forgetting about reg when i’m on warming haha

Leaving unfinished drinks. Not putting water in hot chais. Using cinnamon powder and pumpkin spice interchangeably.

Steaming extra milk for talls when I have a bunch of tall drinks. Same with like refreshers. Two talls= one venti.

Staying quiet when I’m drowning in drinks even though it’s clear I need help. Like if someone asks I’ll be like “please help I’m dying” but I tend to be quiet

Brewing fresh coffee and not moving the handle thing back on the urn after I pushed it down to dump out old coffee, so it leaks all over the place :/ I’ll look over and see the mess and be like “yikes who did that”, then it hits and I’m like oh f*** I did

Also making the mistake of trying to flip hot or cold bar quickly right as a rush begins, then having to jump in and help with the rush while attempting to work with a deconstructed bar. Good old self sabotage, my specialty

forgetting about warming on reg

trying to do latte art with every drink

crying when customers are mean

I can get into a bad mood pretty easily. I don’t treat the baristas shitty because of my bad mood but I definitely can bring down the vibes of a shift when it starts getting busy and I’m only on a 3 play and obviously stressed or something like that. It’s something I’m trying to work on, just stop caring so much, I’m just tired of being screwed over literally every day.

Probably the fact that I barely ever put effort into making customer connections unless they’re either one of our nice regulars or someone who’s obviously friendly and open to conversation at the moment. I don’t care about or maybe even dislike everyone else (main reason is usually that a lot of people don’t seem to know even basic manners). Most people aren’t interested in forced small talk with their barista, I’ll usually be focused on another task, and I don’t get anything (ex: higher pay) from stopping what I’m doing to talk to more people, so I just don’t care about the customer connection score and don’t bother unless my manager is there. Maybe that’s selfish of me, but most other people at my store don’t seem to care that much about it either.

Not taking my breaks because I prioritize my partners

Making fun of overly sweet orders. In my defense, you don’t need to add 13 white sugars to your VENTI white mocha, sir.

giving customers who order decaf pike an americano 🫣

Shitting on company time

I will batch blend until the day I die

Playing really really really dumb when someone orders a “Medicine Ball.” Sorry, that’s not one of our drinks, however I could list off our hot teas for you :)

Immediately saying “yeah so the HONEY CITRUS MINT” when someone specifically asks for a medicine ball

Mine is ignoring the cards entirely and delegating tasks that I think are necessary rather than what my SM thinks

Ignoring cold brew until the last possible second

Saying “it’s a (sm name) problem”

I always forget to put the stickers on cups

Sometimes if I'm in a hurry, I know that one half gallon of heavy cream is supposed to equal 4 whips, so I'll measure out three and then just dump the rest of the carton in the last whip

If I'm on drive thru and someone tries to order the last grilled cheese, I will totally take that shit for myself and tell them we're out.

I will go to extraordinary lengths to batch fraps. If I have a coffee frap, a mocha frap, and a java chip, y'all can imagine that sequence of events

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the amount of drinks I have to make that I go into work mode and I become quiet and serious , everyone swears I’m in a bad mood but I’m just focused . Oh and also I use liquid cane when someone wants more than 4 sugar packets 😭 fuck I look like opening multiple packs

I hate customers >:3 except my regulars. You can stay. Everyone else I will shit talk between cars. Get fucked.

I always eyeballed the amounts when making VSC cubes. I also found adding a bit more heavy cream than the standard helped with foaming anyway.

Forgetting that someone already paid when doing solo drive. I keep telling ppl their order because I’m so caught up in keeping things moving my mind thinks there’s a new vehicle at the window 😭

Getting ice all over the counters as I refill the ice bins. And not shaking refreshers when they have a shit ton of drinks in one order.

Forgetting that I have cube filling with water in BOH thus proceeding to flood the prep station counter

Mentally fighting every customer in drive when they try to desconstruct iced lattes (getting shots with syrup pumps and “extra milk”)

Not handing the drink to customer, just leaving it on the counter.

I always forget to set the coffee timer

Sometimes I pull the shots first 🤭

Not following dress code

“Yeah I checked the bathrooms” 🥸

Telling people they’re good to go in drive thru before their payment with their Starbucks card on the app goes through

Making a customer wait at the window if they just placed the mobile order then immediately driving up to the box or finishing someone’s drink if I’m waiting on it and they walk away to another bar (I really only do this if I know for a fact that barista doesn’t mind but if they do I won’t touch their bar)

If I hit regular espresso and you wanted blonde, I probably won't fix it. 🤷‍♀️ "is this blonde espresso? Yup." You've got so much syrup in there, you probably won't even notice.

Saying "and just for clarification, this is a hot drink, yes?" whenever someone gets cold foam on their hot drink. I know its probably the right thing to ask for clarification but I'm worried I'm coming across as judgemental lmao

Leaving milk carton lids all over the bar. The bin was RIGHT there, I don’t know why I just left them! I’m trash.

complaining too much while on bar… i never mean it super seriously but i know it’s probably annoying

I refuse to cut bagels. My store is in New Jersey, there are a million real bagel shops near us. You want your bagel cut? Go there.

