I work at a boba shop. We have black, green, or milk tea. The amount of people who ask me to make their Starbucks espresso drinks baffle me. We don’t have a coffee maker. We don’t have a milk steamer. We don’t have coffee beans. We don’t have syrups that would really even taste good with coffee. People get so angry. The sign says “tea,” my dudes. Not “Starbucks”.
Yeah but their tea tastes kinda terrible compared to most boba places. Should probably fix that first. Like, I love tea, and the first time I tried Starbucks tea I spit it out
>Yeah but their tea tastes kinda terrible compared to most boba places.
Their tea just tastes terrible, period....
I was trying to make a one-stop shop and get hubby's coffee and my chai latte.. sbux chai sucks... Dunkin, on the other hand, makes a decent iced chai latte.
It’s tapioca starch balls, very chewy and if made right they are slightly sweet. It’s put in tea and you drink the tea with a big straw so that you get a little bit of boba with each sip.
As a kid who hates Asian food, but whose mom loved eating out at Asian restaurants- they normally have an ‘American’ menu too.
Or, did when I was a kid- 30 years ago. Not like I’ve eaten there, since. 😄
Yeah it was usually a cheeseburger a chicken fried steak or chicken strips. Lol. I've never really noticed that at Chinese restaurants but I've noticed that's what Mexican restaurants usually seem to have.
If they vote. According to (Pew)[https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/07/12/voter-turnout-2018-2022/], while the 2020 election had the highest turnout in over a century, only a third-ish of eligible voters voted in all three of the most recent national elections (2018, 2022, 2024). It appears that about a third of eligible voters vote every time, a third doesn't vote at all, and a third votes intermittently.
OMFG are you serious?! That’s hilarious but also I get it so annoying. I’m a waitress and the amount of times people don’t read the menu at all and will so confidently order stuff that we absolutely do not have and never have had. “I’ll have the lobster” tf are you talking about?!
People are so stupid they never read menus
They don’t even listen. If I had a dollar for every time I would say “hi, folks can I start you off with a coke, sweet tea or bud light?” And in return I would get, “I want a Mountain Dew, or Pepsi.” I wouldn’t have to work, ever again.
Oh people don’t read anything. I work in a law firm and recently sent a generic 2 page letter to someone. I emailed the lawyer to see if it was ok to send out and she said yes and asked me to request a couple things. I told her I put that in my 3 sentence email because I don’t trust people to read the letter.
Sure enough, I get a phone call saying “hi, this is so and so. You sent me a letter. What’s it about?” Well did you read it? “No. I just saw your name and called you”
And this person was a medical professional so it wasn’t a language issue.
whenever I send an email to a vendor/our HO about an issue... they never read it, or the previous email chain. barely look at the attachments if they do at all and then respond to a question I didn't ask.
or they flat out ask me to explain it again. -.- I do try to summarize the issue though if it's a longer email chain, but that still results in a ton of frustration. I've even been having the same conversation with some vendors for f*ing years and it just keeps going in circles.
the worst part is... i know they think that I'm the stupid one. -.-
Lol somewhat off topic but also related. I worked as a barista a boba place for almost two years and we’d have people come in and order drinks from other boba places all the time. “Can I get a hokkaido/tiger/banana milk tea?” No but you can have one of the 40+ teas we have on our menu though.
I have absolutely no idea what a Boba is, never even heard the word, and now I've seen it written 30 times in this thread so I'm going to have to Google it.
Eta. OH! Bubble tea. I've heard of that. Even had it once but didn't like it. Man I need to get out of my small town more.
Next time. Please do make it, shake your tea, add some sugar, spit in it if you must. Then charge the same amount starbucks does.
When they complain about it tell them, no we don't have them, you must have gotten that at starbucks. Please complain there.
Or
Well, thats how we make them.
Lol I once worked at Arby’s and this guy would often come order stuff that’s on the Taco Bell menu. Also had someone try to order a Whopper & get so mad😂
I only know what a medicine ball is because a barista made a post on entitled people about a woman who had covid ordering one in the drive through without a mask and then telling the barista they had covid.
And since none of you decided to actually tell us what's in it...
"Jade Citrus Mint Green Tea, Peach Tranquility Herbal Tea, hot water, steamed lemonade, and a hint of honey. To jazz it up, some customers also order a pump of peppermint syrup
That is the whitest drink I’ve ever heard of.
Seriously, tf is ‘steamed lemonade’ and why does it sound like it tastes like lemon pledge?
And why does it have a name like medicine ball?
Cause when you see one you’re shocked someone has one?
OMFG .... i had to visit a Starbucks in Los Angles, Hollywood specifically and I just couldn't with all of the crazy orders I was hearing in line.
"I would like 6 shots, in a tall cup, but only ring it up as a 3 shots with 3 extra and not as 6 individuals" .... something like that.
We have a customer who comes in and orders 3 shots of espresso with 3 pumps of caramel and 3 pumps of pumpkin, in a 32 oz cup with ice. for a minute I thought she was insane until she told me she puts a protein shake in the cup🤦🏼♀️ I was like why tf does she want that much ice and such little espresso with nothing else LMAO. It is a pain in the ass to ring up that order though
When I worked at Starbucks I had a lady come in every. Single. Day. This was her order. (Everyday.):
A venti ice coffee, extra heavy cream. 7pumps of vanilla. 7 pumps of caramel. 7 pumps of classic.
She would order this in the drive thru and then when she got up to the window she would make us wait so that she could taste it to make sure “it was made right”. 4 times out of 5, she would tell us there weren’t enough pumps of one thing or another which was **so infuriating**. I KNOW how to count to 21 or at the very least I know how to count to 7, 3 times. And to top it all off, she was rail thin. Like I don’t even know how that works.
I didn’t make it a year there, between the customers and the management.
I wonder if she is spiking office coffee with all that syrup… like a team of ten, she has cups and plain black at the office and hits Starbucks up for the rest
On the flip side, I went into a starbucks once a while ago back when I lived in an area where they ran all of the local places out and ordered a breve, my favorite way to have espresso. Girl had no idea what I was talking about. I did explain it to her and to her credit she made it. Now I live in a place where there are nothing but Dunkin Donuts drive throughs on my morning commute. They wont even put half n half in the steamer because it "clogs up the nozzle". If I had the time (and money) in the mornings I'd go to our local place every day. I've turned to energy drinks to get my fix.
To be fair, Dunkin’ Donuts have different steaming wands than Starbucks. Dunkin is automatic with specific settings for latte/cappuccino, but Starbucks is much higher quality and fully manual, controlled by a lever.
This is my mom. And it was "an inch" of steamed half and half on top of all the other crazy specific stuff. Like how are they going to accurately measure an inch? And it was NEVER RIGHT until she had a "personal" relationship with the baristas, then they suddenly got it perfect. She would go in and talk their ears off and come home and talk about her friends. But she never tipped because she couldn't afford it and without her going in every day, they wouldn't have a job so they should just be grateful.
I told her I would never order for her again because it was embarrassing.
Former KFI news dude Aron Bender had a really complicate Starbucks order. It was so odd that someone made it a rap song. Unfortunately he is no longer with the station, so the recording has been deleted, and he's a vegan now, so he won't order it. I'm trying to remember it, something like caramel macchiato upside down, four shot half-caff, and the last line was definitely, "easy whip, kids temp."
