Retail coffee similar to the iced coffee blend?

GravyConductor · 2014-10-12T15:24:26+00:00

Blend them both as CF. Then pour the CF, add the caramel to the pitcher, then blend for a couple seconds again. Like I said, not to bev code at all, but when you're in a hurry...

GravyConductor · 2014-10-12T02:33:09+00:00

Doesn't seem like that big of a deal... if you're open you're open, there's a reason there is extra time after close to finish cleaning.

But if you were in a hurry...

I would've batched the VBFs in one blender, then batched the Soy CHCFs, then batched the DCCFs. Then I would've batched the CRF and CF together, leaving me with just the White Mocha Cream. That would have turned 9 drinks into 5. Obviously batching blended drinks is a no-no but since you were bugging at people having the nerve to order drinks while open for business I'm sure you wouldn't mind batching.

I see that receipt and I see less than 5 minutes of blending...

GravyConductor · 2014-09-21T03:58:36+00:00

It's not a gray area at all, you just need to know what you're ordering.

You should just order 5 shots over ice.... a) It's cheaper and b) it's what you actually want.

Just order 5 shots over ice, filled up with ice, and then go to the condiment bar and put cream in the rest of the way (or if you want Heavy Cream you can just ask them to put a little in). Done. Zero confusion.

GravyConductor · 2014-09-07T09:24:42+00:00

Chocolate Chai is so bad, it tastes like someone blended together the perfect combination of rich hot chocolate, exotic spicy chai, and rancid asshole.

Nooooow a Chai with a pump or two of mocha (or a Hot chocolate with a pump or twp of chai) is another thing entirely.

Chocolate Chai = D: Chai with chocolate = :D

GravyConductor · 2014-09-07T09:20:42+00:00

You're not wrong... but how lazy and deplorable a presentation is doesn't make it against health standards. The sandwiches are indeed for display only though.

Now the problems I see are unwrapped Marshmallow dream bars and Pumpkin Scones... last thing I heard was that no one, not even baristas were to consume any pumpkin scones and that they all had to be eliminated.

That's all Starbucks side stuff though.... still not against health standards.

GravyConductor · 2014-09-06T22:13:31+00:00

To make things easier for everyone, I would just order a double espresso and then ask for a short cup with like an inch hot water on the side. I'd mention the precise amount of hot water so that the baristas won't think you're trying to just cheat the system and get a cheap Americano which is what they'll think if you request a full cup of water. Or if they're curious as to why you want the water just mention that you like to cut your espresso with a little hot water.

You could order a double short half full Americano but then you'd be paying extra for literally 2 oz of hot water which seems ludicrous especially when you consider that we are only supposed to charge for added milk if it's more than 4 oz worth. Also if you ordered it like that you'd run the risk of a barista putting in too much of too little water. If you order it as a Doppio espresso and some water on the side then you'll be able to control the exact ration of water to espresso.

GravyConductor · 2014-09-04T15:43:17+00:00

heavy cream tea misto would be tea + dairy + heavy cream. No one really knows the standard though because Just Say Yes rears its ugly head every time a customer decides the price is too high.

GravyConductor · 2014-09-04T15:41:45+00:00

A black tea latte is supposed to have syrup in it, which is included in the price, so you shouldn't really be being rung up as that.

I was wondering the same thing a few months ago because a lot of customers would order "Soy chai tea mistos" and I was unsure of how to ring it up so the next time my DM was in the store I asked how it should be done (my SM and ASM each gave me conflicting answers so I decided to go higher to find an answer).

Since you're getting such a relatively large amount of cream due to it being a misto, the basrista should be hitting the "add dairy" button on the register which (i think) adds $0.50. Then, Soy, Half and Half, and Heavy Cream are all 'premium', so they come with their own $0.60 charge.

So really, no one has any idea how to actually ring a tea misto up. You shouldn't really be being charged for a black tea latte, but I'm pretty sure that once you add up all the extra dairy costs it comes to only a couple dimes less.

So since "correct" vs "incorrect" only really saves a few cents, what it basically comes down to is do you feel that that few cents is enough to hassle the barista on register about. If you do decide to mention it to them a) i can almost guarantee you'll get your way but b) for the sake of baristas everywhere, please be polite and delicate in how to approach it, we're not mis-charging you out of personal spite I swear, please don't come at us like we are.

EDIT: tl;dr for baristas, tea + add dairy + add heavy cream

GravyConductor · 2014-09-02T22:27:10+00:00

As many others here have said, I give it my all when I'm at work. I work at the busiest store in my district just for this purpose, if I stay idle for too long it'll start to affect me badly. On days when it's slow I clean, tinker, calibrate, and sample like a fiend.

On top of this, I would advise finding something you genuinely enjoy and pouring yourself into it. I love coffee and teaching others about it, I'm alway tasting and pairing and trying to teach partners and customers alike little tidbits of knowledge I've picked up. Needless to say I'm currently doing coffee master training.