"Double steaming" milks - the milk for like three tall peppermint mochas can fit in one pitcher so i just do them all at once (only ever for drinks that use the same milk though, people getting the correct milk they want is a hill i will die on)

Forgetting about any sprinkle. Pumpkin, toffee nut,gingerbread…. 👹

I still put vanilla in hot chocolates

I misjudged and didn't fill that lemonade refresher up enough? Welp, looks like its getting topped off with water

MCCF and CRCF are one size smaller than they actually are, idc what the recipe says, im not using a venti scoop of ice and venti amounts of ingredients just to dump out 25% of it because the rest of the volume of the cup is whipped cream.

I haven't measured out vsc in forever, i just eyeball the proportions (1L hwc, to almost exactly between the 1.25L and 1.5L line with vanilla, and about 1-2mm under the 2L line with 2% milk)

Edited to add: hot coffee is just water and heat, steam is just a marginal amount of water and heat => old pike + steamed to extra hot = Fresh Pike^TM , because no one who drinks pike has *that* discerning of a palette anyway.

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using too much sarcasm as a coping mechanism and getting written up for it

Occasionally “forgetting” whip on hot drinks if it’s really busy. I refuse to put cold foam on hot drinks so I just add whatever flavoring instead. Making hot macchiato’s as lattes.

Forgetting to put stickers on drinks, forgetting that hot chais come with water, being the messiest mofo on bar, passively aggressively cutting in and saying “WE’LL BE RIGHHHHT WITH YOU ^_^” when a green bean is on DTO and tells a customer they’ll be with them in just a second and the customer tries to order anyway

Telling the rude soccer moms “you’ll be okay, don’t worry” when they whine the drink takes a while and not realizing they can complain. I just autopilot

Whenever it's really busy, have a lot of drinks to make etc I go quiet, don't talk and really serious bc I get stressed and it can become overwhelming as I also deal with an anxiety disorder. So my coworkers think I'm being rude and mean but I'm just trying to stay calm lmao. Also making matchas in the foam blenders and batching frappuccinos idc

Free pouring Frappuccino liquids instead of measuring in the cups. I’ve gotten scary good at this.

Trying to take my time on drinks because I rather have a quality drink then a drink that I rushed through

Batch blending…

Forgetting to turn off the cold brew and it overflowing

caring about alllll the messes and trying to keep every bar counter clean 😭

during peak when i’m on bar and need to get something from the back, i run and get it myself instead of waiting on CS. usually it’s only if CS is busy and i need something on the fly but the shift hates when i’m not planted 😅

I complain when people cant do their jobs lol

Mine is steaming too much (or too little) milk for drinks. I’m either wasting milk, or having to make more to finish a drink.

I would make a mess on bar lol…but at least I was fast.

finishing others ppls drinks … idk personally i would never b mad if someone finished a drink for me while i was struggling

Joke about anything that is remotely bad as my “Sbux trauma” 😬

i haven’t put whip on hot drinks in months.

Ex-partner, but if a customer was rude while I was working bar they always got decaf shots in their lattes

Insisting that I’m on drive thru by myself during peak so we could have one store support and another floater to ensure we don’t randomly run out of things while keeping the store clean.

Leaving the ice bin open

Being annoyed when customers order more than 1 drink 🤭 they be like “and also,” and I’m like 🙄

getting an attitude with customers when they start raising their voices at me, i’m slowly losing my tolerance for customers

ignoring customers that are waiting when im on mobile bar... like im sorry but if I ask every single person what they're waiting on they'll be waiting for even longer than if i keep focusing on drinks 😭

Hating teens no matter what they order

My toxic trait is not always greeting the customer when they get to the window when its busy.

Oh also neglecting to brew coffee on time when i’m on customer or on reg and warming and no one is on customer.

Never putting mocha drizzle on hot chocolates

If a customer is extremely rude and ask for pastries I say we don’t have them because we didn’t have a chance to do food pull . Happened a few weeks back nasty women at the speaker was talking to me any type of way I said “sorry we’re out of that “ she pizzed but hey .

Light ice completely depends on my mood/how busy we are.

This whole tread triggers the ASM in me lol

Not cutting bagels. Not putting forks with egg bites

Double batching!

I always start things & don’t finish them & my team is constantly just picking up. They probably hate me for it but they’re the best

Completely ignoring customers in cafe when I’m on drive bar bc not my job :)

openly judging ridiculous drink orders

Losing track of what kind of milk is in the pitcher and having to dump it all out

Pretending like I don’t know what a “medicine ball” is when customers order it.

I don’t know so much as toxic but probably bordering pet peeve territory. But insisting customers read me their screen shot order instead of shoving their phone in my face. I usually go “ I’m sorry can you read that to me I’m not wearing my glasses.”

