I’d say so. If I had time, I’d probably get one several mornings a week at one of the five coffeeshops I walk by every morning. Several of my friends get (at least) one a day.
When you’re dumping in caramel, sprinkles, and whipped cream from a can. There’s nothing objectively wrong with these drinks, until you end up with someone who’s never been in anything other than a Starbucks complaining when they get a **real **macchiato.
You’re nitpicking. In the U.S., a “latte” is espresso and steamed milk, with minimal or no microfoam. Here, coffee and (steamed) milk is called a cafe au lait.
Both my SO and I drink tea and/or coffee at work, but we were finding regular coffee first thing in the morning wasn’t working for us. We couldn’t find a coffemaker that made palatable coffee, plus, it seemed to be a big waste of counter space for something we used for one cup only in the morning.
So we switched to using the stove-top espresso maker that we used to only take camping (as a treat). We starting making lattes because unadulterated espresso was just a bit too harsh on our tummies first thing in the morning and I can’t make Americanos worth sh*t.
I know many, many people who do the daily latte. Some of them even get coffee in theirs.
For me, my caffine delivery is related to what I expect out of the day: diet cola, normalacy; large regular, hiking; large regular iced, hiking and it’s above 45F; 6+shot venti caramel macchiato, I’m not going to get more than 30 hours of sleep this week; anything else and I must be on vacation.
My wife works from home mostly now, so she just drinks brewed coffee, but when she used to commute, this is what she’d get at Starbucks every day.