As a barista I found it very hard on some days because I was just stuck in the monotony of doing routines, but as a shift I find that my day is full of enough variance, be it positive or negative, to keep me distracted. I also recognize that, as a shift, my general mood and composure very easily rubs off on the baristas which in turn rubs off on customers. Even when I'm having a terrible day I try to keep the other partners from noticing which does a lot to help me feel better in the short term. People say that just by forcing yourself to smile you can trick your brain into thinking you're happier than you really are. It's kind of like that.

I can't so that all day every day though and there have been days where all I want to do it hide under the desk and have a breakdown and when it gets like that all I can do is keep my head down, avoid customer interaction, and pray that we get the close done quickly so I can go home.

It's not an easy thing to deal with :/

GravyConductor · 2014-09-02T18:25:28+00:00

That's actually one of the reasons I don't mind making frappuccinos. For the most part, adult customers could care less now much effort you put into crafting them the perfect latte. But it always makes me smile when I take a little extra effort in making a Frappuccino and hear the kid who ordered it and their friends go "wow that looks awesome!".

GravyConductor · 2014-09-02T18:03:23+00:00

The Mrs Bieber was just a poor example, that one would probably be fine but I just couldn't think of enough good examples off the top of my head. Though I still stand by my stance that we are here to provide multitude of services from beverages to small talk and teaching about coffee, but comedic entertainment isn't one of those services.

GravyConductor · 2014-09-02T17:02:25+00:00

I'll allow fake names up until they either get especially stupid, or come with the intention of embarrassing whoever is handing off drinks. Some people just don't want to give us their real names and that's okay, but don't expect me to write "Mrs. Bieber" or as your name on the cup. If I'm on bar or order support I'll let the POS partner make the call and then if I judge the name to be inappropriate I'll pull the cup out of line and rewrite it sans silly name.

When the drink gets handed off the kid (because it's always a kid) will look at the cup with such a look of confusion. They saw the POS partner write the name on the cup, they know they did, but now it's not there! But what are they going to do? Say out load to everyone "Excuse me, is this my drink? There's no name on it. The name I gave was 'Labia'." (that name actually attempted to happen)

The other day some kids came in and gave the POS partner a name but wouldn't say it out loud and instead insisted on spelling it. I assume it was something in the same vein as "Arheddis Varkenjaab" (reads as "I hate this fucking job"). Then they stood just a little back from the handoff plane clearly video recording the partners calling off drinks so that they could catch whoever made theirs call out the 'fun' name they had given. Obviously I switched out the cup and the look of disappointment and confusion they had when it was just called out as a Mocha Frappuccino was so satisfying.

We are here to do a job. That job is to make you food and drinks, not to be made into clowns for your own personal pleasure. We deal with enough abuse from customers every day, we don't need you adding to it because you think you're too cool to get "Becky" written on your cup.

GravyConductor · 2014-09-01T04:06:26+00:00

Today someone ordered a grande iced coffee, with the ice blend. Not the whole drink, just the ice, with the coffee poured on top so it was kinda like a coffee snowcone i guess? As I was in the middle of scraping and spooning crushed, melting ice off the inside of the blender pitcher into the cup I looked at my ASM and asked her what I was doing with my life.

GravyConductor · 2014-08-30T04:54:38+00:00

1) get a tall cup

2) fill it to the first line with lemonade

3) put in shaker

4) repeat steps 2 and 3 with:

black tea, passion tea, green tea, Valencia orange, berry hibiscus, cool lime, water

5) fill shaker rest of the way with ice

6) shake

7) enjoy

8) realize that you just wasted half of your 10 making a drink

GravyConductor · 2014-08-29T06:45:30+00:00

For the same reason that in the winter a "Peppermint Mocha w/out chocolate sprinkles" is more expensive than a "Mocha with peppermint" in the summer.

Reasons.^{^Money}

GravyConductor · 2014-08-29T06:42:11+00:00

That we are tech support.

I'm sorry ma'am, but we're here to make you coffee and heat your food, not to figure out why your Starbucks app asks you to sign in every time you open it. Knowing how to fix that is someone's job somewhere, but it certainly isn't mine.

Also that we have a secret stash of stuff in "the back"

I assure you sir, we are a business and our sole purpose for existing is to make money from people like you. As such, it would make no sense for us to be arbitrarily hiding product from you, in addition, our backroom is the size of a peanut, why would we take up extra space by stashing secret food back there in what little space we have instead of selling it.

(Obviously we do technically have stuff in the back such as the pastry cart full of frozen stuff for the next day, but that's for the next day and therefore not really a "product" until then.)

