Yesterday morning, I opened at 5am. It wasn’t that bad; my coworker and I were in good moods aka we had our espresso before we unlocked the doors. I was alone on the floor when our first customer came in. I gave her a big smile and a calming not too peppy because its really god damn early ”heyy, good morning, how are you?” She gave me a blank stare for a few seconds before she said “venti extra hot whole milk latte and venti breve cappuccino.” Alright, I understood that it was early and she hadn’t had her coffee yet so I didn’t mind that she disregarded my question. I suppose she didn’t have to answer it because I can use my killer insight to infer based on her demeanor that she was both tired and bitchy.
So we finish up the financial business, and as I go over to bar to make her drinks she goes over to the condiment bar to set down the three or four bags she’s carrying. I finish her first drink and before I can start the final word of “venti whole milk extra hot latte” she interrupts me. ”Wet. Make it more wet.” (to put it simply: dry = more foam/less milk, wet = more milk/less foam) She doesn’t even look up from rearranging her things from the other side of the room to yell me this. … uhm… what? Now, if she pick up the cup and it felt a little lighter than it should, I would understand her requesting it more wet, but she didn’t pick it up. If she took of the lid and saw it was… i don’t know, extra foamy, I would get her wanting it more wet. However, she didn’t look at it. If she took a sip and it was not milky enough, her request wouldn’t be so crazy, but she didn’t taste it! Damn, I’ve never even made a drink for her before. The only way a latte can be “more wet” is if there’s no foam, and she didn’t say no foam. I mean, basically she was assuming based on absolutely nothing that I made it too foamy and not correct. Way to grind my gears first thing in the morning.
I retract the latte from the handoff counter and removed the lid. Looking down at the drink I wondered how I could make it more wet. I decided to keep the thin layer of foam on. I was going to attempt adding more milk, but there physically wouldn’t be any place to put it since there were 20oz of liquid in that cup. I looked back at her with her best friends the condiment bar and her many bags. She then grabbed a giant handful of splenda and threw it in one of the bags.
This is when I decide that her drink is just wet enough as it was, so I put the lid back on. ”venti whole milk extra hot… extra… wet… latte.”
I quickly finish up the other drink and call it out to her. Before heading out the door, she picks up the first drink and without looking my way says “that’s better.”
HAVE A GREAT DAY, MA’AM!
After her we had this older guy come in. He was really friendly ordering a coffee and a raspberry scone. When he mentioned that he was a starbucks shareholder, I wanted to say “ah, sheesh sorry about that,” but he told me that he’s not going to sell it because its going up again - because of our smiling faces. He said that he was the most upset about the economy because it makes starting a life and a home harder for young people. He said that he doesn’t care if his home looses half of its value, as long as we can afford homes. He then told us that things are bound to get better and to have a beautiful beautiful morning. What an awesome guy to cancel out such an obnoxious previous customer
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