The scope of this document covers as much as I know about the coffee-making and ordering process. Most of this is in the context of a commercial coffee bar (in my case, Starbucks store #871 in Belmont, MA, USA, where I worked for close to three years), but there is considerable overlap with your morning coffee routine. I do make the occasional disparaging joke; please understand that I intend only to insult ;-)
It may be worth mentioning that at least at Starbucks, many of the slang terms are deprecated for one reason or another. I don't hold with this particular policy, but it should be acknowledged.
A disclaimer: First, let it be understood that I am not doing this on behalf of Starbucks; it's strictly a personal project and has nothing to do with them. Also, trademarks are used here. I can't really get away from them, so let it be understood that they are meant to be used descriptively and that I do not wish to be seen as infringing on anyone's intellectual property. Finally, the definitions and editorializations are my own and do not reflect the attitudes of my employer.
barista -- The guy who makes the coffee. Italian for bartender, more or less, but in English exclusively means a coffeehouse bar operator. In this country barista is an occupation considered only slightly higher than burger flipper; in Italy it's a job with some respect. Of course, in Italy, almost all baristas are men, too...
breve -- Indicates that the drink is made with half-and-half (as in dairy, not halfcaf coffee) instead of milk.
café -- The proper French spelling for coffee.
Café Au Lait -- A drink consisting of half milk, half
coffee. More or less the same thing as the Caffe Misto and far more common;
despite similarity of construction, this is not the same thing as
a Caffe Latte. Not even close. At least not the way I learned it. YMMV
and I'll drink 'em both.
caffè -- The proper Italian spelling for coffee.
Note the grave accent on the è.
Caffè Americano -- More or less a cup of coffee
the long way around; consists of espresso and hot water. I imagine this
term dates to the American occupation of Italy during WWII; I picture a
GI ordering a "caffè" in a coffee bar somewhere and getting an espresso,
then having it watered down to make it palatable. I'd appreciate a bit
of corroboration on this...
Caffè Corretto -- An Italian term referring to coffee
with a shot of liquor; literally means "corrected coffee", if you must
know. Loosely related to the notorious Irish Coffee (coffee with whiskey
and cream). Known in Spanish as El Carajillo and you really don't want
to know what that means if you don't already.
Caffè Cubano -- A heavily sweetened shot of espresso. I make them at work by adding brown sugar directly to the portafilter, but that's not the canonical way of doing it; a good Cuban cookbook will give you the correct technique.
Carries a considerable head of crema.
Caffè Latte -- A drink made by pulling a shot of espresso
into a cup and filling it up with steamed milk, topping it off with foam. The quintessential product of an American coffee bar; Italians tend to prefer cappucinos and straight espresso.
Caffè Medici -- A doppio poured over chocolate syrup and orange peel, with whipped cream on top. Created at the Last Exit, a former espresso bar in Seattle, and apparently not well known outside.
Caffè Misto -- A drink made with half drip coffee,
half steamed milk. The resulting drink is a slightly Italianized Café
Au Lait. As far as I know, Starbucks may be the only place (at least in
the United States) that uses this term in preference to the better known
au lait; feel free to correct me on this.
Caffè Mocha -- Essentially a latte with chocolate
syrup and often whipped cream. Often comes with whipped cream; Starbucks
makes a rather nauseating variant called a Mocha Valencia that involves
orange syrup and extra espresso to make it drinkable. Occasionally also
referred to as a Mocha Latte.
cap -- (slang) Cappuccino. Ubiquitous.
Cappuccino -- A coffee drink consisting of roughly equal
parts of espresso, steamed milk, and milk foam. Can also be made dry or
wet; a true cappuccino rarely has flavoring and almost never has whipped
cream, cinnamon, or a cherry on top. Just get this through your head: there
is no such thing as cappuccino-flavored coffee.
Caramel Macchiato -- One of Starbucks' most famous drinks, the Caramel Macchiato is one of those drinks that everyone wants to duplicate. Made hot and cold. Look here for a recipe.
Chai -- An Indian beverage (known more formally as chai
masala) that is essentially spiced black tea in milk. Has become quite popular in recent years, and Starbucks sells Tazo's chai (mainly because we own them), which is quite good if a bit heavy on the black pepper; Oregon Chai is another common brand. Madhur Jaffrey (the Indian cookbook author) has at least
one book with a recipe from scratch. If you want to make your own, common spices include coriander, ginger, star anise, and black pepper; steep with your favorite black or green tea and add steamed milk and honey.
coffee -- Nectar of the gods? Addictive stimulant drug? Public
utility up there with light, water and sewer? People who really like the
stuff will say all of the above. What you need to know is that almost everybody
doesn't use enough of it when brewing; the proper measure is two tablespoons/10g
per six-ounce cup. Too much, you get excessively strong coffee; too little,
you get caffeinated turpentine. And no, I'm not saying this to get you
to go buy more coffee.
