My husband has avoided Starbucks because he refuses to pay the prices for coffee. He would rather get a senior coffee at McDonald’s for 50¢ or whatever.
However, someone gave him a gift certificate. I don’t even know what to tell him to order because I don’t drink coffee.
In restaurants when he gets a cup of coffee, he gets decaf and puts two creams and two sugars in it. What should he order at Starbucks to get the same type of drink? When I have gone in to get a gift certificate it’s always been crowded and everyone knows exactly what they want, so I’m sure if he went in and they had to explain everything the people in line behind him would be furious. I just want something he can say and then move aside.
It’s not that hard. Starbucks flunkies are used to translating their silly nomenclature into real speech. Then hubby moves over to the adulteration counter to add things to his liking.
Well I am not much of a coffee drinker, but I do drink those caramel apple spice hot thingies.
I am not even sure what it is called, but I go in and use those words and they sometimes tell me the correct name - are always fairly nice - might ask what size - I know they have some kind of weird sizing system, but I just tell them medium or large - and they sometimes say - “oh that’s a venti”, but usually they just give me what I want.
If he goes in off peak - he could easily have as much time as wants I think to talk to someone. I think he’d get more help than you are thinking. They want new customers.
That being said - I’m sure you’ll get great suggestions here.
But my suggestion is to try one of those caramel apple spice thingies.
I have gone to Starbucks a number of times (although rarely by choice. I prefer Caribou if there’s one nearby) and I’ve never used anything but the generic coffeshop jargon to order, no one has ever given me guff and I’ve always gotten what I wanted.
If they have to explain to him that to get a decaf coffee he should order decaf, there are bigger problems here than Starbucks’ cutesy lingo.
With room is the standard addendum to signify that you’ll be wanted to add creamer or milk yourself and they should leave some space in the cup for that.
The only real confusing part of Starbucks is their size-naming convention. Short (8oz), Tall (12oz), Grande (16oz), Venti (20oz). Cream and sugar you add yourself. They should ask you if you’d like room but if you want to be safe, you can tell them. Picking the roast might be another bit of a hiccup but 99% of the time you’d be perfectly OK with just saying large black decaf. If someone (employee or customer alike) gives you a hard time know that it’s their own shortcomings shining through rather than your own.
Somewhat obvious from the rest of pancacke3’s context, but just in case:
“room”, meaning don’t fill the cup all the way to the top, so you have room for the cream and sugar.
This kinda happened to me yesterday. I don’t do Starbucks often, but a friend of mine likes it…so I was there. I ordered a green tea. They started pouring some syrupy stuff, mixed in some water, added ice… I stopped them, saying I expect my green tea to be hot. They said (somewhat snarkily!) that they serve both iced and hot green tea, so if I don’t specify, they just assume I want the cold one.
Most of the time I find the staff very helpful, and I can order in plain English. Occasionally, I do get a hiccup like this.
Thanks, everybody. I didn’t know you added your own cream and sugar. I keep seeing pictures of drinks with foam or other toppings and figured you had to know what to tell them.
He will be able to handle asking for a large decaf!
I’ve been told that sugar doesn’t actually take up any room, as it dissolves – I guess it fits into the gaps between water molecules – something like that? Is this true?
Would powdered creamer work the same way?
I never fill coffee mugs all the way to the top because I’m too damn clumsy to walk from the coffee-pot to my desk without wobbling a little…
The first time I was in Seattle ordering a drink from a coffee cart, I was worried that I would struggle. It was going really well until the guy asked me whether I wanted my cappuccino wet or dry. Luckily my brother was there to translate.