I applied thinking I would only work here a year or less.

1. tried to multitask while making a cold brew drink and it went horribly. it was like a venti pumpkin cream cold brew so i put it under the keg and let it run and told myself i’d be back to turn it off before it went past the line. i overestimated my goldfish brain and forgot and it ran for THREE MINUTES. cold brew was everywhere and it was embarassing. now i can laugh at it but i will never let a cold brew drink out of my sight again.

2. accidentally made cold brew with frap roast.

just don’t trust me around cold brew lol

When I first got hired, I got an oatmeal order and I put every single topping inside of the oatmeal bowl lol. I remember my shift lead at the time telling the customer, “sorry she’s new & still learning,” it was mortifying 😂

the fucking dome lids on frappuccinos…… there have been multiple instances at my store where people (including me) are fighting these lids to try and get them on and the cup just *crumbles* under the weight/pressure and the contents spill *everywhere*.

1. I was making two double blended trenta mango dragonfruit refreshers for a regular during a rush that took a solid minute and a half just to put together, and then I went to pour it and was struggling to get it out of the blender. I shook it and tried again, and I guess I was overzealous (I was panicking and rushing since I was still new) because it flew straight out of the blender and covered my ASM.

2. My SM asked me to “move the brewed coffees and start a batch of dark.” For some reason my brain did not process what the hell she meant so I dumped all of the coffees and brewed like 4 batches of Dark. This was during peak. Someone ordered Pike and my SM was like “What ha… oh no.” Needless to say I was terrified of being asked to do anything with the brewed coffees for the next few shifts.

But the moral of the story is, as traumatic as those things were, I still have a job and have gotten pretty okay at it! I just started in September and feel like I’m doing okay. So don’t stress over the mistakes! You’re probably the only one who will remember them a month from now. Celebrate your successes!

I forgot to lock the door one night 🥲

1.) working at SB

2.) cleaning a died rat 🐀 out of the back of the mini fridge

3.) had a homeless guy fight the shift, then break the glass of front door with a ceramic tumblr. As I was cleaning up the broken ceramic and trying to stop people from coming through the door. It collapsed slicing my arm open🩸. So now I have a gnarly scar from it

Someone handed me a fifty and somehow my brain processed it as a twenty. Put it in the 20 box and gave them change as if it was a twenty. Had to get the shift to unlock it to check after the guy said something. Thank God the customer was sweet about it (he even tipped after all that)

Today I made the frap roast with hot water and last night I accidentally spilled coffee in the ice bin. God help me

* blending a double batch cold foam on 2 instead of 4 without a lid/with the shroud open

* brewing an entire batch of pike (that was for a traveler) onto the counter because I didn’t realize the urn tap was open

* making green tea and strawberry and cream fraps without classic for my first TWO MONTHS because nobody told me otherwise

* not noticing for an hour that somebody put the chai pump on the frap roast container and serving frap roast “chais” until somebody complained (technically not my fuck up but I probably should have noticed sooner)

* accidentally leaving a warming paper in the oven during peak and opening the door to an impressive amount of flames

* filling the dish sink and getting distracted and filling half of the back room floor with bubbles

* dropping FOUR TILLS on the ground after tripping over an open Hobart door. My first solo close as a baby SSV. It took me an hour to collect all the money and another hour to figure out how to balance everything

* managing to shut the safe door enough that it latched but not enough to disable the alarm and it going off long enough that the police showed up

* getting stuck in the bathroom for 45 minutes as the only key holder on duty because the doorknob broke off and we had to have the fire department get me out

* dropping an entire cube of mocha on the freshly mopped floors because a customers child threw a nerf ball at my head and it scared me. Somehow I dropped it just right that it managed to get on the ceiling

1. Accidentally threw a tall iced sugar cookie at a customer

2. Was trying to make a 5lbs bullet of pike fit in a cupboard and it popped like a bag of chips with beans flying everywhere

3. (This was yesterday) went to grab a plastic bag off the counter, didn't see that it was caught on the frap roast pump, and flung it everywhere. I was by myself and didn't have time to make anymore frap roast so the two or three orders that needed it got espresso instead

When I was a SSV I flooded my store…….twice

I forgot to turn off the sink with the cup rinsed attached and it like half popped off and just sprayed water straight up in the air. The two we had were broken and couldn’t take the pressure for too long and always did this.

