9.24.2006

one bean

last night my fellow barista buddy told me a gem of a story.

apparently earlier this week he was working with the talker, so he was more aggravated than usual. a group of four women came in - apparently it was 'girls' night out' because they were louder and giddier than sophomores hanging at the mall. the first three women bantered and flirted with barista buddy as they placed their orders. the last woman, however, got right down to business and told him EXACTLY what she wanted.

"give me a latte with nonfat milk and one bean."
"one bean?" barista buddy asked.
"yeah, nonfat milk and one bean."
"so...you want steamed nonfat milk..."
"yes! i want steamed nonfat milk and ONE BEAN!" she was getting pissy.
"one bean!" her friends chimed in behind her and started laughing.
"all right," barista buddy took their money and began making their lattes.

the first three women took their drinks with no complaints. the fourth woman took a sip and frowned.

"this tastes like milk!" she spat. "i wanted a latte with one bean!"
"that's what i made you," barista buddy responded with an evil grin. "i steamed nonfat milk and put one bean it."

sure enough, barista buddy dropped a solitary espresso bean into her milk when making her drink.

"no! you're supposed to crush up one bean instead of a bunch of them! that's how all the other starbucks do it!" she bitched.
"ma'am i made your drink EXACTLY how your ordered it." he shot back.

the woman bitched some more while her friends laughed uncontrollably. hopefully she learned her lesson but most likely she'll continue to order a "one bean latte".

barista rant: i understand you were looking to purchase a gift for a friend, but did you really need to take all the product off our shelves and put them on your table while you decided between the different mugs? not only did you spend ten minutes hogging the merchandise, but once you made your decision you left the remaining products on the table without putting them back on display. in what world is this behaviour ok?!?

10 comments:

Thy said...

one bean. wow.

you should have put in TWO to see if she would even notice.

pseudostoops said...

I'm always amazed at these stories of people who want something really obscure and strange, but don't even know how to articulate their weird special order properly.

Pearl said...

One bean? So...why not just have milk then?

As for the world, it's the Wonderful World of Entitlementland!

SkippyMom said...

I love reading your blog and I thought I had heard it all...but one bean? ONE bean, crushed up? What is that?
I sit here, incredulous, that someone has the gall to order something SO STUPID and be a shrew about it in the process....good lord with all the choices at 'bux you would think she could order something [at least close to] normal.
I guess it is what this world is coming to - the sense of entitlement and "Look at me and how special I am" Jeesh....
Good for your pal for standing up to her - the dumb twit [customer]

Will said...

God, that stupid girl likes an audience doesn't she ?

What an arrogant show off.

Anonymous said...

I discovered your blog and few days ago. It was so interesting, I read practically nonstop until I caught up. I'm a (low maintenance) Starbuck's junkie, so it's been fun to get a behind-the-scenes look at all the coffe drama. Who knew?!?!

Cup said...

Your fellow brat is my hero of the day.

Harry the Hire said...

that reminded me in a way of John Belushi in the Blues Brothers ordering four fried chickens and coke from Aretha Franklin

mellowlee said...

Holy hell, that lady needs to get a life! She gives coffee lovers a bad name. Yay to the barista buddy. I think he handled that beautifully!

barista brat said...

thy v. - haha, then she might have thought it was perfect!

pseudostoops - you've described one third of my customers.

benny - i undertand why you're having trouble sleeping, haha. any more nightmares?

pearl - see, that's what any SANE person would do.

skippymom - i was exceptionally proud of him, haha.

ben - a part of me thinks she ordered it like that just to be able to have a confrontation.

anonymous - thanks for the comment!

beth - mine too!

lighterate - i'm going to have to check that one out. i've never seen it.

mellowlee - he did, didn't he!