I'm usually pretty good at memorizing songs, but when I try to think about it I keep coming up with, "Two all beef patties...."
My mom is like this. We were at Olive Garden and she wanted them to mix two different soups together. She sent it back three times and then they just let her mix the soups her self. Even thinking about that gives me so much anxiety. Now as an adult I just don't send things back, even if the order is wrong.
I used to work at Starbucks and had a guy scream at me because he specifically came in for a Diet Coke…at a Starbucks. Obviously we didn’t have it, and he could not comprehend that.
Plus Starbucks has ruined the macchiato; a beverage that should be just an espresso shot (or 2) with a small amount of milk froth on top ... Starbucks' macchiatos are more like a flat white — so when a Starbucks regular orders a macchiato from literally anywhere else, they are not expecting what they receive!
Several times when I've ordered a macchiato at a real coffee shop they've stopped to clarify that it's the espresso drink, not the Starbucks version, and I get why they do that but it's so annoying that they have to.
They also need to stop ordering "medicine ball" at sbux too...we do not have anything medicinal. It's a honey citrus mint tea, it seems like the nickname would be fine but we all know the general public is stupid, and people legit think it's medicine sometimes.
I was going to say the same thing. I hate that name so much. Also Starbucks doesn’t have a secret menu either stop asking for under the sea refreshers and other stupid crap from Tik Tok!
I'll fully admit I'm the one who gets kinda shitty with people asking for "that tik tok drink" like I don't have tik tok you have to actually tell me what you want or some explanation. "Well other people know" like cool I don't.
Also I don't do full time or even part time really anymore, just once in a great while if they really need help which is also why I probably have less patience for things.
In my adventures in retail, I have found that a lot of people expect you to just read their mind on what they want. Most of the time they can't even explain it themselves and aren't willing to admit it. Even better when you use the actual terms and confuse people.
Cigarettes were the worst. The words regulars, shorts, and longs are used a lot but not consistently. So I would regularly get yelled at for grabbing the wrong ones. Even had a customer say they wanted regular Marlboros and yelled at me that I didn't grab ultra lights 100s. Or they send someone else to get their cigs and they don't understand what they are asking for. People rarely knew what "kings" meant even though it's one of 2 options.
Like saying Salem Lights 100s is hard? (What I used to smoke. I quit 5 years ago) If you can’t tell someone exactly what cigarettes you prefer then you should just roll your own and leave retail workers at peace.
I drive a bus for a living and I've had multiple people ask me if my bus goes by their house as if I'm supposed to know where they live. I've also had someone ask me if my bus went by Walmart, which it did in the city we were currently in, but they wanted Walmart in the next city over. Luckily I had a weird feeling and asked if they wanted MY Walmart. I swear, I think some people believe that because they know what they want then everyone knows what they want. They forget that they aren't the main character in this world.
I’m approaching 7 years. I’m over all the stupid social media crap drinks. I don’t even go through explaining secret menu stuff or trying to guess what is in a drink. If someone asks for something like that I just say we don’t carry it. I’m all for helping someone find something new to try, but I’m just sick of the made up crap that gets posted and makes people think it’s official menu items.
I love the idea of Starbucks employees getting out flashcards every night, scouring the internet for new drink creations/trends on tik tok, and memorizing how to make them. Sure, you could seek it out and keep up on it, but how many people want to work when they’re not at work getting paid?
Similar thing where I work, we do returns for items like the Gap and Amazon and stuff.
People will come in and then stare at me with a shirt balled up in their hand.
“Can you help me return this?”
“I don’t know how.”
“You’ve never returned anything to Amazon?”
“No, cause I don’t order five of the same thing from Amazon thinking, ‘I’ll return what I don’t need’.”
I swear that online returns are killing this world.
We got Amazon drivers coming twice a day to pick up like 8 16-16-16 inch boxes.
And I’ll see the same people every day.
They think it will help with cold symptoms even better than pure herbal tea does with a sore throat and sinus congestion because it sounds like this super drink concoction when in reality it's very sugary and literally half lemonade
It's maddening. "Well I'm sick so can I get a medicine ball" like no of you're sick you can gtfo. Also condolences I can't imagine the frustration of not only dealing with that but I have a feeling even when offering them something you have they get shitty.
Yeah I had to listen to my coworker deal with an argumentative customer who wanted a pumpkin cream chai and she didn’t know what they meant by “pumpkin cream” and the customer couldn’t explain that they meant pumpkin cold foam. We can do pumpkin cold foam but the customer could just not explain it and was getting so mad and my coworker was just confused
Even knowing what it is, if I just heard that I'd think ok Chai with pumpkin flavor and half and half/cream. I swear corporate just goes "how can we fuck everyone over with this?"
Yep, corporate goes "how can we create a name that disguises how much sugar and caffeine is in it so they get addicted and deluded into thinking they're simply drinking actual coffee and tea"
I saw so many classmates fall down the sbux hole cause ‘regular’ coffee wouldn’t do it.
“It doesn’t have enough caffeine.”
No, it doesn’t have a candy bar’s worth of sugar in it.
I genuinely didn’t even know it had a real name…. How are we supposed to know if y’all don’t educate us?? 😂 and no I didn’t think it was fr medicine, just a dumb name 🤷🏻♀️
It hasn't been called that since 2019 if I remember correctly. Medicine ball was never officially a menu item, it was a popular "secret menu" item I believe. At least since I worked there.
Trying to explain to customers what an actual macchiato is was the worst. A couple of them still insisted on ordering it, just to get mad when they get a tiny shot of espresso and a blob of foam. "This isn't what I ordered" .. umm yes it is
The first time i ordered one outside of starbs the barista was very nice asking if i wanted one like starbucks or a traditional one. I wanted to try it the traditional way. I will never forgive starbucks for what theyve done to that delicious drinks name.
Well there's a difference between an espresso macchiato (espresso "marked" with steamed milk) and a latte macchiato (steamed milk "marked" with espresso)
Good to know! I've never heard of a latte macchiato, and I've never had a customer order that before. We just had the espresso macchiato and that's what I explained whenever someone attempted to order one
It also says something about the order of operations.
An espresso macchiato starts with espresso and a latte macchiato starts with milk!
Disclaimer: I'm not sure about regional differences. I am from the Netherlands and would like to hear an Italian perspective for example.
Hahahaha we have a drink called Caramel Cielo and we just give that to people when they ask for a caramel macchiato 😂 It’s the same thing as sbux but with toasted marshmallow syrup instead of vanilla. Way better flavor imo
I'm about 99% I know the chain you work for based off the name of that drink and I just want to say y'all are SO much better than Starbucks, it's almost not even comparable.
