, and Luckin staff took to the comments section to apologize, with former employees also showing up to explain. Which steps exactly went wrong? Inadequate training for new employees, unfamiliarity with the cream charger, poor condition of the whipping cream... This article will reconstruct the whole story of this cream top "flop."

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In the spring of 2021, Luckin launched a spring limited-edition drink, "Luojia Cherry Blossom Latte," which quickly captured a large fan base with its pretty pink high visual appeal and lingering floral flavor. Since then, whenever spring arrives and flowers bloom, this seasonal limited-edition drink has returned on schedule, keeping its spring date with consumers.

(Image screenshot from the official mini-program)

It is worth mentioning that this year's returning "Luojia Cherry Blossom Latte" has been adjusted compared with last year's version: the cream top has returned and been upgraded to a pink cream top, taking the drink's visual appeal up another notch and making many appearance-focused fans fall for it, who then rushed to order once the classic returned.

However, the first batch of consumers who received the "Luojia Cherry Blossom Latte," looking at the drink in their hands and then comparing it with the official product poster, could not help but exclaim that it was "like two completely different drinks."

From the buyer photos users posted, the drinks they received did indeed have an extra layer of cream top as the official description said, but the shape of the cream top was completely different from the poster. Strips of cream lay horizontally on the surface of the liquid, as if "cream crapped in the cup," and the presentation was really hard to describe.

Regarding this situation, some onlooking netizens guessed that the temperature of the hot drink caused the cream top to melt, making the drink look worse than expected, and thought that if it were an iced drink, the ice cubes would support the cream top and make it easier to stack and form a shape. But customers who bought iced drinks immediately posted photos to refute this, saying bluntly that whether hot or iced, the cream top they received was far from the layered, blooming-flower-like cream top on the product poster.

Seeing the all kinds of buyer photos on social media, a crowd of Luckin workers slid to their knees apologizing in the comments section, insisting that the cream top being squeezed like that really was not intentional. Some former employees who heard the news also did not know whether to laugh or cry, and could not help appearing in the comments section to explain a thing or two for the current workers.

Veteran employees shared past experience, saying that whether the cream top on a Luckin drink can hold its shape depends on the chilling effect of the whipping cream, whether enough gas is supplied, and whether it is shaken sufficiently before use. If even one of these details is not done well, the cream squeezed out of the cream charger is very likely to become little thick strips and fail to form a layered, blooming-flower-like shape.

In addition, some staff pointed out that Luckin had not launched any product with an added cream top for nearly the past half year, so many new employees who joined during this period had never handled a cream charger before. And before the drink was launched, staff did not have enough time or materials to train on using the cream charger, so in the first few days after the drink's release, the cream tops made by unskilled Luckin workers were naturally all over the place.

However, as long as they get through the adaptation period for making the new product, and staff become familiar with how to use the cream charger while taking orders, the pink cream top on the "Luojia Cherry Blossom Latte" will gradually improve in appearance and move closer to the look required by the brand.

Image source: Internet

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