I don’t find it disruptive as long as they have the recipe ready, but a lot of the customers come through to order a “secret menu” drink and expect that we know how to make it, so they don’t have the recipe readily available. I think they believe that we actually have a secret menu, but these secret menu items are just drinks created by customers or other baristas on the internet.

This is a multi-tiered question. The answer isn't just a simple "yes" or "no" to whether it's disruptive/annoying.

If the customer has the recipe for the drink, then it's really no more disruptive than someone with a ridiculously complicated modification order. Of course, there are many times when the order is almost a literal novel of modifications. All for a drink that is 95% for looks.

Unfortunately, most of the time these genuises have nothing except a vague name for a made up drink and expect that we know exactly what it is. As if our menu wasn't already big enough (I'm especially looking at you, Holiday Season).

Then we have things like the "Under The Sea" Refresher. Not gonna lie...I've wanted to make one, give it to someone and say "well, here's your window cleaner." Not to harm them, and I of course wouldn't actually let someone take it out in case they thought I was joking. But to show them how absolutely stupid they are for just blindly trusting everything they see online.

Finally, the worst part is when multiple or all of these aspects come into play during peak. Like, my dude...do you NOT see the line of 30 people behind you, and you're here trying to get me to magically know how to make some stupid foufou looking drink that likely tastes like shit and has a dozen modifications? While my overworked baristas are running around trying to get drinks and food out amid way too many orders than our tiny little location can handle? Do you not have any sense of situational awareness? Or empathy for people other than yourself?

If you really want a short-form answer: TikTok and all the like needs to DIE. Stick to the fucking menu, and stop giving shithead "influencers" any power in ANYone's life.

As someone else said, it's a very nuanced thing.

I usually don't mind when it's a very minor alteration, or a short cut to get something how it used to be made after a recipe change. Or if they want just a tiny version of a bigger thing to mix with something at home.

What bothers me about these orders is when it's very obvious that they're trying to cheat the system and that, despite making exactly what it says on the ticket, they're gonna come back and say that it was wrong. Best example of this are the "iced doppio espresso in a venti cup, 1/2" cream, light ice." When people order that, the cup is usually half empty and they come back over to say they want more milk or cream in their drink. Well, that's a latte, so it would make it a thousand times easier on everyone if they just ordered a latte. It wastes product a lot of the time too, which makes it frustrating from a stocking and inventory perspective, especially since there have been issues with supply shortages! There was a whole rant i posted the other day that I'll put a link to in an edit of this! Some of the comments you might find helpful!

Edit: $1