CoffeeForums Coffee Facts

Q: Ok, I live in Seattle and people that are NW natives think coffee/Espresso is some magic elixir that must add years to your life, increase your bra size and/or make your pecker 5" bigger the way they fiend for the stuff. I drink ONE cup of coffee AT HOME in the morning when I wake up, thats it. So whenever I go to a coffee place to do some wifi with my laptop I buy a non-coffee/Espresso drink, like a bottled Coke or some juice, or some kind of pastry. Other times, I just go in and buy the newspaper since a lot of the time the newspaper boxes, along the streets, are sold out. Every time I take my non-coffee purchases to the counter, lay them onto said counter and prepare to pay for them, I still get some permutation of "What kind of drink can I get started for you?" Do they NOT notice the freaking drink on the counter there before them? If I wanted to drink some coffee/Espresso I would have told THEM to make me one! They should be glad enough that I am paying them for what I get.

A: Well, speaking from the perspective of a barista, I do not think it is wrong to assume that most people come in coffee shops for coffee/Espresso drinks. It almost becomes second nature to ask: "What drink can I get started for you?" I probably ask that question just about as much as "How's it going?" or "What's new?" Also, I cannot count how many times I have asked customers if they wanted room for cream when they ordered a BLACK coffee or other silly things like that. I think that is great that you make your own coffee at home, and even better that you are satisfied with one cup a day. Props to you. I do not think it is strange for you to buy items such as the newspaper, or a pastry and not a coffee, or Espresso. I am sure many people can relate. We have all done that at some point. I am sorry if the baristas were not polite. It seems you are pretty worked up about it. You are a paying customer no matter what you get and deserve to be treated as such, but I would also like to add that baristas are human beings too. We all have bad days, and sometimes the questions we ask such as "What kind of drink can I get started for you?", just become second nature with the job. Are you that critical and over-analytical about it? I think maybe you should write a little editorial and send it in to that newspaper that you purchase whenever you're in a coffee shop. They'll enjoy your little rant. Go to a convience store and purchase your coke - I'm sure that there is some place other than the coffee shop where you can purchase a soda and a newspaper if you have that much rage about the subject.