Hello there… As an Indie coffee and record clerk by day, (and struggling journalist bydegree and night) I hereby offer to quell any nagging queries you may have on the topic of coffee shops, coffee jargon, recipes or methods, the seamy underbelly of the “Big Green S” (etc…)… I managed a Starbucks to put myself through college, and have now crossed the line to a small neighborhood hipster joint - so i am equally qualified from the realms of “half-caf tall skim latte” to “It is SKIM. Only when you cease to use the word SKINNY in place of SKIM will I give you your drink!!” Ask away…
How come Starbucks keeps telling me that the Mocha Grande coffee has no sugar in it, when it spikes my blood sugar through the roof?
Did you get to hating that fresh coffee smell that I and others find so delicious? I used to like pizza until I delivered for 5 years!
Is Starbucks really as good a place to work for as Business Week et al claims?
B.T.W, I love Starbucks coffee. I even buy that ground Starbucks “house blend” at the grocery store, and am drinking a cup now.
A non-coffee drinker walks in and asks you for a recommendation. Outside of a hot chocolate what can you offer them?
“How come Starbucks keeps telling me that the Mocha Grande coffee has no sugar in it, when it spikes my blood sugar through the roof?”
-The employee is uninformed… The mocha is made with milk, syrup and espresso… The syrup us concocted with finely ground Guittard brand sweetened (sugared) chocolate powder and hot water that sets and is then calibrated into your beverage…
“Did you get to hating that fresh coffee smell that I and others find so delicious? I used to like pizza until I delivered for 5 years!”
-Five years delivering pizza, I commend you. I would go berzerk… At Starbucks, you end up smelling downright noxious, right up to when you are showering it off… At my current coffee shop, I do not have as much of a problem… Sometimes the smell would actually make me ill when I had to work early in the morning!
Is Starbucks really as good a place to work for as Business Week et al claims?
- Ummmm… yes and no. The corporation, while pretty greedy (but that is the name of the game, right?) supplies you with ample training, great benefits at 20 hours per week, and excellent vacation incentives and promotion / transfer opportunities. I for one, traveled almost every summer while I was in college, and transfered to a new Starbucks from NYC to SF,CA! However, retail tends to run by the law that your job is only as good as your district manager, and if they keep you understaffed of have your location open at senseless times, well then - it sucks. Also, I worked mostly at a location in New York City, where people literally might as well crap on you as soon as you put a hat on your head - and the health code there required us to do just that!
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Is it true that there’s a minimum
- number of piercings
- hue intensity of hair dye
- figure on the Kinsey scale
to work as a barrista?
Dear Barrista Girl,
Have you ever heard of a “Tripper”?
And would you like me to tell you how make it?
-Sam
Dear Barrista Girl,
Have you ever heard of a “Tripper”?
And would you like me to tell you how make it?
-Sam
Very cool. I worked in a Starbucks for 3 years. I’ll be happy to help out with any answers that are needed.
fortunatally, I graduated from the joe-job industry. Whew. UNfortunatally, I still have all that junk stuck in my head. Bleah…
-niggle
Do you hate people like me who ask for a Tall skim decaf whatever? I always wonder if us picky types are despised…
You call yourself picky? One time I asked for a medium white hot chocolate with amaretto in a tall cup with whipped cream. The woman behind the counter said I was weird. I said maybe so, but for $3.50 you are gonna make my damn hot chocolate the way I like it.
Naw. Being able to remember and spit back extremely complicated drinks without even blinking is always fun. The look on peoples faces is priceless.
Try saying:
1/2-caff, tall, 1/4 hazlenut, 3/4 almond, non-fat, no whip, easy chocloate mocha
quickly with a blank or bored expression on your face. 'specially since most people say it in the wrong order to you when they ask what they want, and you the barista have to re-arrange it in your head. People actually find this kind of skill amazing.
Then pretend you’re working behind the bar making this drink. You have to remember it, put a cup on the bar to jog your memory, and then procede to remember the next ten drinks that are called out, all the while keeping an eye on the two jugs of milk that are steaming, and the six shots of espresso that you’re pulling. Of course, as you go you’re putting finished drinks up on the bar, calling them out, repeating what the person behind the till is saying (and remembering it) dealing with people who say “this coffee is a little bitter… could you make me another one”, keeping an eye on the second till to make sure no one is wanting to buy retail items or beans and watching the front for a) homeless people harassing customers or b) tables that need to be cleaned. Now imagine doing it for an 8 hour shift. With only a couple coffee (ugh!) breaks and a half-hour lunch.
