I drink at Starbucks far more often than I ever thought I would, but it’s a convenient place for me to meet potential clients. I always order the same thing, either a grande or venti coffee, black. I have never received any sort of surprised look. There’s never been any confusion. About all they ask is very, very occasionally (less than 10% of the time) they ask me what roast I want, but normally, since I don’t specify, they correctly assume I want the Pike’s Place.
And, you know what? For a long while (and still occasionally), I would just phrase my order as “medium black coffee” and I’d get exactly what I want. Nobody was confused that I didn’t say “grande.” Nobody was shocked that I didn’t get an espresso drink. I was so disappointed because, coming from an independent coffeehouse background, I sooooo wanted to hate this place, and I wanted to join the pile-on blasting their supposed “$5 coffees” (not true) or being forced to use their silly size nomenclature. (Also not true. Shocker of shockers, the baristas are not, in fact, morons but actually do understand standard English orders.) I’m not a huge fan of their coffee or espresso, but they do a reasonable enough job, and I’ve always gotten good service there.
I was totally that douche while I was pregnant and had gestational diabetes. “Grande whole-milk sugar-free vanilla decaf cappuccino, dry.” Nowadays I can generally omit the “sugar-free” and “decaf” qualifiers, and I leave off the “dry” if I see that the place is really busy, since it seems to make some baristas feel that they have to foam two pitchers of milk just to make my one drink.
Interesting, I prefer the opposite – expresso with extra hot water aka “Americano” to the Starbucks folk.
A couple of actual Americans came into the Starbucks just after me the other day and asked for filter coffee… which the barista then had to make because they don’t keep a pot of it around (obviously insufficient demand which would mean the pot sat around for ages and got manky).
Venti 3 sugar Americano for me… although they know me now at my local so I don’t actually have to order.
See, this is another reason I don’t drink coffee…I’d have to carry a little index card around with me to remember what to order! But I’m giddy to hear that Hershey’s has extra dark chocolate syrup somewhere out there in the world. Writing out a list right now…
(Hadn’t heard the term used outside of prohibition / alchohol-free… or as Brut for wine… but since you’d specified sugar-free that option didn’t make sense).
I’m confused as to how this is a response to my post. What’s wrong with a tea bag, if the tea in it is of good quality? Who said they don’t put boiling water on my tea?
For a while Starbucks did have a “skinny” chocolate syrup, which is just a fancy way of saying sugar free (it tasted a little like a tootsie roll, but foul). They still offer sugar free hazelnut and caramel (and maybe some others now) as a default, but that sugar free mocha syrup went away years ago. Perhaps some unscrupulous locations still have expired sugar free mocha that they use (or the licensed stores in a supermarket may have other supplies), but if you order a skinny mocha nowadays, DiosaBellissima is right. It ain’t the same.
That said, if you order a skinny mocha, you’re getting a non-fat no whip mocha. Any other response means a poor barista. Or a dumb one.
You’re exactly right in that, that’s what they give me, but it’s the whole inevitable discussion prior I’m trying to avoid:
Me: I’d like a tall, skinny mocha please.
Starbucks employee: We. . don’t have, like, skinny mochas.
Me: Right, I mean, I know you don’t have skinny syru–
Starbucks employee: The best I can do is make it non fat, no whip. Is that alright? If not we have skinny caramel, skinny hazelnut. . .
I know they’re trying to be helpful, but that whole discussion sort of defeats the purpose of me trying to shorten my order :).
