I saw this comment on Instagram under a post about a barista asking clarifying questions when a customer orders just a regular coffee. I've seen this type of discussion on here before and I noticed a lot of responses said that they would just give the customer a cold brew and giving anything else makes you a bad barista (which I don't agree with).
I always ask clarifying questions when this happens because I find a lot of people want lattes, cappuccino, drip, etc. and believe that their order is the norm. I found it interesting that the comment says that asking these questions means you are bad with customers and I completely disagree with that but it seems Instagram agrees with them lol.
Of course, the "regular coffee" also depends on where you are located in the world so I'm interested to hear where you are located and what your mind goes to when you hear that order.
by flextape1O1
34 Comments
When someone says they just want a coffee I’m fully prepared to rip out their oesophagus and use it as a skipping rope. Just specify. There’s a menu right in front of you.
Australia. Probably a lava hot 12oz skinny flat white with two sugars.
Started in NZ but now in Aus. When someone asks for a “regular coffee” I default to responding “flat white?” And I’d say 8/10 times thats what they want. Of the rest, the overwhelming majority have just forgotten to say what coffee they want and specify straight away, the rest are confused (presumably) Americans who dont know that drip coffee isnt really a thing here, but im always happy to explain and recommend something.
I would argue that the real bad customer service is just guessing what people want instead of making sure they get what theyre after.
I am in america just to put in perspective and most people who come in and order a regular coffee don’t actually know what they want.
I’ve asked a customer before if they wanted a milky drink or like a black coffee and they yelled at me saying “OF COURSE I WANT MILK IN MY COFFEE”…
Most of the time people just want an americano or drip though
12 oz drip coffee with room.
American here, I’d assume drip coffee but I also verify that they want a drip coffee
In the USA I usually assume drip. But I always ask because we also get a lot of tourists who actually mean lattes or flat whites. I also disagree with the comment, everyone’s definition of a “regular” coffee can be different and you don’t want to have to remake something or have someone leave unsatisfied. I try not to explain with too many words too many coffee drinks, I ask if they would like a drip first – and if it’s not that then they may ask me about milk, and about steaming it or specify how much and then I can discern from there was it means.
American, I have to verify. Too many people think “just a coffee” is actually an oat milk vanilla latte. If they order black coffee, I have to ask if they want cream. It’s a 50/50 whether they look at me like I’m stupid bc “I said BLACK, obviously I don’t want cream!” or “of COURSE I want cream, why wouldn’t I???” I get that some terms aren’t widely known but I still can’t imagine ordering something regularly without ever actually knowing what it is.
Edit: typo 50/59 instead of 50/50
from the UK, 9/10 they want an americano with cold milk (sometimes hot) but occasionally they really want any other drink, it’s hard to know
I actually had this discussion over on r/kitchenconfidential last month. Infuriating
https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/s/QbsaRXjqZs
Edit: changed link to just my comment thread for easier reading
Drip coffee isn’t common here in the UK. I usually ask them what sort of coffee they want, which usually gets the response of ‘just a black coffee’, so I put through an americano.
Sometimes they just look completely lost, and I walk them through what each type is. I enjoy those conversations – they usually appreciate knowing, and I get to talk about coffee haha
My customers actually expect me to remember their specific order. Once had a guy come to a small shop that I worked at on the weekends only and tell me yeah I’ll just have my usual.
New Yorker here. Here, regular means with milk and sugar. My understanding is in other parts of the USA it means black. When I drink shitty bodega coffee which sometimes really hits the spot, I order a small light and sweet which is extra milk and extra sugar. But if anyone were to ask me to get them a coffee, I’d just assume they want it regular. If you want black, you’d better say it. And we don’t even have to ask for “coffee”. It’s just lemme get a small regular. Usually a buck or buck and a half.
Never heard of that here (Greece). There’s not a “standard” coffee, you have to specify. I think if someone went to a café and said they want a “regular coffee” they’d get some looks from the other customers and the barista would list a few types of coffee.
My cafe has drip, cold brew, and espresso drinks so if they say regular they get drip. However, I’m in New England so I have to specify if they want cream and sugar (a Dunks regular) or just black
Back in the olden days when coffee meant drip coffee a regular meant “with cream and sugar” in some places and “just drip coffee with nothing added” in other places. (This was in the US.)
In WI in the US, it’s a medium-dark roast drip coffee with SUPER traditional tasting notes. The Midwest old timers don’t want anything fun or fruity lol
The bane of my life.
“I want a coffee”
“Ok, what coffee?”
-blank stare-
” Is that an Americano, latte, cappuccino, mocha, flat white?”
