Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Baristas Share The Grossest Drinks They've Ever Seen People Order

Baristas Share The Grossest Drinks They've Ever Seen People Order
person pouring cup of coffee in white ceramic cup
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
Make us preferred on Google

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

Want to "know" more?

Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Chris Pratt attends the "Sin Piedad" (Mercy) photocall at Four Seasons Hotel on January 09, 2026 in Madrid, Spain.
Pablo Cuadra/Getty Images

A 2011 Chris Pratt Tweet Joke About 'Crooked' Cops Just Resurfaced—And Some Fans Think It Hasn't Aged Well

The internet never forgets, and Chris Pratt’s old tweets apparently aren’t exempt from the rule.

Fifteen years after the Parks and Recreation star shared a joke about the kind of police officer he’d be if acting hadn’t worked out, the post has resurfaced on Reddit—and it’s getting a decidedly mixed reception.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ashley St. Clair (left) says she rejected a $40 million NDA involving Elon Musk (right) to speak out.
Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images; ALLISON ROBBERT/AFP via Getty Images

Elon Musk's Ex Reveals She Rejected $40 Million NDA For Powerful Reason—And People Are Applauding

$40 million can buy a lot of things, but Ashley St. Clair says it couldn’t buy her silence when it came to the father of her child.

The father in question? Elon Musk, the former trillionaire behind Tesla, SpaceX, and X. He’s also the subject of Alex Gibney’s nearly four-hour documentary, Musk.

Keep ReadingShow less
Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival

'South Park' Creators Announce They're Changing Show's Name To Troll Apple And Google—And We're Cackling

Fresh off winning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced that they're changing the name of the long-running show to "South America," effectively trolling Apple and Google for capitulating to President Donald Trump's renaming of Lake Ontario to "Lake America."

Trump recently made headlines for claiming, amid a trade war with Canada, that the United States was considering "changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don't expect to [be] doing much business with Ontario any longer."

Keep ReadingShow less
Bebe Rexha Calls Out 'Straight Men' In Her Comments Who Only Focus On Her Chest In Viral Post
John Nacion/WireImage

Bebe Rexha Calls Out 'Straight Men' In Her Comments Who Only Focus On Her Chest In Viral Post

Bebe Rexha may have just stumbled upon the next billion-dollar tech idea, and the target demographic is exclusively “girls and gays.”

The inspiration? Straight men in her comments who apparently can’t stop talking about her chest.

Keep ReadingShow less
Arthur Layne Lundeed
Arthur Layne Lundeen/LinkedIn; Richard Olenick/Instagram

Arizona Man Who Had To Be Duct-Taped To His Seat On Flight After Drunken Racist Meltdown Fired From His Job

An Arizona man who went viral for having to be duct taped to his airplane seat has lost his job following the incident.

Arthur Layne Lundeen, 67, had to be restrained on a recent American Airlines flight from Texas to New Jersey after he launched into a drunken, bigoted tirade at crew and passengers.

Keep ReadingShow less