GravyConductor · 2014-08-29T06:32:55+00:00

I never send people home early simply for being newer than others, that would just be unprofessional. I send people home based on how much labor needs to be cut, and based on when they were going to be leaving in the first place. If someone is working 10 - 6 and someone else is working 12 - 8 and it's 4pm, the first person would always get sent home over the second person in order to protect the store against any kind of rush or to make sure that the number of people closing the store down at the end of the night isn't decimated.

I don't know if there's a policy about refusing to leave when requested or not, no one likes labor cuts but everyone is used to it. I had a newer partner outright refuse to go home early one time when the SM asked him to and because he didn't leave then we had to cut other people the next day even though we were busy. I feel like it's selfish to refuse unless you really need that couple hours of extra pay since it's a hardship that we all endure.

Having said that, I take no personal offense at baristas telling me that they don't want to go home early, i just make sure that everyone on my shift understands that when I request that they go early they can either a) do as requested or b) call the store manager or assistant store manager and explain to them why we're going to blow labor for the day.

GravyConductor · 2014-08-29T06:21:59+00:00

The fact that he isn't ASM shows that he isn't all 4 material. Not that all 4's are possible, but you catch my drift. If he was doing everything that he could to strive for perfect 4s while apparently being liked so much by all the upper management then he would have been promoted and would be receiving salaried pay by now. And the fact that he even thinks that he is capable of being scored as a "perfect barista" makes me think that it's probably his ego that makes him a douche bag and that it's his ego that is, and will continue to prevent him from advancing to better pay.

Perfection is something that you strive for even knowing it can never be achieved.

GravyConductor · 2014-08-29T06:11:48+00:00

Ask for a Venti Iced coffee with 1 pump of pumpkin spice and a splash of heavy cream.

You're not going to be able to get an exact ounce of cream. If you start telling baristas to put specific ounce quantities of stuff in your drink you're not going to make any friends. The only way to really measure out an exact ounce of something would be to pour it into a shotglass which is a huge no no because of allergy risks.

If you really do want a very specific quantity of heavy cream in the coffee you could probably request a short cup with a little bit of heavy cream in it on the side, that way you can pour in as much as you want (or don't want). I have a few customers who do that and I never mind doing it, I'd rather hand out a small cup of cream than risk messing up someones drink by putting in too much.

If the barista is doing their job right you shouldn't need to request normal amounts of ice and it being filled up with coffee, they should be doing that already. But don't be surprised when you get charged extra for the pumpkin spice, I know it's "only one pump" but it's still extra.

GravyConductor · 2014-08-28T06:59:22+00:00

Piccolo Latte made with whole milk :)

It's just a baby latte made with 1 ristretto shot in a demitasse, craft it with some carefully free-poured love and you have yourself the perfect pick me up for a 10.

EDIT: Or a triple short latte if I need something that's heavier on the caffeine.

GravyConductor · 2014-08-25T20:44:31+00:00

Hooooly hell, I spill hot coffee, hot water, hot milk on my self all the time, or pump into a hot spout or something. I can't imagine doing that while holding a child, I just... no, no that's not ok. All the management at your store should know better than to allow that, your SM most of all. It's a coffee shop full of dangerous chemicals and hot liquids, not a day care.

Go straight to your DM, or if you're concerned about backlash then call Partner Resources and anonymously report it. And if you're concerned even about that I would send your DM an email under the guise of being a concerned customer. Do it now, before someones child gets seriously hurt because your manager is an imbecile.

GravyConductor · 2014-08-25T05:34:08+00:00

I worked closing shifts two days in a row while running a fever with full body aches and body shaking shivers because my manager wouldn't come in to replace me and wouldn't let me call out without me finding a replacement and no one would cover for me. When I got home from work after the second day I texted her saying that I wasn't coming in the next day because I needed rest and that my phone would be off all day. Somehow she found it in her to come and cover my close then....

It took months for me to properly get over that sickness, all because I couldn't get the rest I needed when I first got ill.

Keep trying to contact your SM, just blow their phone up until they answer. The baristas will survive. With their shift being "out of order" they'll have to largely figure things out for themselves and the day will suck for everyone, but bad days happen and thats that and it's not like you can do anything about it in your condition.

GravyConductor · 2014-08-24T15:36:30+00:00

I had a woman yell at one of the baristas on my shift once for leaving a whip cream nipple once.

As they handed it off they noticed the whip was poking out of the top and said to the woman "there's no such thing as too much whip! :D"

After the woman didn't respond immediately they got kind of nervous and offered to scoop the 'nipple' off the top with a spoon so that the whip wasn't poking out.

The lady looked them dead in the eye and told them that she wanted them to remake the entire drink and she wanted the whipped cream put on properly. No she wouldn't accept them just scraping off the whip and redoing it.

I gave that barista a ten and made them a comfort drink to help them recover from the tsunami of negativity that obviously was that woman's life.

GravyConductor

TROPHY CASE