I knocked down an entire shelf of sweet cream

Dropped freshly made mocha container on the floor, which went straight up onto the ceiling.

at least this didn’t have any disastrous consequences, just some weird looks:

on my 4th shift ever, my super told me to take all the racks out of the pastry case and put everything on parchment paper. this was so we could wash the racks. problem was, he pointed in the general direction of the pastry case. and i hadn’t really heard anyone refer to the clear glass stuff as a pastry case. you know what else is over in that general direction? the fridge with all the sandwiches in it.

here i am, putting all the sandwiches on parchment paper, so that we can clean the yellow racks they’re on right??? my super comes by when i’m like halfway through the fridge and he’s like “……whatcha doin” and i was like “oh i’m putting everything from the pastry case on parchment paper” and he’s like “oh, so the pastry case?” and points right at it. 🤦🏼

still made fun of for it to this day. at least i wasn’t taking the sandwiches out of the plastic to do this tho, THAT woulda been disastrous

I spilled an entire toddy of cold brew and broke a freezer door causing us to not have pastries for a week.. istg I have so many issues with any freezer I come into contact with, whether it be the store, another store, at home, the supermarket?! The freezers are out to get me.

Applying thinking I would get to make and learn about coffee. I spend 80% of my shifts on DT, 15% on cold bar, 4% CS, and 1% on hot bar. And usually that time on hot bar is when I'm soloing bar

[deleted]

one thing I did a few times when I was new was straight up forgetting to charge customers at the drive thru window LOL. the whole “handing the order out before charging the customer” would trip me up and I hadn’t worked anywhere with a drive thru before! my brain would process handing the final item out as the end of the transaction so I’d say “have a great day!” and look at them expecting them to leave. a few customers were nice and honest about the fact that they hadn’t paid yet and we’d both laugh it off but others would immediately take off before I could realize what I’d done lmao. i was always so scared to tell the shift that I didn’t charge a customer haha but apparently it’s a pretty common mistake bc they never got mad at me (or let it show at least) and a lot of new partners do the same thing now!

I’ve also blended fraps without the lid and blended cold foam on the wrong setting…I still knock things over and spill things all the time bc I’m just super clumsy. all I can say is at least I always clean whatever mess I make!

I’ve been working there for 4 months and found out 2 shifts ago that a “decaf Frappuccino” and a creme Frappuccino are not the same thing

The other day, I messed up putting a lid on a pumpkin cream cold brew (though to be fair, we’re out of grande cups, and the generic 16 oz plastic cups we have are barely compatible with our lids) and it made such a dreadful mess, and I was all by myself so I had to try to clean it up while taking care of customers

Blending sweet cream on 1 and having it explode everywhere…. Brewing coffee and forgetting to lift the tab back up and having it go onto the floor…. Rushing and putting caramel into a bottle thinking there was a lid on the other end but there wasn’t…..

320 here
(1) one day I pulled milk out of the frap fridge and the whole shelf collapsed and knocked over all 4 2L pitchers i had just made & then when I finished mopping that I dropped all the mop water on our mats

(2) one time I make a hot caramel machiatto and forgot to steam the milk and handed it to the lady and she was like this is cold I wanted hot and I was like omg my brain short circuited lmaoo

(3) the 6 times i cut myself w the knife on oven, i am no longer allowed on oven. LMAO

(4) I have accidentally blended sweet cream on the 1st button instead of the 3rd w no top & vice versa w fraps.

