It's standard to use the shaker for consistency. The shaker even gives you lines when people order light ice, so basically all the time.

The shaker gives consistency across all stores and employees.

Not everything can be shaken correctly in a cup. For example shaken espressos require more ice than fits in the cup before the shots are poured on top or trenta cups of drinks. Drinks with milk also don’t shake well, like pink drinks if everything is correctly measured but shaken in the cup. The frustrations your coworkers have are probably more so with the fact that you aren’t making drinks to standard and it’s noticeable (even if you don’t care about that).

I am the one telling my coworkers not to shake things in the cup because they don’t measure correctly. Now, dont get me wrong, when I have an afterschool rush and all the kids want strawberry acai lemonades with no inclusions, they are for sure getting it shaken in the cup ONLY because its not noticeable and they dont care. They just want there go go juice.

On top of the inconsistencies in measurements that other people have mentioned, I can almost guarantee that you're not shaking as vigorously as you would/should using a shaker since the cups are so flimsy.

It’s mainly because the cups don’t have the measurement lines like the shakers do. When it comes to refreshers the proportions are extremely important because even an oz more of the base will make the drink taste overly acidic- as well as that the refreshers are caffeinated through green coffee bean extract and skewing with the portions will put more caffeine then what is specified without the customer asking for more/less base.
Just putting the shaker lid on the cup can allow for it to spill as well- the shakers are beefy boys and even then sometimes the lid doesn’t stay on so we don’t wanna be having a shower in a brown sugar shaken.
Another thing I could see is the shakers hold more liquid than all of our sizes- this allows the drink to all slosh around with the ice and get cold and mix- I’m assuming why you don’t shake trenta sizes directly in the cup but in the shaker is because the cup is too full and shaking it does nothing.
But like tbh do with that info what you will at least you’re shaking the drinks instead of just putting ice on top of the drink

Using a shaker doesn’t really waste any time, if it’s really that much slower for you then that’s probably just because you’re out of practice since you shake things in cups most of the time. I agree that sometimes standards are wrong but I don’t think this is one of them.

Another way to look at it: even if you are using the correct measurements and shaking as vigorously as you would in a shaker, and it is in fact faster for you; other partners could be seeing you do this and not put in the effort to understand how the shaker measurements look in a cup, and could be making drinks with different ratios because they think it’s okay to not use shakers after seeing you do it.

I totally agree on the saving time thing...but the shaker is way sturdier and it's standard. I would probably mention it to a coworker if I saw them shaking it in the cup instead.

I’m not a physicist but I am reasonably sure that shaking something against a thin surface that breaks if you squeeze it too hard is way less effective than shaking it against an actual hard surface. It doesn’t work as well.

i agree with other comments noting inconsistencies in measurement and shake aggression, BUT its definitely better than not shaking at all. im a total shake freak and ive made trainees shake the unshaken vs shaken cause i think it tastes so different lol

The shaker is the standard for every refresher, tea&shaken espresso plus iced matcha

shaking in cups doesn’t allow you to measure as accurately or shake as thoroughly. frequently one of my partners will shake chocolate almond milk shaken espressos in the cup and it leaves a bunch of the malt powder unshaken, to the point that it would be much simpler in the shaker

Build all shaken drinks in the shaker, that’s SB standard. It helps combine matcha lattes better and create foam for shaken espressos, as well as give you plenty of room in the shaker to aerate, chill and incorporate all ingredients. You are not going to get penalized for speed for using a shaker.

several years ago the standard for aerating milk for lattes was WAY too long for the machines.


Most people started to realize it and would count to six SUPER fast to avoid ending up with too much foam


Some senior regional VP for the company was doing tours of our area. He asked for the most senior person there to make it, see if I could do a heart on top - so I popped out a fucking latte with heart art on top that made the other regional people freak out - ALL of them took photos of it, and put it the hashtag to be a partner on it posting it to the official instagram and shit.


He tasted it and was like: "this is an amazing drink, thank you... however... our standard for steaming milk is six to eight seconds - and you barely did four."


I pointed at the machines and told them that the new machines (which are now the old machines) do not need to steam for so long, you can tell from the drink that i just made that four is MORE than enough to make a proper drink and not to waste time holding back foam or having to overpour milk to make up for the extra foam...


He stopped me right there, and said: "it's an amazing looking drink, but we have standards for a reason. you'll have to work on your aeration to achieve this level without taking shortcuts."


that's the last thing he fucking said to me. fucking crushed me.


and FUCKING DAYS LATER. They changed the standard on aeration based on feedback from barista championship people.


So no matter HOW well you do something, if it's NOT to standard - you are NOT doing it right.

I get where they’re coming from but I also don’t understand why they’re making such a fuss haha. It’s really not that bad of a thing

I’ve seen people done that. Honestly it’s the same but Starbucks and their standards are annoying. Like I’ll be foaming the iced matchas and it will come out all nice and shit but it’s not standard so it’s frown upon.