The Daily Life of a Starbucks Barista: How Much Do Starbucks Partners Dislike Secret Menu Items?

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat, ID: qjcoffeex

Recently, Starbucks Workers Union has expressed dissatisfaction with some popular hidden menu items on the internet that require complex preparation steps. In a tweet, they implied that Starbucks doesn't provide baristas with sufficient wages, while orders are increasing, and beverages are becoming more complex and time-consuming to prepare.

The Rise of Hidden Menus

Nowadays, with more and more Starbucks "hack" posts on social media (which teach people how to save money at Starbucks), and the continuous promotion of hidden ordering methods that can save money, it has triggered continuous sharing and spreading among netizens.

According to foreign media, a #starbuckshack tag on TikTok has nearly 5 billion views. Some accounts dedicated to developing and sharing Starbucks hidden menus have gained many followers.

Barista Perspectives

With the increasing number of hidden menu items, many Starbucks baristas have become numb to this trend! Many baristas have stated that they haven't even heard of many hidden menu items, and the ingredients are not always readily available, but more and more customers are demanding that baristas must prepare their orders according to their requirements.

One Starbucks barista told the American food magazine Eater that a quarter of the drinks they prepare daily are hidden customized products. Customers seem to think that all Starbucks baristas can prepare the drinks they request.

Some customers even demand that drinks must be prepared according to the steps in posts, and if the final product doesn't match or closely resemble the one in the post, they refuse to accept it and request a remake.

Such orders are truly time-consuming because baristas need to stop and figure out the recipes and how to create products with similar effects to the pictures. Some customers even express dissatisfaction with the taste after receiving and tasting their products, requesting refunds.

Another barista mentioned that two-thirds of the drinks they prepare are strange recipes. Now when they see young customers entering the store, they feel inexplicable fear because making a hidden drink is truly exhausting.

Starbucks' Official Response

As one of the earliest establishments to gain fame through hidden menus, Starbucks once gave official status to these items. The International Finance News reported that Starbucks spokesperson Maggie Jantzen said in an interview with CNBC that due to these "hidden menus," Starbucks baristas have learned to prepare over 170,000 types of customized drinks... However, due to the appeal of these personalized beverages, some of them have become official menu items at Starbucks.

Despite this, as people's creative ideas continue to grow, many Starbucks baristas have started complaining on social platforms: "Some customer requirements can truly make you sick!" Previously, it was reported that a Starbucks barista was fired from their store for taking photos and posting complaints about customer preparation requirements and saying "this is why I quit today," citing violation of others' privacy as the reason.

Extreme Customer Demands

After reading these order sharing posts, many Starbucks colleagues expressed their empathy, because looking at such orders, any barista would feel "emotionally broken." The stickers also had to endure words that shouldn't be their burden at their age... This triggered more colleagues to share their experiences, with one order being particularly noteworthy:

The customer requested 63 pumps of various syrups... (Under normal circumstances, one pump is divided into 7.5ml/15ml/30ml, with different quantitative pumps configured according to the sweetness/viscosity of the syrup)

Impact on Customer Experience

Regarding the increasing number of hidden menus, not only Starbucks colleagues have complained, but even ordinary consumers have expressed dissatisfaction, believing that these ordering customers are selfish. Because Starbucks itself is a brand known for quick service, as a result of baristas struggling to prepare these customized items, subsequent customers have to wait longer.

Although customers need to pay extra for these ingredients, and baristas only need to complete the preparation according to requirements, and the materials used are safe, it doesn't mean that the flavors will necessarily work well together.

While some hidden menus may look appealing, some requirements should be kept within reasonable limits. After spending a lot of money, if the final product doesn't taste good, what's the point?

Image source: Internet

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473