Personally, I never drank a lot of coffee until I became a barista;
these days, though, I can never quite tell whether I'm tired or not...
Cowboy Coffee -- Seldom seen in coffee bars, this is coffee the old school way, boiled up similar to Turkish coffee on a campfire, with a crushed eggshell used to settle out the grounds.
crema -- When a shot of espresso is made, it comes out in three
layers. The bottom of the shot is referred to as the heart, and that's
where most of the sediment is. The bulk of the shot is the body. However,
on top there is usually a thin layer of golden-brown foam; this part, which
is what usually tempers the bitterness of a fresh shot of espresso, is
known as the crema.
Interestingly, when Achille Gaggia invented the first piston-based espresso maker, a lot of people considered the crema an impurity and didn't want anything to do with it.
doppio -- Italian for double. Out of context, almost always refers
to a double shot of espresso served as a drink. Compare solo.
double -- Two shots of espresso in a drink. And there's
also triple and quad; the overwhelming majority of people, though, will
never order more than four shots in any one drink thank God almighty in
heaven above. There are FAA regulations against that...
dry -- Containing less milk than is typical; a dry cappuccino
is essentially just espresso and foam.
Espresso -- An extremely strong method of brewing coffee
that involves forcing high-pressure hot water through finely ground, dark-roasted
coffee. The resulting shot actually has less caffeine than the typical
cup of regular drip coffee, despite what you may have heard.
Espresso Romano -- Espresso with a twist of lemon. This, despite the name, seems to be a purely American affectation. It certainly isn't done in Italy.
flavored coffee -- Avoid it at all costs. You can do much better
just getting a nice blend of Latin American beans (straight Colombian,
Starbucks House Blend, Peet's Blend 101, and related coffees; I like to think of these as
"tofu coffees" that just scream to be kicked up a notch) and adding flavored
syrups or extracts. Lots of places do sell these, it's true, but if they're
using bad coffee they're covering something up and if they're using good
coffee they're wasting it. Starbucks doesn't touch the stuff.
frappe -- A drink made with ice cream and milk (and don't let
anyone tell you otherwise :-) ). Also, strongly deprecated Starbucks slang
for a Frappucino (though in that sense usually spelled frap); also also
refers to a popular Greek beverage (properly, frappé) made from
instant coffee, milk, ice and sugar that is probably a precursor to the
Frappucino and similar drinks.
A quick explanation of the above wisecrack; in Massachusetts, we call what everyone else calls a milkshake a frappe. That's milk, ice cream, and syrup, blended. A milkshake is just milk and flavoring. I figure since we Massholes have about the best ice cream in the country... :-)
Frappucino -- A Starbucks trademark for a blender drink that
combines ice, extra-strength dark roast coffee, and a mixture of milk,
cocoa, and sugar. The general idea (usually, however, in soft-serve or
slush form) has also popped up as Dunkin Donuts' Coffee Coolatta, among
other variations, and is generally quite popular.
Incidentally, I'm proud to say that the Frappucino, or at least
the
name, is a Boston invention; the basic idea was inherited by Starbucks
when they bought out The Coffee Connection in the process of moving into
the Boston area. The Coffee Connection is deeply missed, but Starbucks
has gone to great lengths to accommodated their customers, who were generally
accustomed to a lighter roast than Starbucks'. If you want a taste of the
old days, next time you hit a Starbucks in the Boston area try the Lightnote
or Starbucks Breakfast Blends. I'm not overfond of them, but they do seem
to carry on the tradition.
French press -- Also known as a press pot and a plunger
pot as well as a Melior, the company that first invented them (now part
of a Danish manufacture called Bodum). May be a trademark. This device
consists of a glass or plastic pot and a filter attached to a plunger;
the coffee, coarsely ground, is put into the bottom of the pot (2 tablespoons/10g
per serving; no cheating), adding hot water at the rate of about six ounces
per serving, stirring to mix the grounds in, and then allowing to steep
for a period of time (standard is about four minutes). At the end of that
time, the filter-plunger is pushed down, separating the grounds from the
coffee liquid. The official party line at Starbucks is that this gets the
best flavor from the bean; I suspect gold filters do a very good job of
this as well, but this is the way coffee tasters do it. Pressed coffee
can occasionally be rather gritty (and very strong), and cleaning the pot
can be difficult (especially glass pots, which can be quite breakable,
not to mention expensive). If you're sampling a new coffee, though, this
is the way to do it.
