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Don’t complain to us about why the sizes are “tall, grande, and venti,” We did not choose to name the sizes; we do not care. If you wish, just say “small, medium, or large,” and we’ll still understand what you mean, we’re not as dumb as you look.
What People Don’t Understand About My Job: Barista
thisxcatharsis writes:
Baristas have to deal with people who are rude, hasty, and way too involved with themselves: cleaning out their purses, scolding their children, and “humming” and “hawing” over what they’d like to drink, to notice a ten person line standing behind them. You have been standing in the same line for about a minute or two and have had enough time to figure out what you want, don’t wait until the last minute. There are other people waiting for their turn and you’re just a hairball clogging up the flow. Don’t complain to us about why the sizes are “tall, grande, and venti,” We did not choose to name the sizes; we do not care. If you wish, just say “small, medium, or large,” and we’ll still understand what you mean, we’re not as dumb as you look. We honestly don’t care if you “haven’t had your coffee yet” thus the reason for you acting like a jerk, imagine how much people we’ve dealt with within the last hour saying the same exact thing.
People throw their money at us, yell at us for a five degree temperature difference, steal other people’s drinks, spill their drinks, order insane amount of beverages and expect them to be out to them ASAP. All the while we have still have to smile and thank each and every one of them, work with speed while adhering to our company’s standards: maintaining cleanliness, poise, hold conversations with customers, etc… There are so many horror stories many baristas have had to deal with that two paragraphs won’t do it justice. Working for a coffee shop, an extremely popular one mind you, has made me realize that most people lack any shred of decency or common sense; all they care about is their double tall no foam latte at the end of the line.
I invite other baristas to share their experiences as well. So that people may think twice about how they act as customers to any one in the service industry.What do people not understand or appreciate about your job? Submit a post, tweet your thoughts with the tag #AboutMyJob, or email us at aboutmyjob1@gmail.com
This is Starbucks’ “Breakfast Blend,” the lightest roast they carry.
It is indisputably a dark roast coffee.
We’re training a lot of new people at my Starbucks, and it’s funny to see people being taught Starbucks’ coffee vocabulary, talking about the different roasts and varietals, and the different flavor notes and pastry pairings. Why’s it funny? Because here’s the truth:
In order to create a strong brand of whole bean coffee that Starbucks can ship out all over the world and maintain sovereign consistency throughout every batch and every bag, they have to come up with an affordable blend of coffees that they can roast in large batches with consistent results. It’s impossible to do a light roast consistently, and especially in a large batch, so the notion of doing a real light roast is entirely off the table for Starbucks, even though the flavor of many coffee varietals suffers from darker roasting.
In the rest of the coffee-roasting world, Starbucks’ Breakfast Blend would be considered a dark roast, 10/10 times, but Starbucks has the power to invent their own terminology and system of values. For instance, in the rest of the coffee-roasting world, coffee that comes from a single origin (like a single country, region, or especially a single estate) is seen as more pure, more desirable.
Of course, a single estate coffee would be literally impossible for Starbucks to put in all of it’s stores, so in their system of values, they go so far as to turn the tables entirely and market a coffee like their Three Region Blend, which is, as its name suggests, a blend of coffees from all three coffee-growing regions of the world, meaning that literally anywhere in the world that grows coffee is fair game for this cocktail.
I’m not trying to be cynical about Starbucks’ whole bean coffee. I had some Estima at home this morning (a two-region blend with a Latin name). Starbucks couldn’t possibly handle itself better as a corporation it’s size. But because of its mediocre quality, it creates a market for independent roasters who are able to practice their craft of making much better coffee.
