Comments on: How to order a complicated drink at Starbucks

on 5/18/2008 yea, i hear you. especially now that sumer is getting closer, people are more likely to just assume that you're going to make their drink iced. my general rule on that is if it's a day where you would get the drink iced, just ask them if they want it that way. even if they were planning on getting it hot, you can just treat it as an opportunity to encourage them to try something new.

here's a trick to try for keeping the drink in your head as they order: visualize the drink, rather than what it's called. The way memory works, we remember things best when we immediately work with and process the information that we've just received. So instead of thinking "triple venti vanilla soy 140' chai" visualize a venti cup with five pumps of vanilla, five of chai, three shots, hot water, and soy at 140'" I know that takes longer to write than just the plain old drink, but i'm pretty sure you can

on 5/18/2008 I'm a brand new barista and I knew a little about the call order before I got hired because I researched it. Something about the organization of it all I always liked. However, now that I work there and I work at a drive thru store I'm having issues with all drink recipes swirling around in my head and I have a tendency of calling drinks back to the customer the way they ordered them. I fix it when I call it at bar but I've had customers come in start rattling that they want a caramel macchiato, with extra caramel, half and half, extra vanilla, with whip, an extra shot and after I'm done marking the cup and getting the drink made they go "oh I wanted it on ice." So that kind of bugs me in the whole environmental sense also because if they've ever ordered drinks at starbucks they know that if I grab a paper cup that it's for a hot drink and the clear plastic ones are for cold drinks. S