That’s all I can think of for now.

Ordered 55 cases of egg white egg bites during my SSV training….and they delivered it. My penance was driving around to every store in my district dropping off cases of egg bites like a sad defeated Santa Claus that no one wants to come

Lol it wasn't really my fuck up, but my ssv at my last store handed out a hot mocha... with steamed lemonade instead of 2% milk.

Oooo not me but, a new partner dropped a gallon of heavy cream and it went everywhere. And thennnn knocked over the mop bucket after cleaning it up.

Didn’t happen to me but a friend and previous partner gave a new hire instructions to clean the carafe. Part of those instructions were to use the “toilet brush looking thing”. A few minutes later my friend came out from the back and was horrified to see the green bean using the actual toilet brush cleaner.

Spilled an entire mop bucket while closing. My shift made me stay until 10 mopping it up. It took over an hour.

sliding cold drinks across the counter, i slid a water to the cafe counter and it hit a hot tea, spilling both on the cafe floor 😭

one time i also worked a shift coming down on 5 tabs of lsd that was not advised lmao

Accidentally giving a coffee frappuccino to a five year old. Never gonna live that down

I’ll share what happened to me when I mobile ordered a couple of days ago too. A couple of green beans were on the floor in a store that isn’t mine, but still in the same city. They were clearly stressed because they had a tiny rush in the drive thru. I waiting patiently for my cold brew to be made. I ordered a vsccb, sub 2 pumps sf vanilla, 2 pumps brown sugar, extra spl sweet cream. Green bean one told green bean two to pour the cold brew to the third line, put the pumps of syrup in the foam blender, and then pour the foam into the cold brew without ice. I was in a hurry so I didn’t say anything and just took it, but I didn’t drink it because it wasn’t good at all lol. I’m a 320 partner, so I’m pretty new as well. I thought it was kinda funny lol

Dropped an iced mocha in the ice bin. I was everyone’s favorite that day 🤦🏻‍♀️

….peak…solo drive (70+ cust a half hour)…my half drank tall triple oatmilk latte beside me….car at drive waiting on a quad with steamed soy in a tall cup… all of a sudden, i had the quad and not my own. luckily they were similar i guess… i’ll never live this down and 100% learned my lesson. 40 seconds on solo drive tough tho

my favorite story:
during a rush i made a venti frap, tried handing it to the customer but it spilled all over the lobby floor. then my manager went to mop it up as i made a new one, and then he tripped on the bucket and spilled the dirty mop water all over the clean floor. had to mop it all up again. classic.

Clocked in and immediately knocked over the Mocha backup. It spilled all over the counter and customers

making an americano and poured the hot water from the brewer directly on my hand instead of the cup. was on such auto pilot let i let it run for like 3 seconds before being in agonizing pain. cool scar from it though.
or maybe brewing coffee with the thingy still down so hot coffee brewed onto the counter.
or maybe putting blonde espresso in the regular hopper.
i’ve been with the company since 2016 and still make these mistakes

Getting hired.

Dropping a whole container of dark roast beans on the ground 5 minutes after my shift started

One of my first closes as a shift I left the doors unlocked lol
Edit : happy to see I’m not the only one

I was putting a sandwich in the oven and didn't realize there was a plastic package under the parchment paper. I didn't even notice the plastic was there until it was already melting in the oven. This was during peak too.

handed out a pike that i accidentally poured water into, handed out a iced cappuccino with no espresso just foamed milk

We mixed up the chai and frap roast and were making Fraps with chai concentrate for like a day.

ive blended fraps without lids, fraps without ice, fraps without base (which is far more common im sure), ive dumped espresso into a pitcher of steamed milk instead of into the cup, ive dropped an entire order of just-out-the-oven egg bites onto the floor, ive (tried to) make cold foam on the frozen banana setting, and many other smaller fuck ups.