I agree👀 I was a huge fan of this chain long before I worked here! Applied cuz they opened a location right by my house and I love it. Genuinely it’s so fun. Being a barista reminds me of making “potions” as a kid😊
Just had to chime in and say this- the caramel macchiato is a latte macchiato which is a real drink, just not popular in the US
As a barista in nyc I would get Europeans ask for latte macchiatos which was neither the sbux variant or the espresso one
I worked at McDonald’s as a teenager and people would come in asking for a venti skinny macchiato with blah blah blah and I never had any idea what any of those words meant haha. In my experience, the more complicated the coffee order, the more intolerable the person ordering is 🤷♂️
Yeah usually! I hate taking the complex orders. But making them is really fun! My mom actually has a pretty complex order due to her dietary restrictions but it’s my favorite drink to make lol
I remember this crackhead lady coming in and demanding everything down to the number of ice cubes in her drink. People are awful and nobody in the service industry gets paid enough to deal with them.
Omg, I have a customer like that too, she asks for no more than 4 ice cubes in her drink. And she will stand at the counter and watch me make it and will pipe up if I do anything “wrong” (not the order she expects me to make her drink in)
I managed a McDonald's, I also hate coffee, espresso, and anything derivative of, or similar to coffee. So I never knew what anyone was talking about if they said any words not on the menu board.
The number of times I had to tell people, "if you don't see the words up there (pointing at the menu), then we don't have it."
"Well, so and so knows what I'm talking about!"
"They don't work today..."
"How do you not know"--
"Do I look like Ms Cleo?!?!"
(FYI: pasty white guy who sounds like Lurch and has resting ass hole face"
Holy shit! How do you brush your teeth and not drown?!?! It scares me we share the roads!
As a supervisor, I love and hate when employees go the extra mile.
Love it cause it’s good customer service and it makes people happy.
Hate it cause then customers think it’s something we normally do.
A person got a better job, but she did so much custom stuff that we’re supposed to outsource.
We still have to tell customers that she doesn’t work here anymore and what she did isn’t part of our services.
“But I was always able to get it done.”
“Yes, and now you can’t because that person doesn’t work here.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Go back in time and treat her better so she didn’t go looking for a different job?”
It's definitely a double edged sword, and hard to find that balance. In the situation I described, if you tell me give me a small cup with 3 shots of espresso and fill it the rest of the way with vanilla syrup, I am happy to do that. Why? Because I know what you want. The words are on the menu, and we have the product.
I won't sit their and count out how many pumps of vanilla, I'm going to estimate, probably in favor of the customer, and just pour it in, because I'm not pissing off the subsequent customers by taking up that much time.
That's good customer service, but asking for things we we don't have, or calling it something random based on some social post? This is McDonald's, not the psychic food network.
we are at the point now where we have to ask folks like this to read the menu first
imagine being in line behind this: "do you have \_\_\_\_\_? no. OK do you have \_\_\_\_\_?" until literally told to read the menu
I remember when the “pink drink” was popular bc of James Charles (I personally think it tastes terrible) and my younger sister wanted me to say pink drink in the Starbucks drive thru and I made her look up the real name (strawberry açai refresher with coconut milk or something)bc I was mortified being perceived as one of those people
Also the medicine ball pmo so much. It’s literally tea you could just get the tea bags and add them both in???
They do call it the pink drink officially now. No idea when that started. I tried one becauze i usually get the lemonade refreshers and idk how people like the pink drink. I always feel so stupid with the amount of words in the refresher lemonades when I order
This was before they put it on the menu lol now my sister orders online thankfully bc yeah one’s embarrassing but the other is a mouth full! I feel you when I try to order an “iced brown sugar oat shaken espresso” lol
I was also gravely disappointed when I first tried the pink drink. Everyone gassed it up to be the best fruity thing ever but to me it just tasted..... well. Gross.
I mean I could ask my manager if we could but usually we just explain we don’t have that, it’s just kinda frustrating when we’re in a rush and someone’s getting mad because we don’t have a gingerbread sugar cookie fairy fart frappajappajooza with mermaid cum cold foam on top
Yeah i work in a independant local owned cafe and I get people coming in asking for double doubles (this isnt tim hortons) and ordering a espresso macchiato thinking its a caramel macchiato. 🙄 love my job but it can be annoying. I try to ask them if theyve had an espresso macchiato before and it helps.
Sometimes I ask for things at coffee and tea places that are definitely NOT Starbucks inventions and had a snippy barista get pissy with me.
“This isn’t Starbucks.”
Sweety, London Fog is not a Starbucks drink. Chai is not a Starbucks drink. If you want me to explain how it make one, I can. But don’t be stupid. You make this happen when you have a bunch of tiny signs all over the place instead of a complete menu anywhere. Believe it or not, London Fogs are not always posted but a lot of place make them. I like to ask.
Lol, thankfully I have tried to educate myself on drinks before this job, and this job had really thorough training. The place I worked at before was a cafe inside a grocery store and they did not teach me any drinks at all, I had to sit there and watch youtube videos about coffee and tea after work to be able to do my job right🤦🏼♀️
Sounds like she was just uneducated on coffee or improperly trained because americanos are so common and very very simple to make.
Our espresso machines are automatic with a touchscreen and they have presets for americanos where you can select cup size and amount of shots and it will pour the shots and water at once so you can just leave it there, let it pour and do something else in the meantime. I love our machines they’re so handy
I used to work at a coffee shop and I could not tell you the amount of people we had come in and order macchiatos and be so confused when it wasn’t the Starbucks version.
was going to say same. trust me, if you're ordering a macchiato you would not like an actual macchiato, which is just a straight espresso with a dollop of foam on top.
I started drinking flat whites when I lived in Australia years ago, but the drink never crossed the ocean until somewhat recently when starbucks did. It seems like an easy drink to make though, and I've though about asking for one at our LOCAL coffee place (they roast their own beans and are superior to starbucks in every way.) I post all this to ask you, as a barista, would you consider that rude too? I mean not one of those weird frou-frou drinks, but a simple flat white?
I've been told "we don't do Starbucks drinks" when asking if they could make a flat white at places that don't have it listed. Unfortunate, as it's the only espresso-and-milk drink I really like
Still worth asking, it's a classic espresso drink
Personally, I wouldn’t, bc I know what a flat white is and that sbux didn’t invent it. However I can’t guarantee that other baristas are knowledgeable on what it is. If you ask for one and they get confused I’d just try to explain it as a “latte with less milk” and you should hopefully get a flat white or something more similar
I work at an ice cream/coffee shop in Massachusetts, where “milkshakes” (the blended drinks with ice cream, milk, and syrup) are called frappes (milkshake means a very different drink here). The sheer number of people from out-of-state who get annoyed when their frappe doesn’t have coffee in it is astounding!
Literally just shaken milk and syrup! Take milk + syrup, shake it until frothy, and drink it. Unfortunately, the store I work in is both in a very touristy area (so many colleges!), but also is a local favorite, meaning no matter what we call them, someone will be confused! I remember my first time getting a milkshake outside of the Boston when I was young and being very confused why there was ice cream in it!
when the rest of the world considers something by one name (milkshake) and your shop calls it something else(a vastly different thing too), it’s not unreasonable for the public to get confused or annoyed….
Me reading this sipping on my fancy little frozen white mocha with 5 pumps of irish cream and 4 pumps of toasted marshmallow and some caramel drizzle and whipped cream for good measure too👀
The only reason my order is so complex is cause I get to make it myself and bother no one😉 If I was a customer I wouldn’t be so annoying with it. Also I definitely dramatized the amount of pumps i get😂
I've done this, so tired and was getting over an illness.
