Unreal Coffee: Starbucks is so popular it’s turning baristas into forensic detectives
“When a customer walks in and asks us for a macchiato, we generally ask them where they usually order it,” says Jackie Moore, coowner of Austin’s Coffee in Winter Park.
There is a fine line, you see, between educating and alienating.
When Starbucks began serving the latte macchiato about three years ago, you see, it created a quandary of sorts for baristas in that the massive chain is so prevalent, its menu becomes the knowledge foundation for many a coffee drinker.
Before 2016, latte macchiatos simply weren’t a thing.
“A macchiato,” Moore explains, “is a very short beverage, maybe two inches tall. Macchiato means ‘marked,’ the espresso is marked with a little bit of steamed milk.”
A latte macchiato is the goateed, alternate-universe version.
In Starbucks’ own words, “it begins with steaming creamy whole milk to create a delicate, meringue-like foam. Then our barista marks the top with shots of delicious espresso to ensure a robust first sip.”
Its popularity seems to be instigating a shift in the coffee lexicon. It’s evidenced not only by Moore’s testimony, but a recent study by Workwise, which examined search volume for various types of coffee drinks and found the iced latte macchiato to be Florida’s.
The team at Austin’s wants to give customers the drinks they’re seeking, but they don’t want to make them feel foolish in the process.
“Yeah, at some point Starbucks decided to rebrand the word ‘macchiato’ into something else with a lot of milk,” Ryan Wilcox says, chuckling. “It’s sort of a joke among other coffee professionals.”
Even so, Wilcox – coowner at Lineage Coffee Roasting – finds his staff in the same position as Moore’s.
“’So, do you want a small one? Like traditional? Do you want something bigger?’” he laughs, taking me through the “Law & Order”-style process of discerning the customers’ needs. “We don’t want to put them in a place where they feel like they’re ordering it wrong. So, if they say small, we’ll know they want a macchiato in a demitasse cup. And if they say taller – like 16 or 18 ounces – then we can go that route. I don’t know why [Starbucks] did that, but it’s definitely had its effects on everyone.”
Moore doesn’t need a survey to tell her what their most popular beverage is.
“Iced coffee, all day, every day,” she laughs.
Come the colder months there’s an uptick in hot coffee and lattes, but for the most part, Moore’s keeping multiple pitchers of the cold stuff in the cooler for the devotees.
As one’s relationship with wine can evolve from something like childhood romance (in my case, white zin) into something nuanced, special and sophisticated (dry, tannin-rich cabernet), coffee, too, says Moore, has its own gateway.
“Using iced coffee as the example, many of our younger customers begin drinking it sweet, with cream and added flavor,” she says. “As they get older, they begin to dial all of that back.”
For that 16-oz., milkheavy customer, Wilcox says a natural suggestion – Lineage doesn’t make an iced latte macchiato – would be a honey-sweetened latte.
“It for sure scratches that kind of itch,” he says. “It’s milk and espresso and sweetness and ice. What’s not to love?”