the one that takes the cake tho: i fucking murdered one of our counters. ever since before i started, our cold bar counter had been tilted downward and because of this the cupboard that hides the bottom of the ice bin never closed properly. a bit over a month ago, the tilting got worse as the silicone and other things holding the counter to the wall began to detach even more and the side of the cupboard started jutting out from the edge of the counter. so my brain was like “yeah ill just nudge the wood back under so itll support the counter a bit better!”

i hip checked the cupboard and it completely separated from the bottom of the counter, landing on my foot and allowing the counter to fall even more off the wall.

that finally got it properly fixed tho so you’re welcome ig😎

I’ve exploded 2 blenders making foam, other than that not much lol

[removed]

It was Frappuccino happy hour 8 years ago. These were the days of half price Frappuccinos from 3-5 for a week straight, and we had moved a fridge to the middle of the walkway to add another surface for drink prep. I pulled a sticker for an iced coffee with cream. I had been stickering cups and then tossing the non-Frappuccinos off to bar. In my haste and fogged with pregnancy brain, I added the cream, to be helpful, and then TOSSED THE CUP TO MY SM. It landed perfectly in the ice bin. We had to stop making Frappuccinos so we could burn the ice and clean the bin. 🤦🏻‍♀️

My SM and I laugh about it to this day.

i was notorious at leaving the debit cards in the machine after handing out all the items and saying have a nice daY! there was multiple shifts in the beginning of my career where i handed my shift like 7 debit cards lmao. also spilled a whole cube of sweet cream on me runied jeans and shoes.

I’m just going to say one: I tried making regular mocha like we used to with skinny mocha.

Explanation: so back in the day when we had skinny mocha, partners at my store used to blend skinny mocha on a small blender (the one we use for cold foam). It was super simple (1) pour contents and (2) press a button. No whisking, no mess! So, one morning I tried this shortcut on a bigger blender with some amount of regular mocha and it made a HUGE mess on cold bar. Right before opening too!

when we used to have the cloud powder for the cloud macchiato I accidentally used it instead of vanilla bean powder for Frappuccinos for the whole day and didn’t realize until the end of my shift 💀

One time I was pulling cold brew and I got sidetracked and came back and the entire toddy had spilled all over the floor 😂 I was mopping for a good hour lol

Twice in a row the cup for an iced Americano has slipped and spilt while lidding due to the heat from the hot water making the viper weak lol also blending sweet cream cold foam on 1.

One of my first times on bar I was trying to sequence two hot drinks during a rush, was hella confused why the milk wouldn’t steam. I asked one of my coworkers and they were like, “……it’s already steamed.” 🤣

Back when we used cups to hand out drinks in the drive thru (for covid precautions), a customer took the cup and just. left with it. I let them. I could have and had time to stop them but i was new and just like "... uh. shift name??????"

I also drop a frap a week if they put me on cold bar

I dropped 2 tills onto the ground right before open so we had to stay closed for another 30 mins while I sorted it and got it put back together😅

Just recently flooded half the back room because the faucet decided to have more water pressure than it has for the almost 3 years I've worked here. Never get comfortable again.

Just when I switch from hot to cold bar and keep pouring milk to the third line instead of the first

[deleted]

Done both those, thankfully I was at cafe when I did it so the person caught it and I remade it. Cold brew same thing, I have to stand there and watch it now. Other than than I spilled two whole things of kiwi refreshers pitcher and strawberry. It smelled so strong. 320 strong💪🏼

Hmmm. I spill drinks every day. I have poured cold brew and let it go for an extended period of time. My one coworker almost caught the oven on fire. Poured hot water from the tea tap straight onto my hand. Spilled a venti coffee in the middle of the lobby in front of a packed store. Honestly the list could go on.

Where do I start!?! Lol

While closing last night and cleaning underneath the espresso plexiglass, apparently I put the hose in the wrong end and I was shooting beans for days! 😂

I’ve been working at my local Starbucks for about 6 months now.
When I was first hired the staff used to use three dairy jugs for the cold bar.
One time I put the blender jugs in at the same time as the metal tray and box they sit on, doing that caused one of the dairy jugs to break.