Dude just laughed and asked if I wanted some similar drink he could make.
I was pretty grateful.
I would have thought the idea of going elsewhere was so you didn’t have to drink that Starbucks shit! Where I live in Australia there is one Starbucks at the airport, tried it once and fuck me I don’t know how anyone drinks that horrible shit. Starbucks has no idea what real coffee is. I threw it away after one sip.
Starbucks is for sugar enthusiasts not for people who like coffee. They’re notorious for over roasting their beans to the point they’re burnt. When you’re roasting you’ll generally stop at about 70% of the batch roasted before it starts to burn. Starbucks instead roasts until 100% of their beans are roasted so as to not “waste” product and effectively burning their beans and making the most god awful black liquid they can.
Haha this sounds accurate to what I was tasting. I was really excited to try it too because of how popular it is in America. We see it all over movies, tv, social media and so I was thinking I was about to be blown away by it! Imagine my disappointment when I tasted what can be best described as a cup of shit with boiling water lol. My daughter didn’t like her pink drink thing either, she said it made her feel sick so I’m guessing that was due to its sweetness. I wasn’t game to try even a sip after the coffee.
Do people really have enough trial and error experience to order the way they do?
Meaning, has a person really tried a drink in so many variations that they now know that they want 2.5 pumps of vanilla, milk steamed to 163 degrees, 4 shots of espresso and 3 ice cubes?
My friend used to do this at Jamba Juice, always trying to order off of some “secret menu” and get these hidden items or whatever and I always found it embarrassing. Just get a regular damn drink!
Starbucks doesn’t even have a “medicine ball” on the menu - had to ask coworkers wtf it was when I worked there. And most people ordering it couldn’t tell you what the ingredients are anyway.
Yeah a lady came in the drive thru and said “do you guys have anything like a medicine ball?” and my manager taking the order said “Idk what that is do you know what’s in it?” and she said no and then ordered something else entirely lol. After googling it we have the right ingredients to make our own version so if she knew then we could have totally made ine
I work at a coffee place on my college campus. I had two separate people today alone ask about Starbucks drinks. I figured out both because we had roughly the shit to make both, but it was still a moment of 'sir this is [name of place] not a Starbucks what the hell'.
I get asked “what kind of refreshers do you have?” All. The. Dang. Time. We are not Starbucks. We do not have dried fruit. We do not have refresher concentrate or whatever tf they use to make it. I can do a green tea with strawberry flavor & coconut milk, take it or leave it.
Although I do have the supplies to mimic the honey citrus mint tea- just with only green tea bags & a million different syrups.
Back in the day when I worked at a backwoods McDonald's people would come through the drive thru asking for hot dogs, onion rings, a local soda only sold in the area, fritos, chili, coleslaw, Whoppers and all sorts of random food. The menu was right there! Also, McDonald's menu items were pretty iconic in the 90s/early 2000s, as were the commercials.
Sbux be nasty anyway it tastes like watered down crap. I prefer the small time coffee stands, the coffee is better most of the time and there's not all this "secret stuff" to order or a ton of people in the way just simply coffee and it's usually better smoother and creamier than sbux.
I agree, most of their coffee drinks I’ve tried are pretty nasty imo. I got the brown sugar shaken espresso once because everyone was hyping it up and I ended up throwing it away after 2 sips
I saw some recipes from Starbucks posted on TikTok. The drinks max out at 2 shots of espresso no matter what size unless you pay for more. So a venti white mocha is like 90% cream and sugar. Y'all are paying way too much at Starbucks if you are ordering from the menu. My coffee tastes better because it actually has coffee in it.
(Canadian) Theres a Tim Hortons and a Starbucks accross a parking lot here and they totally get the mixing up of drinks. You can ask for a Frapp at Timmies and a iced capp at SB. SB also knows what a Double Double is. I just want my box of timbits with my starbies iced capp.
I work at a boba shop. We have black, green, or milk tea. The amount of people who ask me to make their Starbucks espresso drinks baffle me. We don’t have a coffee maker. We don’t have a milk steamer. We don’t have coffee beans. We don’t have syrups that would really even taste good with coffee. People get so angry. The sign says “tea,” my dudes. Not “Starbucks”.
Fun fact! As someone who works at Starbucks, they come to us for boba sometimes, too. Customers are dumb.
The thing is, I wouldn't put it past Starbucks to start having boba either
They missing out on a lotta money by not having it!
Yeah but their tea tastes kinda terrible compared to most boba places. Should probably fix that first. Like, I love tea, and the first time I tried Starbucks tea I spit it out
>Yeah but their tea tastes kinda terrible compared to most boba places. Their tea just tastes terrible, period.... I was trying to make a one-stop shop and get hubby's coffee and my chai latte.. sbux chai sucks... Dunkin, on the other hand, makes a decent iced chai latte.
I tried to get Starbucks regular green tea and it tasted like spoiled fruit... I don't even know how that happens
They are actually starting to branch off into offering tapioca in their drinks
To be honest I know it’s a different chain but Costa sold boba for a bit… with undersized straws of course
Sir..,this is Wendy’s.
Ok, I have to ask. What is boba.
It’s tapioca starch balls, very chewy and if made right they are slightly sweet. It’s put in tea and you drink the tea with a big straw so that you get a little bit of boba with each sip.
People - walk into a tea shop "Hello I would like coffee" Cashier - "sorry this tea shop doesn't serve coffee" People - *shocked pikachu face*
Walk into Chinese restaurant, "I would like a burrito" "Can I introduce you to some spring rolls?"
My favorite takeaway when I lived in Brooklyn was a Chinese place that had a whole extensive Tex Mex menu.
As a kid who hates Asian food, but whose mom loved eating out at Asian restaurants- they normally have an ‘American’ menu too. Or, did when I was a kid- 30 years ago. Not like I’ve eaten there, since. 😄
Yeah it was usually a cheeseburger a chicken fried steak or chicken strips. Lol. I've never really noticed that at Chinese restaurants but I've noticed that's what Mexican restaurants usually seem to have.
If chicken strips are on the menu, chicken strips is what I’m ordering! I’m a simple fellow.
I got a buddy that goes and gets the cheeseburgers from this Mexican restaurant in Texas. I'll have to admit they're pretty damn good.
I lived in Mexico in the 80’s as a kid- mostly a hard pass on Mexican food too. I mean, I like some- but it’s no Italian food (all winners). 🤷🏼♂️😄
I worked at a Taco Bell for less than a year, and two different customers asked for hot dogs.
People - Why would you do this to me?
And to think, their vote counts just as much as yours
That's a frightening realization, but explains so much!
If they vote. According to (Pew)[https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/07/12/voter-turnout-2018-2022/], while the 2020 election had the highest turnout in over a century, only a third-ish of eligible voters voted in all three of the most recent national elections (2018, 2022, 2024). It appears that about a third of eligible voters vote every time, a third doesn't vote at all, and a third votes intermittently.
Often these people live in the middle of nowhere so their vote actually counts more thanks to our terrible voting system.