French Roast -- At Starbucks, at least, French Roast indicates
a coffee roast so dark that it destroys a good amount of the coffee's natural
flavor. The end result is an ashy, smoky flavor in the pot and coffee grounds
that look like model railroad coal dust.
I am personally not fond of French Roast coffee due to its burnt-out
flavor profile, but it appears to be fairly popular around the Boston area.
If I'm not mistaken, Trader Joe's (the bicostal semisupermarket with a
reasonably good specialty coffee selection) may go even darker with their ultradark Bay Blend Ultraroast.
gold filter -- A filter made with a fine metal (almost
always gold-plated) mesh and a plastic frame. Designed to replace paper
filters, since it's thought that metal interferes less with coffee flavor
than paper. It's traditional to grind coffee slightly coarser for a metal
filter than a paper one; no one really knows whether there's any real benefit
to this.
granita -- A relative of the Frappucino, this term in an American coffee house usually refers to a sort of latte slush. Often served out of big swirling machines that resemble juice dispensers.
half-caf -- half-caffeinated, half-decaf. Synonyms include
half-and-half and split shot.
harmless -- Seattle for decaf. Not so much heard around Boston,
though.
Hot Chocolate -- Mentioned only so far as to say that the usual
coffeehouse recipe for hot chocolate is chocolate syrup and milk, usually
with whipped cream on top. This tends to make a particularly sweet sort
of beverage that likes a generous stirring up before drinking.
instant coffee -- Caffeinated beverage made by freeze-drying
the life (and flavor) out of a pot of brewed coffee. Tends to be rather
sour and unpleasant to those trained on coffeehouse coffee. IMHO its only
real use is in the odd dessert recipe; even then I'd say go with a shot
of espresso and adjust liquids appropriately. (I once tried to brew a shot
of espresso with Folger's Crystals to see what happened. This is an extremely
bad idea; the end result rather resembled driveway sealant.)
latte -- Italian for milk; also shorthand for a Caffè
Latte. You will occasionally see an accent over the e; this is a mispeling. If you order this in Italy you will recieve merely a glass of milk.
lungo -- In this context, Italian for extended or large.
Refers to either a long or watered-down (hopefully the latter) shot of
espresso.
macchiato -- /makija'to/ Italian for "marked". Unqualified,
refers more or less to a shot of espresso with a topping of foam, sort
of a minimalist dry cappucino. A latte macchiato is steamed milk with a
ristretto shot poured through the foam (at least at Starbucks); Starbucks
also makes a caramel macchiato, which is essentially an upside down vanilla
latte with caramel syrup over the top. Also, the most frequently mispronounced
word on any coffeehouse menu.
Melior -- See French Press.
Melitta -- A company named for the first name of the German
housewife (Melitta Bentz) who invented the drip coffeemaker; also a slangish
term (trademarked) for a manual drip coffeemaker consisting of a funnel,
a filter, and a coffeepot. Operates by pouring hot water through the grounds
in the funnel; the end result is basic drip-brewed coffee, pretty much
the same as an automatic drip with maybe a bit more work.
Middle Eastern Coffee -- see Turkish/Greek Coffee.
misto -- Italian for mixed; shorthand for a Caffe Misto.
mocha -- Commonly refers to a mixture of coffee and chocolate;
in a coffee house, it's usually used in the slightly restricted sense of
a Caffè Mocha. Also refers to a specific type of Arabian or Ethiopian
(where it's spelled Moka or Mocca) coffee with a pronounced acidic, fruity
flavor (incidentally, Yemen Mocha Sanani is exceptionally good iced); this
is often combined with smoother, heavier-bodied coffees from Java (in Indonesia) to create
the well-known Mocha Java blend. To compound the confusion, a stovetop
espresso pot (works on more or less the same principle as the percolator,
but without reboiling the coffee) is also known in Italian as a moka (originally,
I'm told, a brand name). The connection between coffee/chocolate and the former port of Al-Mukha in Yemen seems to have something to do with flavor similarities between coffee and chocolate.
