Starbucks Baristas Aren't Allowed To Batch Drinks, Despite Those Big Blenders
At any food establishment, employees are required to follow a certain set of rules. Wearing close-toed shoes and tying long hair back are among the most common, but at Starbucks, it gets a bit more specific. Baristas aren't allowed to wear nail polish, perfume, or tops with hoods, and it wasn't until 2014 that they could have visible tattoos.
As far as the actual drink-making is concerned, Starbucks has rules for that too. In addition to rinsing pitchers after every use — a fairly reasonable request — baristas also have to steam fresh milk for every drink as opposed to making it in advance, and they're only allowed to use one espresso machine at a time, which they have to stand and wait in front of, even when it seems more efficient to multitask. Starbucks employees also can't blend drinks in batches. It doesn't matter if multiple people ordered the same drink or if there's a long line of customers waiting.
Starbucks baristas have to make each drink in its own blender
Despite the fact that the blenders behind the counter can visibly accommodate more than one Frappuccino, Starbucks trains its baristas to use only one blender per drink. If the store is particularly busy however, baristas are permitted to make two drinks at a time as long as they are still in separate blenders, and the second drink is started when the first is about to finish.
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Judging by a viral TikTok in which one barista got caught making six Frappuccinos in one blender, the policy is difficult to adhere to when the store is busy. Many self-identified Starbucks baristas agreed in the comments section, sharing that managers often have to let it slide so customers can get their drinks faster. One commenter did point out that the blender can't actually handle more than three venti-sized drinks, however, this isn't the only reason Starbucks enforces the no batching rule.
Starbucks used to allow baristas to batch drinks
If it seemed like the lines got longer and the service got slower at Starbucks circa 2010, that's because it did. During this time, Starbucks put an end to batch blending drinks, a practice that had been standard up until then. Customers had been complaining that the beverages didn't seem hand-crafted enough, and to fix it, Starbucks decided it would require its baristas to make each drink individually instead of in bigger batches.
Though the rule was met with heavy opposition by baristas when it was first enforced, Starbucks claimed that better quality drinks would ultimately create faster service times. It's hard to say for sure whether that's actually the case now, but considering there's a recently active Reddit thread filled with baristas admitting to not following the rule, it's clearly not always in the best interest of impatient customers. Either way, over a decade has passed and Starbucks has yet to change its drink-making policy.