Ordering Coffee At Starbucks
The sight of a bustling Starbucks in the morning, drive-through lines ten cars deep, people inside tapping their toes impatiently as the espresso machines whir, is enough to overwhelm even the most advanced coffee drinker. When it’s finally your turn at the counter, you freeze; there are just too many options, and the lady behind you is getting pushy! Ordering coffee at Starbucks can be challenging, however, knowing the lingo and understanding your basic options will make you more comfortable when that barista finally takes your order.
First, we must break down the Starbucks menu into groups to help categorize available drinks. To first separate the beverages, we should look at what coffee drinkers really care about…is there caffeine in it, or not? While most of us know that any coffee drink can be ordered with decaf coffee or espresso, some people fail to realize that Starbucks offers drinks that actually have no coffee or coffee products in them. While this is good for children or people who do not like coffee, a Starbucks novice who really wants a coffee drink may order a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino not realizing that it’s just vanilla beans and cream mixed with ice! Coffee products are: brewed coffees, iced and hot espresso drinks such as cappuccinos, mochas, lattes, and macchiatos, and frappuccino light or regular blended coffees. Tea products will also have caffeine, including chai tea which is commonly made into a chai tea latte. Products offering no coffee are: flavored hot chocolate drinks, any créme drink such as the vanilla créme or pumpkin spice créme, frappuccino juice blends, and frappuccino créme drinks as well. Now, many of these names sound similar, so be sure to read the menu carefully if you are confused about a pumpkin spice créme versus a pumpkin spice latte (the latte is the one with the espresso!).
As we have the Italians to thank for introducing drinks such as the latte, it is only fair that we learn proper pronunciation of Starbucks beverage names to give credit where credit is due. To begin any order however, you must first specify size. The sizing has also apparently been borrowed from the Italians, as the options are tall, grande, or venti instead of small, medium, and large. Grande, the 16 ounce drink, is pronounced with a sharp A at the end: grond A. Venti, the 20 ounce drink, is said vent E. Once the sizing is understood, we may move on to the drinks. The latte, a popular choice, is pronounced “lott A.” For effect, sometimes a word like dolce is added to a drink name, like the cinnamon dolce latte. Dolce is pronounced dol chA. Two other drinks that are a bit challenging as well are the caf