Mochaccino -- Cappucino with chocolate syrup. The problem is that most people who come into Starbucks are thinking "mocha Frappucino"; this term should be considered obsolete.
panna -- Italian for whipped cream, sometimes unsweetened.
"Con Panna" indicates a drink with whipped cream added. Incidentally, at one time unsweetened whipped cream was the common practice at Starbucks; I don't know how common that is, and we now flavor it with vanilla syrup anyway.
percolator -- A room-freshening device designed to use
coffee grounds as the scent agent. Produces a spectacularly lovely smell
in the room by reboiling water through the coffee grounds, but the brown
liquid produced as a byproduct of this process should not be confused with
brewed coffee; it is considered unfit for human consumption.
portafilter -- An espresso machine operates somewhat like a drip
machine with a lot more pressure. The grounds, instead of being held in
a basket, go into a small container with an insulated handle called a portafilter,
which contains an insert with a grid of tiny holes in it. The coffee (ground
almost to a powder) is put in the insert and tamped down, and the portafilter
is inserted into a holding bracket and turned to a locking position. The
water is blasted under pressure into the portafilter and through the coffee
grounds, draining through the holes in the insert. The end result is a
shot (or two) of espresso. The insert is usually securely locked into the
filter with a spring, allowing the barista to empty it by whacking it against
a bar that stretches across the top of something called a knock box instead
of having to gouge out the hot grounds with a spoon or finger.
Raktajino -- Not actually a coffeehouse term, and only a diehard
Trekker barista will understand it, but according to Marc Okrand, who invented
the Klingon language for Star Trek III and ought to know about these things
a raktajino (a portmanteau of two Klingon words meaning "warrior's knife"
and the word cappucino) is sort of a cappucino or latte spiked with Klingon
bloodwine and served appropriately hot. I suspect brandy or red wine might
be an appropriate substitute; YMMV and don't try to get me to drink the
damn thing.
Redeye -- (slang) A regular drip coffee with a shot of
espresso. Meant strictly for those who need the caffeine boost. Other terms
for the same drink include Shot In The Dark (possibly an Alaskanism), Scrap
Iron, Speedball, Depth Charge, Bellman, Boilerhouse, and Caffè MF. Seems mostly to be favored by the blue-collar and high-tech crowd; I used to joke that some people who ordered redeyes didn't have enough paint on their clothes to qualify for one. Dunkin' Donuts began in 2006 to market this as a "Turbo Hot".
regular -- Means absolutely nothing. In New England, it's
cream and sugar; elsewhere I've been led to believe that it implies strictly
black. When you ask for a regular, you get what the locals think is a regular.
Do yourself a favor and say exactly what you want. For what it's worth,
now that Starbucks does mild roast, regular implies dark.
ristretto -- Italian for restricted or restrained; refers
to an incomplete espresso shot used (for example, in latte macchiatos)
when the espresso flavor must be especially intense.
skinny -- West Coast for nonfat/skim milk based drinks. Not so
much heard on the East Coast, but not so rare that it shouldn't be learned.
solo -- Italian for, well, solo (or single). Refers, depending
on context, to either a single shot of espresso served as a drink or a
space pirate played by Harrison Ford.
split shot -- West Coast for a half-caf espresso shot.
sweet -- This is a tricky definition; coffee isn't generally
sweet in the usual sense since most of the sugars in the bean would be
caramelized out of existence in the roasting process. When talking coffee,
sweetness refers to tempering of its natural bitterness. A sweet shot of
espresso will have bitterness similar to a fine beer; a bitter one will
be more like the smell of permanent marker or turpentine. It won't kill
you like the petroleum products will, but you won't enjoy it either. The
moral of the story: always order your espressos "for here". You'll enjoy
it a lot more if it doesn't make it beyond the bar.
Turkish/Greek Coffee -- A not-entirely-unpleasant preparation
made from powdered light-roast coffee beans, Turkish/Greek Coffee (compromise
names include Middle Eastern and Balkan Coffee; best to sit on the fence
if you don't know your audience) is prepared by putting a couple of teaspoons
of powdered coffee, a teaspoon or two of sugar, and a demitasse-full of
water into a small pot called a jezve or ibrik. The coffee is brought to
a slight boil two or three times until it foams and is then served, grounds
and all. Try not to drink the grounds; they're not that good. (Incidentally,
it's not worth spending big bucks on coffee beans for this. Most of the
flavor is burnt off in the process, leaving a drink with a flavor vaguely
remniscent of a coffee caramel.) Most American coffee houses don't serve
this; it's a decent drink, but IMHO it's not really worth the trouble. If you're going to do this, though, it's worth noting that Turks prefer Brazilian coffees, while the Greeks like Ethiopian (unless they're drinking instant-based frappes).