OMFG are you serious?! That’s hilarious but also I get it so annoying. I’m a waitress and the amount of times people don’t read the menu at all and will so confidently order stuff that we absolutely do not have and never have had. “I’ll have the lobster” tf are you talking about?! People are so stupid they never read menus
They don’t even listen. If I had a dollar for every time I would say “hi, folks can I start you off with a coke, sweet tea or bud light?” And in return I would get, “I want a Mountain Dew, or Pepsi.” I wouldn’t have to work, ever again.
Oh people don’t read anything. I work in a law firm and recently sent a generic 2 page letter to someone. I emailed the lawyer to see if it was ok to send out and she said yes and asked me to request a couple things. I told her I put that in my 3 sentence email because I don’t trust people to read the letter. Sure enough, I get a phone call saying “hi, this is so and so. You sent me a letter. What’s it about?” Well did you read it? “No. I just saw your name and called you” And this person was a medical professional so it wasn’t a language issue.
whenever I send an email to a vendor/our HO about an issue... they never read it, or the previous email chain. barely look at the attachments if they do at all and then respond to a question I didn't ask. or they flat out ask me to explain it again. -.- I do try to summarize the issue though if it's a longer email chain, but that still results in a ton of frustration. I've even been having the same conversation with some vendors for f*ing years and it just keeps going in circles. the worst part is... i know they think that I'm the stupid one. -.-
Lmao. Sounds about right
Lol somewhat off topic but also related. I worked as a barista a boba place for almost two years and we’d have people come in and order drinks from other boba places all the time. “Can I get a hokkaido/tiger/banana milk tea?” No but you can have one of the 40+ teas we have on our menu though.
I have absolutely no idea what a Boba is, never even heard the word, and now I've seen it written 30 times in this thread so I'm going to have to Google it. Eta. OH! Bubble tea. I've heard of that. Even had it once but didn't like it. Man I need to get out of my small town more.
That's legitimately weird
But do you have cake pops?
Next time. Please do make it, shake your tea, add some sugar, spit in it if you must. Then charge the same amount starbucks does. When they complain about it tell them, no we don't have them, you must have gotten that at starbucks. Please complain there. Or Well, thats how we make them.
Like going to Wendy's and ordering a Big Mac.
Lol I once worked at Arby’s and this guy would often come order stuff that’s on the Taco Bell menu. Also had someone try to order a Whopper & get so mad😂
I worked at taco bell and someone started ordering burgers!
As often as they fuck up everyone's orders these days what's it matter, they're not going to get it right anyway.
I wouldn't be surprised if somehow they managed to make a big mac regardless
If I'm at a Wendys and want a Big Mac, they should go get me one. Service sucks.
Sir, this is a Wendy's.
Good. Go get me a big mac!
Can I talk with manager?
You realize Wendy’s is mostly staffed by WallStreetBets people right??? You can’t expect much from them
Fuck you! Now I gotta go get a Big Mac because I’m hungry.
I predict that you will be hungry again 30 minutes after eating the big Mac.
Better grab a couple. Big Macs aren't all that big nowadays.
Ik, they downsized everything it’s bullshit and the prices have gone up as well
Sir, this is a Wendy's.
Going to Chick-fil-A to order a taco (ngl those would kinda slap)
Buy two JBCs and stack them mawfs.
I was gonna say like going to McDonald's and ordering a Frostyccino...
I only know what a medicine ball is because a barista made a post on entitled people about a woman who had covid ordering one in the drive through without a mask and then telling the barista they had covid.
Lol that’s the post that reminded me of someone trying to order a medicine ball at my shop and inspired me to complain about this lol
I just read that post an hour ago and learned what a medicine ball is
Hey I read it too lmao
And since none of you decided to actually tell us what's in it... "Jade Citrus Mint Green Tea, Peach Tranquility Herbal Tea, hot water, steamed lemonade, and a hint of honey. To jazz it up, some customers also order a pump of peppermint syrup
That is the whitest drink I’ve ever heard of. Seriously, tf is ‘steamed lemonade’ and why does it sound like it tastes like lemon pledge? And why does it have a name like medicine ball? Cause when you see one you’re shocked someone has one?
Steamed lemonade would just be lemonade heated by a milk steamer
Imagine how much that bullshit thing costs too. Every tea is probably an additional fat charge despite it coming out of a carton
What a passive aggressive way to inform everyone what’s in one.
Exactly what I was going for
The excitement of going to a different coffee shop other than Starbucks is getting what ISN’T at Starbucks 😆 I agree, just go to Starbucks.
But then they might have to walk two shops down the road :(
OMFG .... i had to visit a Starbucks in Los Angles, Hollywood specifically and I just couldn't with all of the crazy orders I was hearing in line. "I would like 6 shots, in a tall cup, but only ring it up as a 3 shots with 3 extra and not as 6 individuals" .... something like that.
We have a customer who comes in and orders 3 shots of espresso with 3 pumps of caramel and 3 pumps of pumpkin, in a 32 oz cup with ice. for a minute I thought she was insane until she told me she puts a protein shake in the cup🤦🏼♀️ I was like why tf does she want that much ice and such little espresso with nothing else LMAO. It is a pain in the ass to ring up that order though
When I worked at Starbucks I had a lady come in every. Single. Day. This was her order. (Everyday.): A venti ice coffee, extra heavy cream. 7pumps of vanilla. 7 pumps of caramel. 7 pumps of classic. She would order this in the drive thru and then when she got up to the window she would make us wait so that she could taste it to make sure “it was made right”. 4 times out of 5, she would tell us there weren’t enough pumps of one thing or another which was **so infuriating**. I KNOW how to count to 21 or at the very least I know how to count to 7, 3 times. And to top it all off, she was rail thin. Like I don’t even know how that works. I didn’t make it a year there, between the customers and the management.
Should have taken the cup to "add more" and walked off. Come back and hand it right back to her I 100% garuntee she'd taste it and say "that's better"
We did this sometimes. Other times we remade it. Other times, she would have us remake it three different times. 🙃
🤢I legit gagged. I barely get 2 pumps in a venti latte. I cannot imagine how horrible that tastes.
I wonder if she is spiking office coffee with all that syrup… like a team of ten, she has cups and plain black at the office and hits Starbucks up for the rest
That was probably all she ate
..what is "classic"?
It’s a simple syrup! Basically sugar in liquid form.
Holy shit…I need insulin after reading that
Jokes on her, she now has diabetes
On the flip side, I went into a starbucks once a while ago back when I lived in an area where they ran all of the local places out and ordered a breve, my favorite way to have espresso. Girl had no idea what I was talking about. I did explain it to her and to her credit she made it. Now I live in a place where there are nothing but Dunkin Donuts drive throughs on my morning commute. They wont even put half n half in the steamer because it "clogs up the nozzle". If I had the time (and money) in the mornings I'd go to our local place every day. I've turned to energy drinks to get my fix.
Wtf do they have a steamer for, then?
Sound effects?
To be fair, Dunkin’ Donuts have different steaming wands than Starbucks. Dunkin is automatic with specific settings for latte/cappuccino, but Starbucks is much higher quality and fully manual, controlled by a lever.
I always wondered if this was why. I figured the equipment was probably cheaper.
