85°C Bakery Cafe

Wu Cheng-hsueh incorporated the company in January 2003 and opened the first shop in Bao-Ping, Taipei County (now New Taipei) in July 2004. The name "85°C" refers to Wu's belief that is the optimal temperature to serve coffee. In September 2006, the company opened its first overseas store in Sydney, Australia. The US central kitchen began operations in September 2013. In 2016, 67% of the chain's revenue came from China, while 18% came from Taiwan. In 2013, the average US store generated more than US$700,000 in monthly sales, seven times more than an average store in China. The concept of this drink supposedly came from the Taiwanese habit of sprinkling salt on fruit to bring out the sweetness. == Gourmet Master Co. Ltd ==

(ICIJ) Offshore Leaks Database. In China, 85 °C Bakery Cafe stores are advertised as being from Taiwan, but the chain's main company (Gourmet Master Co. Ltd) is registered in the Cayman Islands. Because this mother company is registered in the Cayman Islands, R.O.C. laws do not apply. After being established in Taiwan in 2004 and undergoing equity restructuring in September 2009, == Controversies ==

United States In August 2018, a Los Angeles branch of Taiwanese-owned 85 °C Bakery Cafe served Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen and gave her an "enthusiastic welcome". 85 °C Bakery Cafe posted a statement on its Chinese website that the company has "firm support for the 1992 Consensus" and stating the company's "belief that the two sides of the Strait are one family". Mainland China In 2017, Shanghai's market supervision department found that the so-called "pork floss bread" sold in Shanghai at 85 °C was not actually made with pure pork floss, but rather was made of "pork floss powder" and contained both pork and pea powder. The department believed that this behavior violated the Consumer Protection Law of the People's Republic of China and imposed a fine of Renminbi 150,000. Taiwan On 24 July 2015, the newspaper China Times reported that a green tea of a retail store in Taoyuan, Taiwan, analyzed by the Department of Public Health of that city during a sampling event, contained 4.7 times as much bacteria as what would be allowed according to the standard set by that department. This may have been due to poor sanitation or quality of ingredients or inappropriate handling during the production process. In 2008, the "95 Youth Labor Union" investigated 50 stores of 85 °C Bakery Cafe, of which 32 were found to be involved in unlawful practices. Among them, 22 stores were in violation of wage regulations and 29 were employing uninsured workers. Australia From 2009 to October 2014, in Sydney, Australia, 85 °C Bakery Cafe paid four workers (three Taiwanese nationals on Working Holiday Visas and one PRC Chinese exchange student) only 56% of the lawful minimum wage. The Australian Fair Work Ombudsman ordered 85 °C Bakery Cafe to reimburse the workers for a total of it would have paid them had they been employed working for the minimum wage they would be legally entitled to. In January 2021 this enforceable undertaking was allegedly breached in a new claim by the Fair Work Commission which cites a fake student trainee program was a scheme to underpay foreign workers. In 2024, The Australian Fair Work Ombudsman secured 1.44 million in penalties against 85 Degrees franchisor for "systematic failure to ensure compliance within its franchise network" ==See also==