Calling the shots at Starbucks - demystifying the lingua franca

My response to the recession has been to shift from my watering hole to the starbucks in the evenings, and unwind with a travel guide. Why a travel guide? It doesn't look quite as anti social as a sudoku book. Why Starbucks? Because actually it fits both a suit and a trucker, as long as they have that slightly alienated look about them that's de rigeur in these places. It also helped that at my previous job in Edmonton, the company condo I was staying in had a Starbucks around the corner. So over the last one year I went from a simple Timmy's Large double cream no sugar to a dizzying array of ordering options. Here's the benefit of all that research.

Coffee is not just coffee. You get various types. Do remember, if you're in a hurry, just say coffee or the Coffee of the Week, and you'll be in and out in no time. Anything else requires preparation so you'll have to wait after you place the order.

Tea is not just tea. You get various types, including a range of herbals, blends et al, some with lemonade even for the iced versions.
That's the entry level stuff.

Then you get Americano = espresso with water, Latte = espresso with steamed milk or Cafe Au Lait = coffee, not espresso with steamed milk. In Paris by the way, if you want an Americano the only place to get it would be Starbucks.

Lattes is by default coffee espressos, but they also have the chai (masala tea version) and the green tea (ugh) variants

You can decide how strong you want your espresso to be by asking for single, double, triple or quad.

Coffee and Espresso come in surprisingly tasty decaf versions. That's the real reason I switched because I've grown to love their decaf.

For the steamed milk the default is 2%, you can also request whole milk, organic, or soya. I've noticed that not all starbucks carries all of these options. You can also ask for half and half (the starbucks lingo for this is breve)

By default the lattes come with three layers espresso, steamed milk and foam.

You could also have your espresso with just whipped cream over it ... ask for Espresso Con Panna

Or just the foam ... ask for Espresso macchiato.

You can add chocolate syrup to any of the above by asking for mocha. There's also a white chocolate version if I'm not mistaken as I remember hearing others order this.

You can say "no foam" latte or flat white. Both skip the foam option. I say Flat White in one soundbite if it's a regular barista, and 'no foam' in a condescending tone if the barista is new to the place. Your choice.

About the difference between Cappuccino and Latte, the latte I noticed tastes milkier, and has less foam. I'm not sure but I think the shot sizes for the espresso must be smaller for the lattes. Next time I'm in Starbucks I need to figure this one out. Or you can have this as homework. If you like the stronger taste of cappuccino without paying for a half cup of foam, they do have what is called a short cappuccino which is not on the menu that comes with micro foam. It's also cheap at around two bucks.

The Frappuccino is the cappuccino with a sugar based syrup and crushed ice. I call it the smoothie version instead :) There's a bunch of options on the syrups including hazelnut, Cinnamon dolce etc ...

Oh before I forget, asking for extra hot automatically gets you the sleeve as well :)

Cheers!

Remember it's better for the environment to say for here and skip the foam container if you can.