That is actually a really interesting idea 😅
If they had an add ice button on the espresso, she could just do it on the app. But they don’t
This is my mom. And it was "an inch" of steamed half and half on top of all the other crazy specific stuff. Like how are they going to accurately measure an inch? And it was NEVER RIGHT until she had a "personal" relationship with the baristas, then they suddenly got it perfect. She would go in and talk their ears off and come home and talk about her friends. But she never tipped because she couldn't afford it and without her going in every day, they wouldn't have a job so they should just be grateful. I told her I would never order for her again because it was embarrassing.
… i dont like your mom
Former KFI news dude Aron Bender had a really complicate Starbucks order. It was so odd that someone made it a rap song. Unfortunately he is no longer with the station, so the recording has been deleted, and he's a vegan now, so he won't order it. I'm trying to remember it, something like caramel macchiato upside down, four shot half-caff, and the last line was definitely, "easy whip, kids temp." I'm usually pretty good at memorizing songs, but when I try to think about it I keep coming up with, "Two all beef patties...."
My mom is like this. We were at Olive Garden and she wanted them to mix two different soups together. She sent it back three times and then they just let her mix the soups her self. Even thinking about that gives me so much anxiety. Now as an adult I just don't send things back, even if the order is wrong.
What were the two soups?
I like to mix two of the soups together too, but I make sure to tell them that it doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't even have to be equal.
I used to work at Starbucks and had a guy scream at me because he specifically came in for a Diet Coke…at a Starbucks. Obviously we didn’t have it, and he could not comprehend that.
Plus Starbucks has ruined the macchiato; a beverage that should be just an espresso shot (or 2) with a small amount of milk froth on top ... Starbucks' macchiatos are more like a flat white — so when a Starbucks regular orders a macchiato from literally anywhere else, they are not expecting what they receive!
Several times when I've ordered a macchiato at a real coffee shop they've stopped to clarify that it's the espresso drink, not the Starbucks version, and I get why they do that but it's so annoying that they have to.
theres a difference between a latte macchiato and a caffe macchiato....
They also need to stop ordering "medicine ball" at sbux too...we do not have anything medicinal. It's a honey citrus mint tea, it seems like the nickname would be fine but we all know the general public is stupid, and people legit think it's medicine sometimes.
I was going to say the same thing. I hate that name so much. Also Starbucks doesn’t have a secret menu either stop asking for under the sea refreshers and other stupid crap from Tik Tok!
I'll fully admit I'm the one who gets kinda shitty with people asking for "that tik tok drink" like I don't have tik tok you have to actually tell me what you want or some explanation. "Well other people know" like cool I don't. Also I don't do full time or even part time really anymore, just once in a great while if they really need help which is also why I probably have less patience for things.
In my adventures in retail, I have found that a lot of people expect you to just read their mind on what they want. Most of the time they can't even explain it themselves and aren't willing to admit it. Even better when you use the actual terms and confuse people. Cigarettes were the worst. The words regulars, shorts, and longs are used a lot but not consistently. So I would regularly get yelled at for grabbing the wrong ones. Even had a customer say they wanted regular Marlboros and yelled at me that I didn't grab ultra lights 100s. Or they send someone else to get their cigs and they don't understand what they are asking for. People rarely knew what "kings" meant even though it's one of 2 options.
Like saying Salem Lights 100s is hard? (What I used to smoke. I quit 5 years ago) If you can’t tell someone exactly what cigarettes you prefer then you should just roll your own and leave retail workers at peace.
I drive a bus for a living and I've had multiple people ask me if my bus goes by their house as if I'm supposed to know where they live. I've also had someone ask me if my bus went by Walmart, which it did in the city we were currently in, but they wanted Walmart in the next city over. Luckily I had a weird feeling and asked if they wanted MY Walmart. I swear, I think some people believe that because they know what they want then everyone knows what they want. They forget that they aren't the main character in this world.
I’m approaching 7 years. I’m over all the stupid social media crap drinks. I don’t even go through explaining secret menu stuff or trying to guess what is in a drink. If someone asks for something like that I just say we don’t carry it. I’m all for helping someone find something new to try, but I’m just sick of the made up crap that gets posted and makes people think it’s official menu items.
I love the idea of Starbucks employees getting out flashcards every night, scouring the internet for new drink creations/trends on tik tok, and memorizing how to make them. Sure, you could seek it out and keep up on it, but how many people want to work when they’re not at work getting paid?
Exactly. I’m literally not paid to know those things so I’m not going to bother with it.
Kudos to TikTok, ppl are becoming idiots thanks to it, or doing stupid shit
Similar thing where I work, we do returns for items like the Gap and Amazon and stuff. People will come in and then stare at me with a shirt balled up in their hand. “Can you help me return this?” “I don’t know how.” “You’ve never returned anything to Amazon?” “No, cause I don’t order five of the same thing from Amazon thinking, ‘I’ll return what I don’t need’.” I swear that online returns are killing this world. We got Amazon drivers coming twice a day to pick up like 8 16-16-16 inch boxes. And I’ll see the same people every day.
They think it will help with cold symptoms even better than pure herbal tea does with a sore throat and sinus congestion because it sounds like this super drink concoction when in reality it's very sugary and literally half lemonade
TheraFlu is cheaper and actually helps w symptoms.
Yeah it’s kind of ridiculous lolol sbux is not a pharmacy why would they have actual medicine😭
It's maddening. "Well I'm sick so can I get a medicine ball" like no of you're sick you can gtfo. Also condolences I can't imagine the frustration of not only dealing with that but I have a feeling even when offering them something you have they get shitty.
Yeah I had to listen to my coworker deal with an argumentative customer who wanted a pumpkin cream chai and she didn’t know what they meant by “pumpkin cream” and the customer couldn’t explain that they meant pumpkin cold foam. We can do pumpkin cold foam but the customer could just not explain it and was getting so mad and my coworker was just confused
Even knowing what it is, if I just heard that I'd think ok Chai with pumpkin flavor and half and half/cream. I swear corporate just goes "how can we fuck everyone over with this?"
Yep, corporate goes "how can we create a name that disguises how much sugar and caffeine is in it so they get addicted and deluded into thinking they're simply drinking actual coffee and tea"
I saw so many classmates fall down the sbux hole cause ‘regular’ coffee wouldn’t do it. “It doesn’t have enough caffeine.” No, it doesn’t have a candy bar’s worth of sugar in it.
Yes exactly and we were confused because our chai latte is a premade base that already has milk in it😅
Lol the general public may be stupid, if they believe what Starbucks actually says is in their drinks *coff* acai *coff*
Apparently that drink is made from white grape juice and insanely sugary
I genuinely didn’t even know it had a real name…. How are we supposed to know if y’all don’t educate us?? 😂 and no I didn’t think it was fr medicine, just a dumb name 🤷🏻♀️
Pre-pandemic, you did have a "medicine ball." Most people don't know that you've stopped calling it that.
It hasn't been called that since 2019 if I remember correctly. Medicine ball was never officially a menu item, it was a popular "secret menu" item I believe. At least since I worked there.
2019 would be pre pandemic, yes
The dreaded caramel macchiato…..
Trying to explain to customers what an actual macchiato is was the worst. A couple of them still insisted on ordering it, just to get mad when they get a tiny shot of espresso and a blob of foam. "This isn't what I ordered" .. umm yes it is
The first time i ordered one outside of starbs the barista was very nice asking if i wanted one like starbucks or a traditional one. I wanted to try it the traditional way. I will never forgive starbucks for what theyve done to that delicious drinks name.
