We all get the one order that frustrates the hell out of us. Venti Pink Drink w/ no ice and Venti cup of ice is a great example of that. Or that blasted TikTok drink, but they never know how to make it. They just say “TikTok drink?” and expect the register to know what that is. Every night, my store gets bombarded by dozens of “medium iced white shakens, no crema” (Grande Iced White Mocha, no Whip). There’s so much to choose from, but that’s not what irks me, today.

One of our regulars comes in for her usual. A Venti Pike with Coconut milk and a Venti cup of ice. Then she proceeds to dump a third of the pike over the ice and hands the now melty iced puke back to handoff asking to be topped off with more coconut milk. When we’re in a rush, there’s no time to contest and one of our baristas will just comply. Then she does this about two or three more times throughout her stay in our store. And each time she struts away all smug as a bedbug feeling like she gamed the system, getting about three fills off one cup of coffee. She’s boasted about this to me on two separate occasions.

I’ve rung her up. I know she’s gold. I know damn well that she could just get an iced coffee with Coconut and get a couple of refills for the couple of hours she’s in our café. Hell, I’ll even pour her hot pike over ice if she’s that damned insistent. It’s just all the trouble she puts herself through to “avoid going back to the register” that gets to me.

So anyways, that’s what’s grinding my beans. In what ways have your customers tried to cheat the system that just drives you crazy? Or is it me that’s crazy? I don’t know man. I just don’t know.