Memo to all coffee shops: please decide what drinks are what. I already have to remember the difference between an "Annihilator" and a "Kahlua Kicker" and I don't like having to figure out if your cappuccino is the same as the one across the street. Don't even get me started on a Macchiato. Do you really need your names to be in Italian? Sure, I know venti means 20 but this is the United States and I only speak English!
Okay, maybe I'm being a little harsh. I know that coffee is obviously not something any one company invented and that drinks and terminology evolve with different shops and different cultures. I also know that if somebody wants to call a latte a cappuccino and a hot chocolate a mud pie then that is his or her prerogative. But if I went into a steak house, ordered a rare steak, and they came back with roast duck, I would be somewhat upset. Why can nobody seem to get this right?
I think that, as a barista, I can help to resolve this question. There are, despite what much of our experience says, accepted standards for most coffee drinks. The problem is not the lack of standards. The problem is a lack of knowledge on the part of many baristas. The sad thing is that it's not even their fault. Think about the coffee shops in your area. I'm willing to bet that many of them employ high school and college-aged kids who are trying to pay for school or their winter formal tux. I'd also bet that the extent of their training in coffee was three or four hours of manager-shadowing as they're flung into a bar shift with little preparation. Given all this, I'm impressed that they know a latte from a strawberry smoothie. Would you expect that the chef at your favorite dining establishment to be trained from scratch in three to four hours? Unless your favorite dining establishment lets you "supersize" your dinner, then you're probably glad the chef has an education or a sizable amount of experience to draw from.
If you order your hamburger done "medium well" and the person behind the counter says "we can't do that" or asks "what does that mean?" then you are probably at a fast food restaurant. If your barista can't tell a macchiato from a mocha then you might consider finding a coffee shop with properly trained baristas or, if you don't mind the confusion, you might consider drastically lowering your expectations. All that said, I'm still upset about the venti thing.
Okay, maybe I'm being a little harsh. I know that coffee is obviously not something any one company invented and that drinks and terminology evolve with different shops and different cultures. I also know that if somebody wants to call a latte a cappuccino and a hot chocolate a mud pie then that is his or her prerogative. But if I went into a steak house, ordered a rare steak, and they came back with roast duck, I would be somewhat upset. Why can nobody seem to get this right?
I think that, as a barista, I can help to resolve this question. There are, despite what much of our experience says, accepted standards for most coffee drinks. The problem is not the lack of standards. The problem is a lack of knowledge on the part of many baristas. The sad thing is that it's not even their fault. Think about the coffee shops in your area. I'm willing to bet that many of them employ high school and college-aged kids who are trying to pay for school or their winter formal tux. I'd also bet that the extent of their training in coffee was three or four hours of manager-shadowing as they're flung into a bar shift with little preparation. Given all this, I'm impressed that they know a latte from a strawberry smoothie. Would you expect that the chef at your favorite dining establishment to be trained from scratch in three to four hours? Unless your favorite dining establishment lets you "supersize" your dinner, then you're probably glad the chef has an education or a sizable amount of experience to draw from.
If you order your hamburger done "medium well" and the person behind the counter says "we can't do that" or asks "what does that mean?" then you are probably at a fast food restaurant. If your barista can't tell a macchiato from a mocha then you might consider finding a coffee shop with properly trained baristas or, if you don't mind the confusion, you might consider drastically lowering your expectations. All that said, I'm still upset about the venti thing.
LOL! "If I went into a steak house, ordered a rare steak, and they came out with a roast duck, I would be somewhat upset". Priceless!
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