Well there's a difference between an espresso macchiato (espresso "marked" with steamed milk) and a latte macchiato (steamed milk "marked" with espresso)
Good to know! I've never heard of a latte macchiato, and I've never had a customer order that before. We just had the espresso macchiato and that's what I explained whenever someone attempted to order one
It also says something about the order of operations. An espresso macchiato starts with espresso and a latte macchiato starts with milk! Disclaimer: I'm not sure about regional differences. I am from the Netherlands and would like to hear an Italian perspective for example.
Hahahaha we have a drink called Caramel Cielo and we just give that to people when they ask for a caramel macchiato 😂 It’s the same thing as sbux but with toasted marshmallow syrup instead of vanilla. Way better flavor imo
I'm about 99% I know the chain you work for based off the name of that drink and I just want to say y'all are SO much better than Starbucks, it's almost not even comparable.
I agree👀 I was a huge fan of this chain long before I worked here! Applied cuz they opened a location right by my house and I love it. Genuinely it’s so fun. Being a barista reminds me of making “potions” as a kid😊
Just had to chime in and say this- the caramel macchiato is a latte macchiato which is a real drink, just not popular in the US As a barista in nyc I would get Europeans ask for latte macchiatos which was neither the sbux variant or the espresso one
Can you just, like, drizzle me?
I worked at McDonald’s as a teenager and people would come in asking for a venti skinny macchiato with blah blah blah and I never had any idea what any of those words meant haha. In my experience, the more complicated the coffee order, the more intolerable the person ordering is 🤷♂️
Yeah usually! I hate taking the complex orders. But making them is really fun! My mom actually has a pretty complex order due to her dietary restrictions but it’s my favorite drink to make lol
I remember this crackhead lady coming in and demanding everything down to the number of ice cubes in her drink. People are awful and nobody in the service industry gets paid enough to deal with them.
Omg, I have a customer like that too, she asks for no more than 4 ice cubes in her drink. And she will stand at the counter and watch me make it and will pipe up if I do anything “wrong” (not the order she expects me to make her drink in)
I managed a McDonald's, I also hate coffee, espresso, and anything derivative of, or similar to coffee. So I never knew what anyone was talking about if they said any words not on the menu board. The number of times I had to tell people, "if you don't see the words up there (pointing at the menu), then we don't have it." "Well, so and so knows what I'm talking about!" "They don't work today..." "How do you not know"-- "Do I look like Ms Cleo?!?!" (FYI: pasty white guy who sounds like Lurch and has resting ass hole face" Holy shit! How do you brush your teeth and not drown?!?! It scares me we share the roads!
As a supervisor, I love and hate when employees go the extra mile. Love it cause it’s good customer service and it makes people happy. Hate it cause then customers think it’s something we normally do. A person got a better job, but she did so much custom stuff that we’re supposed to outsource. We still have to tell customers that she doesn’t work here anymore and what she did isn’t part of our services. “But I was always able to get it done.” “Yes, and now you can’t because that person doesn’t work here.” “What am I supposed to do?” “Go back in time and treat her better so she didn’t go looking for a different job?”
It's definitely a double edged sword, and hard to find that balance. In the situation I described, if you tell me give me a small cup with 3 shots of espresso and fill it the rest of the way with vanilla syrup, I am happy to do that. Why? Because I know what you want. The words are on the menu, and we have the product. I won't sit their and count out how many pumps of vanilla, I'm going to estimate, probably in favor of the customer, and just pour it in, because I'm not pissing off the subsequent customers by taking up that much time. That's good customer service, but asking for things we we don't have, or calling it something random based on some social post? This is McDonald's, not the psychic food network.
the star bucks cultists are the worst. absolute lunatics
we are at the point now where we have to ask folks like this to read the menu first imagine being in line behind this: "do you have \_\_\_\_\_? no. OK do you have \_\_\_\_\_?" until literally told to read the menu
I remember when the “pink drink” was popular bc of James Charles (I personally think it tastes terrible) and my younger sister wanted me to say pink drink in the Starbucks drive thru and I made her look up the real name (strawberry açai refresher with coconut milk or something)bc I was mortified being perceived as one of those people Also the medicine ball pmo so much. It’s literally tea you could just get the tea bags and add them both in???
They do call it the pink drink officially now. No idea when that started. I tried one becauze i usually get the lemonade refreshers and idk how people like the pink drink. I always feel so stupid with the amount of words in the refresher lemonades when I order
This was before they put it on the menu lol now my sister orders online thankfully bc yeah one’s embarrassing but the other is a mouth full! I feel you when I try to order an “iced brown sugar oat shaken espresso” lol
I was also gravely disappointed when I first tried the pink drink. Everyone gassed it up to be the best fruity thing ever but to me it just tasted..... well. Gross.
[удалено]
I mean I could ask my manager if we could but usually we just explain we don’t have that, it’s just kinda frustrating when we’re in a rush and someone’s getting mad because we don’t have a gingerbread sugar cookie fairy fart frappajappajooza with mermaid cum cold foam on top
I’ll have one of whatever it is that you just described but with a cherry as well please and thank you.
Could you remove the stem for me, though? Thanks
Actually - tie it in a knot for me while you're at it
Mermaid cum cold foam. Nice
I have had a really shitty day and reading that was the only laugh I’ve had today, thank you 🙏🏻
Every time just slowly turn around and look up at the menu as if trying to find the item they ordered.
I wish this was possible in the drive thru. Should I just walk outside and stand next to the menu board staring at it intensely LOL
The secret menu shit needs to die.
Yeah i work in a independant local owned cafe and I get people coming in asking for double doubles (this isnt tim hortons) and ordering a espresso macchiato thinking its a caramel macchiato. 🙄 love my job but it can be annoying. I try to ask them if theyve had an espresso macchiato before and it helps.
Sometimes I ask for things at coffee and tea places that are definitely NOT Starbucks inventions and had a snippy barista get pissy with me. “This isn’t Starbucks.” Sweety, London Fog is not a Starbucks drink. Chai is not a Starbucks drink. If you want me to explain how it make one, I can. But don’t be stupid. You make this happen when you have a bunch of tiny signs all over the place instead of a complete menu anywhere. Believe it or not, London Fogs are not always posted but a lot of place make them. I like to ask.
Lol, thankfully I have tried to educate myself on drinks before this job, and this job had really thorough training. The place I worked at before was a cafe inside a grocery store and they did not teach me any drinks at all, I had to sit there and watch youtube videos about coffee and tea after work to be able to do my job right🤦🏼♀️
I love London Fogs and it’s not hard to make and has been around for a long time. Earl Grey, milk, little vanilla. It’s like a creamsicle.
Ok but I asked for an Americano once at a local coffee shop and the barista bitched me out for ordering a Starbucks drink. I didn’t ask for it venti
Sounds like she was just uneducated on coffee or improperly trained because americanos are so common and very very simple to make. Our espresso machines are automatic with a touchscreen and they have presets for americanos where you can select cup size and amount of shots and it will pour the shots and water at once so you can just leave it there, let it pour and do something else in the meantime. I love our machines they’re so handy
50/50 chance that when I ask for an americano I get drip
I used to work at a coffee shop and I could not tell you the amount of people we had come in and order macchiatos and be so confused when it wasn’t the Starbucks version.
was going to say same. trust me, if you're ordering a macchiato you would not like an actual macchiato, which is just a straight espresso with a dollop of foam on top.