Vietnamese coffee -- The tradition in Vietnam, where they grow Robusta that's actually drinkable, is to serve coffee with sweetened condensed milk instead of regular milk. It's quite nice, though it can be startlingly sweet.
wet -- Containing more milk than is usual. This generally
only applies to cappuccinos, but can also apply to drinks such as a caffe
misto/cafe au lait; best to avoid the extended usage, though, as it can
be confusing.
Why Bother -- Any of a series of closely related and supposedly rather pointless
lattes revolving around the decaf skim theme. IMHO the ultimate would be
a decaf triple venti skim latte or something along that line, but you get
the general idea; a decaf double tall skim latte is the canonical form. The term "gutless wonder" has been observed on the television
show Frasier (set, of course, in Seattle).
You want to steam your milk first. Steaming can be a bit tricky;
a professional unit has a steam wand design that's more or less idiot-proof,
but you may not be so lucky. You'll need a pitcher first (a four cup measuring
cup, preferably metal, will do the job fine) and an instant-read thermometer
such as a chef might carry; these sorts of things are available wherever
you can buy an espresso machine. Fill the pitcher no more than halfway;
this is important, as if you're not careful the foam will overflow. Open
the steam valve with the wand in the milk (for safety reasons; steam
is hot) and lower the pitcher until it stops howling. You will want to
keep lowering the pitcher as the foam forms; as soon as you've got all
the foam you need, raise the pitcher again and keep steaming until the
milk hits about 130-140 degrees F. The temperature will continue to rise
after you stop steaming; try to make sure you don't go over 170 degrees
F or you'll burn the milk. Set the milk aside; the foam and milk need time
to separate (whole longer than skim). Don't worry too much about heat loss;
milk foam is a great insulator and the temperature will stay high for a
while, at least until you start making drinks.
Now you need to pull shots. You'll need some coffee (a dark roast is
preferable; I prefer Starbucks Caffe Verona at home) (never
ever ever use flavored coffee in an espresso machine. You'll never get
it clean again.), a couple of shot glasses or a mug, a timer or stopwatch,
a coffee scoop that holds 7g of coffee, and a tamper (I have a special
spoon that does both). Scoop enough coffee to fill the portafilter; a commercial-grade
portafilter will hold about 7g per shot. Follow the instructions in your
owner's manual, but do your own tamping; it is my experience that customers
who believe they have self-tamping espresso machines are more often than
not disappointed by the results. Now work fast; espresso shots tend to
go downhill very quickly. Pull your shots according to the manual, then
pour them into the mug. Using a large spoon to hold back the foam, pour
the milk into the mug over the espresso, then top it off with a layer of
foam. And that is a basic caffe latte, the way it's done a la Starbucks.
Most other such drinks are done in the same way, with flavorings added
and proportions adjusted accordingly.
I'm not going to say that her order, in and of itself, had any problems;
to me it sounds slightly pretentious, but it's not incorrect. The thing
is, Starbucks has a system for calling drink names, and, at least in English,
it works pretty well (it would fail miserably in most Romance languages,
for example). So if you ever wanted to understand how to break down your
drink name (and in my opinion far too many Starbucks customers worry about
this when they don't have to), this is a good guide. It sets out the way
Starbucks does it (or at least the way I do it ;-) ) and tries to explain
the logic behind the system.
As for the customer whose ears were rattled by the "grande Frappucino"
callback, it may sound more elegant to put the modifier after the noun,
but only if both words are of Italian origin. It also breaks consistency
with proper English construction. And that's how that works. You may now
step to the bar and order your drink. (Incidentally, to this day Maria is a well-known regular at our store.)
The Starbucks side of the story goes something like this: we have four
sizes. We have short (8 oz), tall (12 oz), grande (16 oz), and venti (20
oz; it's Italian for twenty; the cold Venti is actually 24 oz). The official policy is that when you order a small, you get a
tall and work your way up. If you're really truly confused, find out how
big the cups are and order by the numbers. We'll know what you mean.