There’s a reason that most people working in a coffee shop either have degrees or are working on them. You need to be a fairly quick individual to deal with it all.
I’m still a little bitter about the ordeal.
-niggle
Hmmm… Tea - lots of teas at most places - decaf and caf - (Depending on your aversion to coffee, whether it be the caffeine or the taste, the response varies) Chai, a dervitive concentrate of black tea, usually - withcinnamon, honey and cardamom, steamed milk with flavoring, hot apple cider… Italian or french soda (seltzer, syrup & half/half)… egg cream (variation on french soda - more half/half, less seltzer… w/ syrup) You’d be amazed what hours behind a counter can compel you to create! Next time you find a friendly coffee clerk - ask! I love giving reccomendations & creating things for people… Which is probably wht I am still stuck doing this job…
Depending on your manager or District Manager, yes… They will let the handbook slide sometimes, so this is just a guideline - but the handbook used to say no hair color that you could not grow on your own, and no piercings besides2 to each ear . If you had recently gotten a facial piercing and you could not take it out (healing, etc…) you had to put a band-aid on it. Great - just what I want, someone with an band-aid on their face making me a drink, so I can wonder what’s under it… eek. On the other hand, the place I work at now - every single staff member is tattooed, most have colored hair, and the majority have piercings… As for Kinsey - well, if I told you that… I’d be giving TOO much away!
Do tell!!!
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Very cool. I worked in a Starbucks for 3 years. I’ll be happy to help out with any answers that are needed.
fortunatally, I graduated from the joe-job industry. Whew. UNfortunatally, I still have all that junk stuck in my head. Bleah…
-niggle
How did you get out?? Kidding… sorta. If I am still doing this next year… ugh. Thanks for the help!!
No… For what you pay, you should get your money’s worth. But I get driven to the brink somedays when people don’t know what they are ordering - they ask for an espresso, and then can’t figure out why the cup is so small. They ask for a cappuccino, then want to know why there’s so much foam, and so on. They are rude about it, too - the rude ones get the wrath, not the nice people - not to worry. But senseless requests - like “can you blend skim milk with half and half and then heat it till it’s 250 degrees? I like when it burns the roof of my mouth!!” (Yes, this is a real request, from a real New York City Starbucks customer!!) But bar-none, the one that gets my goat every time, is when people say the following - “I am being so naughty today! I want a skinny, yummie, freezie drinkie!!” Middle aged women say this alllllll day long. That and the woman that told me it was “Tragic!! No blueberry muffins???” My response - “Tragedy - war, famine, pestilince. Muffins - Not Tragic.” Sigh.
My pet peeve right now is trying to get my Latte hot. They do this “thing” at the local Starbucks (Ann Arbor, MI) called “saving the shot” where they’ll put a splash of cold milk in the shot so it doesnt go bad. This tends to make the drink cooler, of course.
I can ask for it “hot”, and it’s still lukewarm, especially if it’s made by a woman*. I had one of the people tell me to order it “180 degrees”, and that usually works, but I had one other guy give me a hard time when I ordered it that way, saying it would scald the coffee :rolleyes:. I never had this problem in CA, but I don’t know if this is a new thing they do, or a Michigan thing they do.
*Not meaning to be sexist, that’s just how it is, except for one woman there. She said her boyfriend likes them hot also, and won’t get one unless she’s there to make it.
Belive it or not, Starbucks has some fairly strict rules so far as how hot the milk can be. You see, it tends to burn (the milk) at 170-180 degrees. This is why if you like your drinks really hot, you’ll find the “textbook” 150 degress just luke warm. This is also why you’ll probably always find it luke warm unless you give a target. According to the textbook, 160 degrees is “hot”. Give 'em a high number and you’ll get what you want.
-niggle
Hooray for Baristas!! I was lucky enough to get to be one for awhile and it was by far the best job I ever had. Free lattes all day long…mmmm, I miss those days. One thing I never tried…jet fuel. I’m going to sometime. When I have the stomach for it and I have plans to stay up all night.
And thumbs up to everybody who takes the time to order what they want–how they want it. Nothing is more frustrating than a patron complaining because the drink doesn’t taste ‘right’ when they didn’t take the time to figure out what they wanted or made assumptions about a drink. Taught me quick to ask questions before I made the drink.
I’m with Niggle on that one!!