Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Brady on April 21, 2010 at 5:42am

Squirrel said:

I was working part-time at Starbucks when a customer walked in and asked for Nescafe. When we told her we don't have Nescafe at Starbucks, she asked if there is any drinks similar to Nescafe.

Must have been before the Via product launch then?

Permalink Reply by Adam Wilson on April 21, 2010 at 7:10am

Maybe they mean a lungo shot? If so, you'd have to adjust your grind/tamp to pull a bigger shot (forgive me if i'm giving you old news).

That said, unless I was sure that no other customers were coming in within the next 30 minutes, the chances of that lady getting anything but a ristretto shot in my shop are pretty slim. Asking your barista to re-vamp everything to suit your needs is pretty presumptuous, if you ask me...

but hey, i suppose that's what this thread is all about ;)

Victoria Stubbs said:

P.S. Can anyone enlighten me? I was asked for a weak long macchiato today.. how the hell do you make a weak long mac without making a short mac, or adding water to a single shot?

Permalink Reply by Chris on April 21, 2010 at 5:46pm

Christina Chi said:

i was born and raised in california, so i don't have an accent.

Uhm... you have... uhm... if you... uh, you're...

Nope. There is no way that a Californian is gonna get the ironic humor, so I'm just gonna stop. ; >

And Adam, if you down-dose a gram, gram and a half, you can get a decent lungo from your present techique, and not have to re-vamp anything.
Shoot, half the fun of being a pro-barista these days seems to be trying to interpret whatever bad training you or they had learning a coffee lexicon, and discovering some common grounds.

Permalink Reply by christopher myers on April 21, 2010 at 6:01pm

Ok, we get it, we have a californian accent, everyone has an accent. I think the person saying "me no speaky english" was referring to something else though. It's not like she said "Dog, we got hella milks, 'shwon yow want!"

Chris said:

Christina Chi said:

i was born and raised in california, so i don't have an accent.

Uhm... you have... uhm... if you... uh, you're...

Nope. There is no way that a Californian is gonna get the ironic humor, so I'm just gonna stop. ; >

And Adam, if you down-dose a gram, gram and a half, you can get a decent lungo from your present techique, and not have to re-vamp anything.
Shoot, half the fun of being a pro-barista these days seems to be trying to interpret whatever bad training you or they had learning a coffee lexicon, and discovering some common grounds.

Permalink Reply by Adam Wilson on April 21, 2010 at 6:08pm

hhmmmmm looks like i'll be playing around with that tomorrow at work. thanks ;)

Chris said:

And Adam, if you down-dose a gram, gram and a half, you can get a decent lungo from your present techique, and not have to re-vamp anything.
.

Permalink Reply by Chris on April 21, 2010 at 6:19pm

christopher myers said:

Ok, we get it, we have a californian accent, everyone has an accent.

See Tolja! Even with the smiley and all!

I keed, I keed. ; >


Adam, the best way to make a lungo *is* to crank the grinder around, but down-dosing is the next best thing. It truly is not gong to get you the best possible result, but it just may make a customer happy, so it's worth a shot.
Start a Lungo competition amongst the baristi next time it gets slow, and adopt the technique that tastes best but doesn't require the entire shop to come to a stop to reset in a rush.

Permalink Reply by christopher myers on April 21, 2010 at 6:53pm

Oh. I thought this was an ironic smiley face ;) and this was a sarcastic smiley face ; > and this is an owl: oVo. Or testicles. I'm not sure, me no speaky internet ;)

Permalink Reply by christopher myers on April 21, 2010 at 10:14pm

Also, I agree with Other Chris, under-dosing would be the easiest way to go. Although I've only had like 2 people ever ask for "long pulls". And those people I convinced to just get nice short Americano. Or Americizzle as it's known around here.

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Vaaler on May 15, 2010 at 4:07pm

This is why there should be a standard way of making it just for the Specialty coffee industry to keep it obvious from the commercialized version.

Victoria Stubbs said:

Regular customer orders a latte every day. She says quietly to barista as soon as boss is out of ear-shot: "Honey, I just wanted to tell you something about the coffees you've been making me lately"
Barista: "Sure, what is it?"
Customer: "They haven't been very creamy lately"
Barista: "How do you mean creamy? Is it the texture of the milk or the foam?"
Customer: "I don't know, they just aren't creamy enough"
So I made her the textbook-perfect a latte - shiny, silky milk and perfect foam, rosetta to show off, take-away, lid on.
Barista: "Ok. Give that a taste-test for me and if it's not right let me know what needs changing and I'll make it again"
Customer removes lid, grabs spoon and pushes back foam, revealing perfect latte foam. "There's just not enough froth on here honey!"
(How hard it was not to sound rude when I politely informed her that she wants a capp.. she still orders a latte but leaves it up to me to know which 'latte' on the dockets is hers..)

Permalink Reply by Lauren Nicholls on May 16, 2010 at 12:35am

in any way shape or form said the -word- 'eXpresso' as opposed to espresso, is out of line to me, call me crass but if you drink espresso know that it doesn't have an 'x' in it PLEASE.

and don't encourage people to say 'expresso' by putting it all over advertising signs and menus spelt wrong. it drives me crazy.

more crazy... than the lady who asked me to make her a latte at normal temp but then put it in the microwave till it was super hot cos she liked how it tasted that way...morally i couldn't do it...so i waited until she found her seat on the other side of the cafe and then asked a workmate to make it and serve it for me.

Permalink Reply by Chris on May 17, 2010 at 1:05pm

Lauren Nicholls said:

call me crass but if you drink espresso know that it doesn't have an 'x' in it PLEASE.

and don't encourage people to say 'expresso' by putting it all over advertising signs and menus spelt wrong. it drives me crazy.

*sigh*
I feel your pain, and while I'm not fond of the 'x' pronunciation either, there are some indications that it isn't wholly incorrect. 'Cappacino' on the menu, OTOH, makes me get out of line. Every time..

Permalink Reply by Dawn Pinaud on November 7, 2010 at 8:56am

My suggestion is to always KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS. It just never pays to argue or engage in negative talk with customers. One time this guy was so incredibly rude that another customer came to my defense which just made that rude guy look like a bully. The whole line of customers got involved it was fun to watch. I always say to try and take the high road if possible, but I must add that once in awhile a customer will go to far and I just politely ask them to leave the store. It's not always easy that's for sure. Dawn

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