At the coffee shop

I went to a Starbucks last week to make my first use of Sanni’s birthday present: a personalized Starbucks Gift Card. The following situation unfolded.

Cashier-Barista welcomes me and I order a grande latte macchiato. Cashier-Barista gives me a funny look, turns to Barista#2 and asks “Have you prepared a latte macchiato before?”

(I need to mention here that the Peet’s Coffee and Tea menu is WAY MORE elaborate then the Starbucks menu. Latte macchiato was not one of the Starbucks menu options and I felt slightly bad ordering something that was not on the menu, but then again, it’s NOT that weird of an order.)

Barista #2 turns around and looks at the menu, then shakes her head.
Cashier/Barista turns to me and asks “Sorry, what exactly is a latte macchiato?”

I am about to respond “Am I working at a coffee shop or you”?, but refrain myself and respond “It’s basically the same as a café latte, just that you steam the milk first and then pour the espresso on top of the milk, rather than putting the espresso in first and filling up the cup with steamed milk”.

Barista #2’s face lightens up and she says “Oh, so it’s an upside down latte!”, excited that she obviously knows how to fix that!

Yes, if you will. I prefer to call it a “latte macchiato”, thank you very much, but I’ll take the upside-down latte.
This time only though ;)

  1. haha wie geil! Ich arbeite ja auch bei Starbucks und bin Barista! Ich muss ja leider zugeben, dass wenn bei uns jemand nen latte macciato bestellt bekommt er nur ne einfache latte! aber für dich würde ich natürlich nen upside down machen! ;-D haha was lustig ist weil wir ja auch den caramel macciato haben und der wird ja “upside down” gemacht,also hätten die das doch wissen müssen was du willst!hehe egal, bin froh das du doch noch bekommen hast was du wolltest! *smoochie*

  2. Wow! I guess it’s better than the people working at fast-food places. They are infamous for messing up a simple order. I just wonder why there are not universal coffee terms. The cute little item names lead to confusion.

  3. hehe :D that’s a good one.
    lucky for me that im not a coffee drinker I guess
    ;D

  4. I have always wanted to order a latte macchiato at an American coffee place but never did since I wanted to avoid having to explain it like you. Well, next time I’ll order on too and I’ll make sure it won’t just be a regular latte. :)

  5. Now that was funny!! I wish I remotely knew anything about coffee…but sadly, I don’t :(
    But, hey its just one more thing for me to learn!
    Glad you’re using your birthday treats….birthdays are the best!!! Oh…by the way, I finally made my wordpress blog…just need to finalize it..and its ready for launch :)

  6. I used to work at Starbucks here in Germany and we often had people asking “I just want a Latte Macchiato, do you have that” and we mostly said “yes, we call it Cafe Latte” But now that you wrote about it I realized it isn’t really because they put in the coffee first. I have to try ordering an upside-down latte one day at some Starbucks in another city to see how they react.
    Try ordering a “Caramel Macchiato without the Caramel”, that will probably confuse them in an equal way but you’ll get your Latte Macchiato without having to explain the upside down thing.

  7. ohhh I need to remember the upside down latte!!! Good to know! haha! :)

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