I’m a former Starbucks barista – here are the most ANNOYING drinks that customers order… and why I hate it when people ask for an ‘extra hot’ latte
- Monica MacDonald, from New York, worked at the coffee chain for two years
- She has now opened up about which drinks she absolutely dreaded making
- She said coffees with altercations were especially ‘frustrating to prepare’
A former Starbucks barista has revealed the ‘most annoying’ drinks that customers order – including the beloved S’mores Frappuccino, cappuccinos with a milk alternative, and ‘extra hot’ lattes.
Monica MacDonald, from Buffalo, New York, worked at the coffee chain for almost two years back in 2017 and 2018, and now, she has shared some of its coveted secrets – including how some of its most well-known drinks are prepared and which ones she absolutely dreaded making.
According to the ex-Starbucks employee, fancy drinks with a slew of altercations were ‘time-consuming’ and ‘frustrating to prepare.’
She also slammed customers who asked for things like no foam in their cappuccinos or less ice in their iced teas, calling it a ‘needlessly complicated way of ordering a fairly basic drink.’
A former Starbucks barista has revealed the ‘most annoying’ drinks that customers order – from the beloved S’mores Frappuccino to cappuccinos with a milk alternative
Monica MacDonald, from New York, worked at the coffee chain for two years, and now, she revealed how some of its well-known drinks are prepared and which ones she dreaded making
‘I worked as a Starbucks barista for two years and although I love the chain and its variety of drinks, I don’t remember every order fondly,’ she admitted to Insider recently.
‘Some drink requests required a lot of extra steps or just didn’t quite make sense. Other orders were needlessly complicated or just plain frustrating to prepare.’
Here all the drinks that Monica found ‘most annoying’ to make while she was working at Starbucks – how many are you guilty of ordering?
The S’mores Frappuccino tops the list thanks to it’s ‘specially made’ marshmallow-infused whipped cream
Monica explained that the drink that she hated to prepare the most was the S’mores Frappuccino.
Monica explained that the drink that she hated to prepare the most was the S’mores Frappuccino (seen)
‘Marshmallow-infused whipped cream, milk chocolate sauce, a creamy blend of vanilla, coffee, milk and ice are finished off with more marshmallow-y whipped cream and a graham cracker crumble,’ reads a description of the drink on Starbucks’ website.
Because the Frap’s main ingredient is the ‘specially made’ marshmallow-infused whipped cream, Monica explained that it often slowed her down because she’d have to run to the back to get more of it if it ran out.
‘If you’ve run out, you have to prepare a new canister of it before you even start making the Frap,’ she told the outlet.
‘That one takes the cake for me. When I was a barista, I remember thinking this drink was a nightmare because of the sheer amount of time it took to make it.’
Cappuccinos with milk alternatives are extremely difficult to make because non-dairy products don’t froth as easily
She added that making cappuccinos with a milk alternative were extremely difficult because non-dairy products lack protein, which is essential when frothing (stock image)
Monica explained that making cappuccinos with a milk alternative was extremely difficult for her because ‘the proteins in non-dairy milk are not as strong as they are in cow’s milk’ – which means ‘it can’t keep air bubbles quite as well’ when frothing.
‘Unlike a latte, a cappuccino consists of espresso shots topped with half steamed milk and half foam,’ she explained.
‘I think it’s actually one of the easier drinks to make – when you’re using the standard two per cent milk [that is].
‘But when a customer asks for a non-dairy milk, preparing the drink becomes a multiple-steam-pitcher affair.
‘When you try to froth a non-dairy milk, like coconut milk, the results aren’t exactly the same – you get some airy sort of foam, but mostly just steamed liquid.’
Monica dreaded making ‘extra hot’ drinks because she felt it was ‘dangerous’ for her to handle things at such extreme temperatures
Monica said she didn’t like when customers would ask for their lattes to be ‘extra hot’ because she felt like it was ‘dangerous’ for her to handle such extreme temperatures (stock image)
Monica said she didn’t like when customers would ask for their lattes to be ‘extra hot’ because she felt like it was ‘dangerous’ for her to handle drinks at such extreme temperatures.
‘The espresso machines at Starbucks typically heat the steamed milk for your favorite drinks to about 160 degrees Fahrenheit,’ she revealed.
‘When a customer asks for a drink to be extra hot, the milk is steamed to be 180 degrees Fahrenheit.
‘Although they aren’t difficult to make, extra-hot lattes are a frustrating order because of how dangerous they can be.’
