Baristas have an interesting job of having to create very intricate and delicate caffeinated drinks for the masses as they commute to and from work.
Unfortunately, that job comes with some really gross after-effects.
People are weird.
They have very specific and somewhat repulsive requests.
And then you have to make those things. You have to stomach it all.
Redditor Chodanmatt asked:
"Baristas, what is the weirdest/grossest drink you've seen someone order?"
Here were some of those answers.
Sugar Bomb
"I once had a customer ask for a extra caramel Frappuccino and to make him 'regret asking for so much caramel"'
"I put in 15 pumps each of the regular caramel sauce and dark caramel sauce as well as covering the entire inside of the cup in drizzle"
"He left the store and then came back in a few minutes later to tell me that was the best drink he's ever had"
– sorgte
Pure Unadulterated Chocolate
"I don't know if anyone remembers, but for a hot minute Starbucks had a thing called Chantico, which was marketed as a 'drinking chocolate.' It was basically a cup of melted chocolate, the consistency of thinned brownie batter, meant to be drunk in 4 oz cups exclusively."
"A woman came in and ordered a Grande."
"She miraculously survived and came back the next day and ordered a Venti."
"I still don't know how she choked it down."
– not-jimmy
Expensive AND Gross
"I had a guy hand me his own mug and I kid you not - ordered a vanilla late with 12 shots of espresso."
"Actually I clearly remember him saying 17 shots but everyone else was like 'oh he usually just gets 10!' So I say 12 now to be on the safe side."
"His drink was like $21 and mostly just espresso with a little milk and syrup. He also told me he'd been trying to cut down on caffeine lately."
– DefNotUnderrated
Heat Palpitations
"Not a barista but was a regular at a coffee shop near a halfway house. A guy would frequently come in and order a red eye with 10 shots of espresso. He claimed it helped keep him off the harder drugs."
– arrrdrrr
Not What I Ordered, But Cool
"Not gross but just funny that always makes me laugh. One time someone ordered a cold hot chocolate. Halfway through me making it i realized i was just making chocolate milk. So i added some vanilla syrup and whip cream and he was very happy with it lol."
– lilmilly
Hint Of A Hint
"Former barista here- I remember clearly 2 years ago a lady wanted a latte with Splenda. However, she didn't actually want Splenda in the latte. She wanted me to open the packet near her latte so that she could get only a 'hint' of Splenda."
– Jenniferbeach
Weird Flex But Ok
"When I was a barista, several middle aged men who were regulars would insist on hot coffee. They would loudly and frequently proclaim the coffee they order, in general, is never hot enough. I guess they wanted to emphasize their pain threshold to me, an 18 year old girl who just wanted to go home and watch tv."
"It's difficult to make very hot coffee without burning the milk. But often they'd order black coffee and I'd literally give them boiling water and they'd say it wasn't hot enough. If I made it hotter, it would convert the liquid state to a gaseous form and evaporate. Then they'd talk about their Lexus or something for awhile. I never saw them drink it, so I guess they'd leave, wait for it to cool down, and then drink it. Weirdest courting ritual I've ever experienced."
– manlikerealities
Large And In Charge
"In the 7 years I've been in the fast coffee industry, I'll always come back to one drink."
"A nonfat (lol) caramel Frappuccino with an entire 16oz bottle of caramel drizzle in it, plus 10 pumps of peppermint syrup. Topped with whip and...you guessed it; more caramel."
"Oh, and she wanted two large sized ones. Every day. 6am sharp."
– SgtColeslaw
Two Completely Different Tastes
"A mocha frappuccino with coke, sprite, and strawberry syrup added. When informed we were out of strawberry, they settled for grape as a substitute."
– Saxy_Toast
But Like...Coffee?
"Former Dunkin barista. I had a few people order iced coffees with so much liquid sugar that the cup was 3/4 full before adding the coffee."
"I'm not sure if this qualifies as "weird" rather than just pants on head stupid- but I once had a vapid college girl order an iced latte 'but like, with no coffee'. I explained what that would be, and she said that was okay."
"We had no way to charge for that other than just charging her for the full latte, so the girl happily paid $4 for a 16oz cup of milk and ice."
– Chazkuangshi
Cutting Back On The Jolt
"This is basically my husband. Just today he got a dark roast with 9 shots of espresso and 4 pumps of white mocha. He usually does 10-12 shots but cut down today lol"
– JustOnePack
Toxic Sweetness
"They called it a sugar bomb, a vanilla bean Frappuccino with 10 scoops of vanilla bean powder (usually 4 in a venti) 10 pumps of vanilla syrup, 2 extra pumps of frapp base syrup, made with heavy whip, finished with whipped cream and strawberry purée on bottom and top. Made us all gag."
– TinyTinasRabidOtter
"Grossest By Far"
"I used to work as a barista at a museum, and sometimes it was just the kind of person who would order a drink that struck me as weird. Like it's been a year but I still remember the middle school boy who asked me for a medium americano. I was like... okay... bc i don't think i would have known what that was at his age."
"but grossest by far was the lady who asked us to make her a blue raspberry latte with our soda syrups."
– newboyjulen
Espresso Yo'self
"When I was in college, I worked at a company that had an fancy coffee machine that made espressos. I hadn’t had expresso before so I tried one. It was great. So I filled my entire 16 oz coffee mug with expressos and drank the whole thing in like 15 minutes. I was fine for about a half hour until I started shaking and sweating uncontrollably. Good times."
– cb789cb
A Hack Concoction
"A grande java chip frappuccino with 4 scoops of matcha was my weird one. It turned out to be a Frankenstein frappuccino hack but still, really weird."
– StickyNoteMurdercat
Condensed Goodness
"Large iced pumpkin spice latte with no ice and heavy cream instead of milk. That’s about 22 oz of pure heavy cream."
– AnemoneOfMyEnemy
Lethal Dose
"This lady order 8 double shots of espresso. I thought that was crazy and that it must have been a mix-up on the machine but I still did eight regular shots of espresso. This lady came up and yelled at me for messing up her coffee. So effectively she wanted 16 shots of espresso. I don't even know if I'm allowed to give that much"
– NibbaHunta
Deep Regrets
"I once asked for a white chocolate/kiwi latte. Regretted that."
– Spidertiger86
More Like A Smoothie
"I once had a woman order a banana steamed into milk. I will repeat that. A banana. Steamed into milk."
– bbboozay
Now You've Heard Everything
"A semi-regular used to always order a black coffee and ask for a packet of butter to stir into it."
"I learned later that this is a thing that some people actually do instead of adding cream and I guess to give it a little froth. No thanks."
– annersiaxolotl
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