“Hi, umm I’ll take a Venti iced caramel macchiato with nonfat milk. Oh and can I get that upside down please?”
Looking back, I want to punch my 16-year-old self in the face for ever uttering those words at a Starbucks counter. What the hell does upside down mean? Also, how the hell did our country begin to think that a macchiato is 12-16 ounces of milk mixed with espresso and topped with caramel syrup and over ice? In actuality, a real macchiato could not be farther from this order.
When you order a traditional macchiato, you should receive a single or double shot of espresso with just a dollop of foam on top! That’s it! It's for the people who don’t want a plain, bold shot of espresso but don’t want all the milk from a latte or cappuccino. In Italian, the word “macchiato” means, “marked” which gives you a shot of espresso marked with foam or some foam marked with espresso (depending on how your barista makes it)
Now I realize this isn’t something that should bother me and I hate that it does, but it has become one of my pet peeves when people don’t understand the actual espresso drink they are ordering. I have experienced people who order a drink like they do at Starbucks and they expect me to waltz out from behind the bar carrying a clear cup printed with a green logo and design along with your name spelled incorrectly on the side. Starbucks has turned coffee culture around in our country, which has resulted in a large amount of people who have no idea what is actually in their coffee drinks. I think its time for our coffee enthusiasts to take charge our coffee culture and take back what was originally ours. To me, I think that the first step towards this is explaining what a real macchiato is!
This is just one of the terms that Starbucks has coined and translated to mean something else. Now don’t take this as hate towards Starbucks because it is a great company! Corporately, they work towards helping our community in many ways. I also have to admit that their caramel macchiato is pretty damn good but it’s more appropriate to order it as an iced caramel latte—because that’s what it is! Now that my rant is over, I want to leave you with a link to this video, which I found a while back and I feel like it is just a hilarious way to wrap up this article.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUpY1BT9Xf4
Looking back, I want to punch my 16-year-old self in the face for ever uttering those words at a Starbucks counter. What the hell does upside down mean? Also, how the hell did our country begin to think that a macchiato is 12-16 ounces of milk mixed with espresso and topped with caramel syrup and over ice? In actuality, a real macchiato could not be farther from this order.
When you order a traditional macchiato, you should receive a single or double shot of espresso with just a dollop of foam on top! That’s it! It's for the people who don’t want a plain, bold shot of espresso but don’t want all the milk from a latte or cappuccino. In Italian, the word “macchiato” means, “marked” which gives you a shot of espresso marked with foam or some foam marked with espresso (depending on how your barista makes it)
Now I realize this isn’t something that should bother me and I hate that it does, but it has become one of my pet peeves when people don’t understand the actual espresso drink they are ordering. I have experienced people who order a drink like they do at Starbucks and they expect me to waltz out from behind the bar carrying a clear cup printed with a green logo and design along with your name spelled incorrectly on the side. Starbucks has turned coffee culture around in our country, which has resulted in a large amount of people who have no idea what is actually in their coffee drinks. I think its time for our coffee enthusiasts to take charge our coffee culture and take back what was originally ours. To me, I think that the first step towards this is explaining what a real macchiato is!
This is just one of the terms that Starbucks has coined and translated to mean something else. Now don’t take this as hate towards Starbucks because it is a great company! Corporately, they work towards helping our community in many ways. I also have to admit that their caramel macchiato is pretty damn good but it’s more appropriate to order it as an iced caramel latte—because that’s what it is! Now that my rant is over, I want to leave you with a link to this video, which I found a while back and I feel like it is just a hilarious way to wrap up this article.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUpY1BT9Xf4