These are not necessarily coffees I like (Kenya, in particular, I'm somewhat
on the fence about) but coffees that everyone should try at least once to
get an opinion. There are many great coffees that aren't particularly remarkable
(Colombian is probably the worst offender in that regard); there are many
remarkable coffees that aren't particularly great (for example, Brazilian arabica, with its slight iodine flavor,
has traditionally been an acquired taste for everyone except the Turks and Italians). This
list tries to include coffees with both attributes, both proprietary blends and
single-origin standouts.
If you have anything you think I should add to the list, send me a sample,
maybe a quarter to half-pound or so, roasted and sent in whole bean form. These
are a few coffees that I've tasted that I like a lot.
Before I worked at Starbucks, though, I had a pretty decent knowledge
of coffee drinks anyway, at least as good as any other layperson. That
came mostly from Espresso: From Bean To Cup by Nick Jurich (ISBN
1-88029-00-8), which despite being grossly out of date (1991; Starbucks
is much more dominant now compared to when this book was written) is still
a very good reference for the coffee hacker.
Another exceptional coffee reference is The Joy of Coffee by
Corby Kummer (revised 1997; ISBN 1-57630-060-9). It's more general in scope,
and doesn't focus so much on the coffee bar drinks, but it's still a very
interesting bit of reading.
Some of the blanks were filled in thanks to Steven
E. Callihan's Seattle Lexicon, which has a decent size page (not so
in depth as this, though) on Seattle coffee slang. His stuff paraphrased
without permission, but I hope he doesn't mind.
If you're interested in piles and piles of coffee trivia, there is Philip
Janssen's Espresso Quick Reference Guide (Eight Ball Books, 1998;
ISBN 0-9643547-3-X), which has something like a thousand drink recipes
for various espresso bar beverages. Interestingly, more than half the book
is taken up with coffee trivia, hints, and glossaries; I don't, however,
recommend the practice it suggests of steaming milks with flavor syrups.
It tends to damage flavors and most likely will wind up with a lot more
difficult cleaning to do. Also, organizationally it resembles a bartending
book, which isn't entirely appropriate to the more concretely defined world
of the coffee bar.
One last useful book is The Espresso Bartender's Guide to Espresso
Bartending by "Sally Ann and Dara Diane" (Sally Slankard and daughter, according to Amazon) (Hooked
On Espresso, 1994; ISBN 0-9636173-7-0). It's mainly useful for the glossaries
in the beginning and the recipe for a Snickerdoodle latte (vanilla latte
with whipped cream and cinnamon on top), but despite its claims to being
the Bible of the industry I don't recommend it very strongly. The author's
writing style is stunningly incompetent, and editing is nonexistent, but
it does have a fairly well-organized list of recipes by category.
Both of the above books are reasonably useful, but they're very Seattle
in scope. Nevertheless, if you want to learn about the way things are done
outside of Starbucks, they're pretty good references.
Thanks to Maryann Rowsell for technical review, and to her and
other fellow partners for advice in producing the first version of this
page.
Click here to go back to my Coffee Page.- C -
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How to Make A Caffe Latte Like A Pro
This advice can also apply to making any other drink, but lattes are probably
the easiest way to start. This advice assumes you're using a pump or thermoblock
espresso machine; steam units are fine for some applications, but they're
terribly bad at steaming milk without some ingenuity. I wouldn't waste
my time.
A Few Notes About Usage
(but only in English) (Okay, so I'm venting)
I was once (April '98) privy to an unusual conversation between a customer
at the Starbucks I work at and my (now former) manager; she, apparently
a Spanish speaker and a regular customer, had come in and ordered a "Frappucino
grande" (her exact order) and then, apparently offended by hearing the
callback as "grande Frappucino", proceeded to take it upon herself to give
the manager a lesson in Romance language adjectieval syntax.
The only really substantial weakness of this system is that it's pretty
much impossible to properly order an iced coffee; if you put iced at the
beginning, it sounds awkward, and if it comes all at the end it throws
the call order off. This is not, however, seen as a significant problem.
The key to this system is that the call order is a sizeable part of the
drink recipe; the barista knows what to grab and when to grab it.
Randomness
About those sizes, anyway...
Some Coffees Worth Trying
References
Most of my knowledge is straight out of the standard Starbucks reference
material. If you go into any Starbucks, there will be a series of binders
with beige covers; they are generally meant for internal use, but any barista
who knows his or her job will share the contents with you if you have the
desire to know what goes into a drink.
This document is (c)1998-2006 Brian Connors.
connorbd@yahoo.com
Click here to return to my home page.