“Just a regular coffee”
“Ok, an Americano”
“No. I want a latte”
*Me internally screaming*
This is a good chunk of my experience. Sometimes they do mean Americano when they say they want just a coffee.
But I wish they knew what they were ordering and what the drinks actually are.
One order – a cappuccino and a hot chocolate. Both look completely different. I made the order, put it on the tray, called it out. Customers come and go yeah that’s mine, which one is which. Like, how can you not know? One looks like chocolate for starters. The amount of common sense people lack astounds me. I always think nothing can surprise me anymore but every so often, something else does.
Fuck when did we have to read minds?
In Canada, a “regular” is a drip coffee with one cream and one sugar. That was popularized by Tim Hortons, which serves primarily drip coffee and always puts cream + sugar in for the customer, so there’s shorthand for common orders. “Regular” is one cream one sugar”, “Double-double” is two and two, and “triple-triple” is three and three. Since Tim Hortons is such a widespread brand, people use that lingo basically everywhere. If you want a black coffee you have to specifically order black coffee, you can’t just say “regular”.
As someone who is not a barista but has worked customer service for 15 years, I’m over trying to get customers to communicate effectively. I swear you couldn’t waterboard what they want out of them. People are getting so lazy that they would rather assume you’re a mind reader than actually communicate properly and tell you explicitly what they want. The general public loses more and more social skills every year, and it’s depressing AF.
Here in NorCal if someone ordered a “normal coffee” we’d give them a drip coffee made from our tower brewer.
Where i’m from, when someone walks in saying “one coffee please”, it’s almost always an espresso. I couldn’t care less if i’m “not good at handling customers”, i will ask you to specify exactly what you want because i’m not going to argue with grown adults about what “normal coffee” means for them. Tell me what you want and that’s what i will make, i’m here to do my job, not to read your mind
uk. it means an americano with our customers and thankfully we dont get many problems
im in the uk, i just ask what kind of coffee they want, usually i’ll prompt with ‘so did you want an americano with milk?’ and honestly, 90% of the time, they want a latte or flat white.
American, I have to verify. Not only do many people have no idea how to order coffee (like people thinking a mocha is just another word for a basic latte, or that black is just a word to say when you talk about drip coffee instead of meaning drip coffee with nothing added) but also many old people forget they need decaf, not regular coffee. I’ve had to repour becuase I ask “regular or decaf?” and even though they just yell regular over and over at me they eventually realize. “Oh yeah no I needed decaf I didn’t hear you”. Sucks because the clarifying questions I ask annoy people but then I give them literally what they asked for and they get mad because it isn’t more particular to what they wanted. We have regular/decaf, iced/hot, here/to go, with/without cream, small/medium/large.
Damned if you do damned if you don’t.
theres a lot of follow up questions when someone orders a regular coffee, at my coffee shop atleast. hot or iced, black or with milk, and then you go from there. usually if people wont clarify its a drip coffee or cold brew.
I always ask clarifying questions. On every drink. Even when someone says black coffee. I can’t tell you how many times someone has ordered “black coffee with sugar” or “black coffee with cream”. *Sir* or *Ma’am* THAT AIN’T BLACK COFFEE 🫠
I used to tell customers “oh, sorry, we’re all out of regular, what would you like instead?” And if they said “you’re out of drip coffee?” I’d say “oh, that we have! What size?” I don’t think they Got The Point, but it made me feel better.
Helping the customer identify what drink they want so they can order correctly in the future does not mean you’re bad at customer service. What an idiotic take.
In England we usually say an Americano. But we always ask for confirmation first because people’s idea of a “regular coffee” is skewed depending on the person. Some bits think a flat white is your bog standard, or a cappuccino.
So at my past two cafe jobs I’ve always said “is that an Americano, or a cappuccino, or something else?” and if they go “what?” I just question “do you want the coffee filled with water or hot milk?” and then further the question if they reply milk.
I’m in the UK and I just confirm an Americano. They add their own milk in so then it’s up to them whether they leave it black or not.
the comment isnt saying clarifying with customers what they want is bad customer service, they’re saying this person clearly doesn’t know the different drinks and just saying ‘do you want a cappuccino?? do you want a latte?’ throwing out names like this isn’t going to help but someone who asks filtering questions, something like ‘do you want an espresso with a little milk or an espresso with a lot of milk?’ is someone who is good at helping customers. not saying you’re bad baristas, just that good service is sometimes troubleshooting the customer
Usually when someone comes up to me and says they want a regular coffee it just means drip coffee. But sometimes i ask if they want hot or iced just to confirm it.