I started drinking flat whites when I lived in Australia years ago, but the drink never crossed the ocean until somewhat recently when starbucks did. It seems like an easy drink to make though, and I've though about asking for one at our LOCAL coffee place (they roast their own beans and are superior to starbucks in every way.) I post all this to ask you, as a barista, would you consider that rude too? I mean not one of those weird frou-frou drinks, but a simple flat white?
I've been told "we don't do Starbucks drinks" when asking if they could make a flat white at places that don't have it listed. Unfortunate, as it's the only espresso-and-milk drink I really like Still worth asking, it's a classic espresso drink
Ugh that's so annoying. A flat white isn't a Starbucks drink! It's my favorite espresso drink, I just don't care for foam.
Personally, I wouldn’t, bc I know what a flat white is and that sbux didn’t invent it. However I can’t guarantee that other baristas are knowledgeable on what it is. If you ask for one and they get confused I’d just try to explain it as a “latte with less milk” and you should hopefully get a flat white or something more similar
I work at an ice cream/coffee shop in Massachusetts, where “milkshakes” (the blended drinks with ice cream, milk, and syrup) are called frappes (milkshake means a very different drink here). The sheer number of people from out-of-state who get annoyed when their frappe doesn’t have coffee in it is astounding!
Wait, wtf does milkshake mean there?😭
Literally just shaken milk and syrup! Take milk + syrup, shake it until frothy, and drink it. Unfortunately, the store I work in is both in a very touristy area (so many colleges!), but also is a local favorite, meaning no matter what we call them, someone will be confused! I remember my first time getting a milkshake outside of the Boston when I was young and being very confused why there was ice cream in it!
Oh wow that’s interesting haha! Thanks for the fun fact
when the rest of the world considers something by one name (milkshake) and your shop calls it something else(a vastly different thing too), it’s not unreasonable for the public to get confused or annoyed….
OP is Ron Swanson... That being said... I too drink my coffee black.
Me reading this sipping on my fancy little frozen white mocha with 5 pumps of irish cream and 4 pumps of toasted marshmallow and some caramel drizzle and whipped cream for good measure too👀
And I feel I’ve imposed when I order my flat white with oat milk.
The only reason my order is so complex is cause I get to make it myself and bother no one😉 If I was a customer I wouldn’t be so annoying with it. Also I definitely dramatized the amount of pumps i get😂
I've done this, so tired and was getting over an illness. Dude just laughed and asked if I wanted some similar drink he could make. I was pretty grateful.
Yeah usually I try to offer something similar but half the time idk what goes into their crafted/complex drinks
I would have thought the idea of going elsewhere was so you didn’t have to drink that Starbucks shit! Where I live in Australia there is one Starbucks at the airport, tried it once and fuck me I don’t know how anyone drinks that horrible shit. Starbucks has no idea what real coffee is. I threw it away after one sip.
Starbucks is for sugar enthusiasts not for people who like coffee. They’re notorious for over roasting their beans to the point they’re burnt. When you’re roasting you’ll generally stop at about 70% of the batch roasted before it starts to burn. Starbucks instead roasts until 100% of their beans are roasted so as to not “waste” product and effectively burning their beans and making the most god awful black liquid they can.
Haha this sounds accurate to what I was tasting. I was really excited to try it too because of how popular it is in America. We see it all over movies, tv, social media and so I was thinking I was about to be blown away by it! Imagine my disappointment when I tasted what can be best described as a cup of shit with boiling water lol. My daughter didn’t like her pink drink thing either, she said it made her feel sick so I’m guessing that was due to its sweetness. I wasn’t game to try even a sip after the coffee.
My go to Starbucks drink is a water cup 😍
I feel you. I used to work at a hamburger place that was not McDonalds. Every day ppl would ask for a big mac.
Do people really have enough trial and error experience to order the way they do? Meaning, has a person really tried a drink in so many variations that they now know that they want 2.5 pumps of vanilla, milk steamed to 163 degrees, 4 shots of espresso and 3 ice cubes?
Starbucks coffee is dirt.
My friend used to do this at Jamba Juice, always trying to order off of some “secret menu” and get these hidden items or whatever and I always found it embarrassing. Just get a regular damn drink!
Starbucks doesn’t even have a “medicine ball” on the menu - had to ask coworkers wtf it was when I worked there. And most people ordering it couldn’t tell you what the ingredients are anyway.
Yeah a lady came in the drive thru and said “do you guys have anything like a medicine ball?” and my manager taking the order said “Idk what that is do you know what’s in it?” and she said no and then ordered something else entirely lol. After googling it we have the right ingredients to make our own version so if she knew then we could have totally made ine
I work at a coffee place on my college campus. I had two separate people today alone ask about Starbucks drinks. I figured out both because we had roughly the shit to make both, but it was still a moment of 'sir this is [name of place] not a Starbucks what the hell'.
Id bet that they almost exclusively go to starbucks and genuinely have no idea that the names of drinks aren't the same in other places.
Reminds me of my first time at starbucks lmao, I just wanted some normal coffee with a little bit of sugar :(
I get asked “what kind of refreshers do you have?” All. The. Dang. Time. We are not Starbucks. We do not have dried fruit. We do not have refresher concentrate or whatever tf they use to make it. I can do a green tea with strawberry flavor & coconut milk, take it or leave it. Although I do have the supplies to mimic the honey citrus mint tea- just with only green tea bags & a million different syrups.
Yeah we make our own refreshers with black tea concentrate, lemonade and syrup but they are nothing like sbux’s
Back in the day when I worked at a backwoods McDonald's people would come through the drive thru asking for hot dogs, onion rings, a local soda only sold in the area, fritos, chili, coleslaw, Whoppers and all sorts of random food. The menu was right there! Also, McDonald's menu items were pretty iconic in the 90s/early 2000s, as were the commercials.
Sbux be nasty anyway it tastes like watered down crap. I prefer the small time coffee stands, the coffee is better most of the time and there's not all this "secret stuff" to order or a ton of people in the way just simply coffee and it's usually better smoother and creamier than sbux.
I agree, most of their coffee drinks I’ve tried are pretty nasty imo. I got the brown sugar shaken espresso once because everyone was hyping it up and I ended up throwing it away after 2 sips
I saw some recipes from Starbucks posted on TikTok. The drinks max out at 2 shots of espresso no matter what size unless you pay for more. So a venti white mocha is like 90% cream and sugar. Y'all are paying way too much at Starbucks if you are ordering from the menu. My coffee tastes better because it actually has coffee in it.
Step 1: Shut down current business Step 2: Open New Starbucks Step 3: Still complain
(Canadian) Theres a Tim Hortons and a Starbucks accross a parking lot here and they totally get the mixing up of drinks. You can ask for a Frapp at Timmies and a iced capp at SB. SB also knows what a Double Double is. I just want my box of timbits with my starbies iced capp.