Since then we’ve only been using 2 dairy blender jugs (despite the fact that we managed to replace the broken one).

I've had so many😂

1) Pressed 1 on the blender while making sweet cream (without a lid), it went everywhere.

2) Spilled 2L of frap roast from the top shelf of the BOH fridge. It got on everything!

3)Spilled an entire cube of sweet cream.

4)Opened a 4x frefresher base in a tea pitcher with the spigot open, walked away from it, came back to sticky acai base all the way from pos to hand off.

5)Tried to do the cool "flip the shaker" trick while making a beverage, the lid came off, juice went everywhere, and of course a group of teenagers in the cafe had a ball.

**if you're from my store and see this, no you didn't.😂

Setting the filter to brew without pushing the urn all the way in, and having out go under the filter, all over the counter, onto the floor and behind the fridge

Hitting 1 instead of 4 for cold foam (luckily instantly realised and lifted the blender off before there was a mess)

Wasn't my initial fuck up, but I made it worse, on a close last week someone else had set the mop bucket to fill and hadn't realised it was overflowing. I was the one that lifted it and instead of tipping it back in the sink, it went down my leg, soaked my jeans, though thankfully by this point I had switched to boots so my feet were dry but it was a cold, soggy walk to my car once we were done

God where do I start? Constantly voiding, multitasking skills are non-existent, can’t remember how to make drinks/how many pumps and shots

I work at a licensed store and it almost 6pm, the end of my shift. my store lead was sitting right in front of me at the register and I was on bar. luckily I only had the one drink. I was making a pineapple matcha and while I was shaking it, the cap slipped off and I poured the entire drink all over myself. it was hilarious and sticky >w<
also one time, I was making the caramel apple spice during a rush. we keep our apple juice jug in the very back of out fridge behind two pitchers of sweet cream. I knelt down to get the apple juice. me thinking if I don't move the two FULL pitchers of sweet cream, it'll be faster. boy was I wrong. I grabbed the apple juice from the back and when I was pulling it out, one whole sweet cream was knocked out and spilled all over my pants and the floor. the stain never came out and i threw those pants away

My first day on bar I thought the blender would go in more straight so I shoved the blending pitcher onto the lil dock thing as best I could thinking surely I was doing it right and I somehow stripped the bottom part of the blending pitcher that makes the blades turn so I completely broke the blender. And I was working at a mall store where they mostly sell Frappuccinos and refreshers so we only had one blender for about a week 😬

(In the same day) I also thought I didn't need to hold the lid of the shaker cups and spilled an entire venti pink drink all over the cold bar, the inclusions, everything. Somehow I did not get any on myself.


I was not put back on bar for a while. 🥲 now I'm an SSV 🤣

someone switched the liquid cane sugar and brown sugar pumps… needless to say several customers were in for a surprise when they got their brown sugar oat milk shaken espressos

Mocha. On. The. Ceiling.

Pulling the milk pitcher off of the Machine’s shelf while it’s still steaming.

Turning around from said machine with a finished White Mocha and immediately bumping into another Barista sending WM everywhere and I mean everywhere.

Not me but recently a girl handing out a drink and the customer not paying attention… causing the entire milky drink to spill down their car door and seat. Took us 30 minutes to help clean the car out.

When I pressed the wrong button on the headset when a customer showed up in dt and said “seriously? Again?” Luckily she thought it was funny

Very recently… during clean play, the coffee urns get cleaned out with rinses and on the final rinse, thinking it was done, I brewed more coffee, but it was full of water so coffee went everywhere. After literally just getting them all cleaned

Brewing coffee with the thing that the coffee comes out of still on (that was fun :,) and dropping a jug of milk that promptly exploded

Not going back to school sooner