When a customer asked for dark or blonde roast coffee after a certain time, it was a major inconvenience for Monica
According to the New York-native, Starbucks uses a certain type of coffee bean called pike place roast, but customers can get dark or blonde roast if they specifically request it
She explained, however, that because they stop brewing everything but the pike roast at a certain point of the day, when someone asks for another type in the afternoon it can be ‘tricky’
According to the New York-native, Starbucks uses a certain type of coffee bean called pike place roast, but customers can get dark or blonde roast if they specifically request it.
She explained, however, that because they stop brewing everything but the pike roast at a certain point of the day, when someone asked for another type in the afternoon it was ‘tricky.’
‘At certain points during the day, Starbucks stops brewing dark and blonde roasts in its large brewers,’ she said.
‘Instead, those roasts are offered as a per-customer order: a pour-over. Maybe one or two pour-overs are manageable, but when a whole office orders a round of blonde-roast coffees late in the day, it’s quite a time-consuming hassle.
‘Pour-overs require the barista to grind the coffee, prepare the special filter with the grounds, fill a watering-can-like container with the appropriate amount of water, and then pour the water very slowly over the coffee grounds into the cup.’
Monica felt like customers who wanted an ‘excessive’ amount of sweetener should add it themselves rather than having baristas do it
Starbucks employees are happy to add sweetener or sugar into a customers coffee for them – but she admitted it can ‘get annoying’ when people want ‘an excessive amount’ (stock image)
Starbucks employees are happy to add sweetener or sugar into a customer’s coffee for them – but Monica admitted it can ‘get annoying’ when people want ‘a seemingly excessive amount.’
She encouraged those who want tons of stuff added to their drink to do it themselves rather than ‘holding up the bar’ by having a worker to do it for them.
‘I still remember a regular customer who consistently held up the bar because she would order a drink with 12 Stevias,’ she dished.
‘Just a suggested rule of thumb – if you want more than three sweeteners added to your drink, it may be easier for you to add them yourself at the condiment station.’
Iced green tea lattes have to be physically mixed by an employee, but that often results in the drink coming out ‘clumpy’
Next on Monica’s list of drinks she hated making was iced green tea lattes, since she said they were not easy to make and often came out as ‘clumpy messes’ (stock image)
She explained that to prepare the drink, she had to ‘physically’ mix matcha with ice and milk by ‘shaking’ it, and called the method ‘imperfect’
Next on Monica’s list of drinks she hated to prepare was the iced green tea latte, since she explained that it was not easy to make and often came out as a ‘clumpy mess.’
‘It’s even worse when a customer asks for no ice because there’s practically no way to make sure the drink is homogeneous and it often results in a clumpy matcha latte,’ she added
She said that to prepare the drink, she had to ‘physically’ mix matcha with ice and milk by ‘shaking’ it, but the ‘imperfect method’ often resulted in the drink looking terrible, which meant she’d have to redo it.
‘Hot green-tea lattes are delicious and smooth when the matcha is steamed with the milk. But when this drink is iced, it isn’t always perfect,’ she admitted.
‘To make an iced green-tea latte, the matcha is added to a cup with ice and milk and then physically shaken. This can be an imperfect method that sometimes results in a clumpy drink.
‘It’s even worse when a customer asks for no ice because there’s practically no way to make sure the drink is homogeneous and it often results in a clumpy matcha latte.’
Monica branded the viral upside-down caramel macchiato as an overly ‘fancy way’ of asking for a vanilla latte with drizzle
Monica also slammed the viral upside-down caramel macchiato, explaining that it’s just an overly ‘fancy way’ of asking for a vanilla latte with drizzle. A normal caramel macchiato is seen
Monica also slammed the viral upside-down caramel macchiato, explaining that it was just an overly ‘fancy way’ of asking for a vanilla latte with caramel drizzle.
According to Starbucks’ website, a caramel macchiato is made out of ‘freshly steamed milk and vanilla-flavored syrup marked with espresso.’ It is then ‘topped with a caramel drizzle for an oh-so-sweet finish.’
Monica explained that the ‘upside-down’ version, which was made popular by social media, simply ‘reverses the order of the addition of each component.’
‘A caramel macchiato is made by putting vanilla syrup on the bottom of the cup, then adding steamed milk, espresso shots, and caramel drizzle in that order,’ she shared.
‘But sometimes, customers order this drink upside down, which reverses the order of the addition of each component.
‘It becomes espresso on the bottom with caramel drizzle, then steamed milk and vanilla syrup on top.
‘This upside-down order annoys some baristas because it’s pretty much just a fancy way of ordering a vanilla latte with caramel drizzle.’
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