Unless, it’s someone who’s struggling to communicate with any language I might know.

batching fraps and not shaking refreshers. I pour them right into the cup.

(When I started, everyone did this, but I noticed they were using way too much base: in the shaker, the base amount fills a cup to just below the first black line. They started making us use the shakers more now, but I still cheat when I can. As long as you portion correctly and there isn't a syrup, it's the same as if you shake it.)

Putting light ice for every iced drink 🤪 especially venti. Not for fraps though obviously!

even if i give a task to someone i will give them
another before they even finish the other task or before theyve even STARTED the first one because i am constantly forgetting what i say💀 my brain runs 2000 mph and

Refusing to ask for help when I'm a little backed up on drinks and getting mad when people step in to help me before I've asked for it 🤣

Taking my time when I’m taking the trash out

My absolute worst trait is not shaking anything I can get away with not shaking. I find shaking things so wasteful of my time. The only reasoning that makes sense for shaking for me is, (1) teas are colder throughout not just up with the ice, (2) shaking teas and refreshers justifies the "hand-crafted drinks" tagline for those drinks. Also I don't mind quite so much for shaken espressos, though shaking them and then putting cold foam kind of ruined my mental exception for those drinks.

talking to customers like children (using a mother voice) when they ignore when i ask then what size they want

Adding extra ice to venti shaken espressos so it’s not a lot of milk

Not using everything out of a box so i dont have to be the one to break it down

Measurements of steamed milk on hot bar. I get in such a groove & the same size drink for a while that one change up screws with me 😅

Forgetting fished Fraps at cold bar when doing repeatable routine and going to hot bar.

Apparently it’s my constant coaching about subpar standards. Way back in the day I used to be nicer about it. Now I’m a frustrated drone (who usually ends up saddled with the extra cleaning tasks - lovely when you’re the only coffee master in the store; guess that means I’m up for master janitor).

Until this store id say I was good. Now i have too many. Gotta find a new place

Not steaming lemonade for Jade citrus mint 👀

putting an extra pump of mocha in kids’ hot chocolates :) i want it to be extra yummy for them

Being too shy to greet every coworker after clocking in and coming off as rude

- Making all hot caramel macchiato's upside down

- only make chai with half water half milk if you were being mean to the person on register

- shake shaken espressos super hard so I get to put less milk

- tall fraps get a little extra ice

- saying we're out of a food item the customer wants when they have a rancid attitude

- feeling nothing but joy when a bratty kid can't get what they want

- thinking I can do everything myself

- pretend not to have reusable cups behind the counter so I dont have to ring it up so i dont have to deal with customers wanting their drink in the cup. Less steps and I'm not wasting a cup

My new Christian pastor boss.

Filling the sanitizer sink up and walking away thinking I’ll remember to stop it EVERY TIME 💀

not shaking my refreshers

not calling for support lol

I don't let customers abuse my team, when I'm shift.

Forgetting the pumpkin spide topping on the pumpkin cream cold brews and the cocoa topping on the irish creams
Also not asking for help like everyone else said lol sometimes I just don’t even realize I’m drowning in drinks until someone hops on to help me lol

Soloing making drinks on mobile, cafe and cold bar. Not a fun time, almost swore a few times

my store recently got a separate cold bar printer for orders, and ive been forgetting to alternate between cold bar and hot bar so many drink orders are just forgotten bcuz I forget that printer exists.. oops.

not putting the toppings on the hot drinks when there’s a rush lmao … i put whip but that’s the most if i’m slammed

Ok so I also forget about warming sometimes when I’m on reg but I swear not on purpose! Lmao 😂

Unconsciously icing all my drinks lol

Not shaking drinks because other than distributing the cold through to the bottom and adding foam, it doesn't do anything a few hard swishes of the cup won't.

getting mad at people for not doing their jobs and then getting mad when i end up doing all the positions 😭

When someone asks about what day it is (like, “is it Tuesday today?) I have to confirm by saying, “all day.”

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I say that all the time 😂😂😂

not shaking refreshers when it’s busy. I usually just swirl them. also when i’m on hot bar and it’s busy I keep just a shitload of milk steaming at any given time. i’m not sure if batch steaming is frowned upon

Mine is not making iced teas qnd refreshers in the shaker during peak, only exception being pink drink, dragon drink, etc. I also will most definitely go get something if I need it on bar instead of asking support because they are usually busy

I misread stickers A LOT, if it’s peak and we’re in the weeds it’s every barista for themselves, I have no idea where anything is on the registers, if I accidentally pour the wrong dairy milk I usually don’t correct myself lol

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X-partner here, but mine was holding up a whole while my bacon cooked for 1.5mins by itself, then 2 more minutes with everything fully assembled and open faced. Even during peaks cause fuck those demon spawn customers

Deciding that some people are ordering way too many pumps of syrup and putting in a more reasonable number that let's be honest is still ridiculously sweet when I'm on bar



Edit: why is this getting down voted? The whole point is to share our toxic trait and secrets