When I'm at Caribou at 7:50 a.m., all I want is my coffee, followed by a quick exit. But these days, getting my coffee when I want it and how I like it hasn't been so easy.
Select Caribou and other chain coffee houses have stopped putting skim milk -- and 2 percent milk for that matter -- at the sugar stations.
Here's my morning scenario as of late: I ask for a medium coffee with room for skim, and when I get my coffee, I ask for skim milk again. The barista doesn't always hear me the first time. Then, I usually wait for the barista to look for the milk. When I get it, I step aside for the next customer. (Usually I pour the milk into the coffee as soon as I get it, but yesterday, the coffee was filled to the brim. Kind of defeats the purpose of asking for skim milk. So the barista had to go back to the sink to pour it out.) I then proceed to the sugar station and pour three packets of Equal into my coffee.
Now, you may be thinking that I'm fussing over nothing. Not true. I'm almost certain it takes me longer to wait for the skim milk than it did when I would go to the sugar station and help myself. In Washington, D.C., I had no problem with this. It was more efficient to leave the cream, milk and skim milk out for the coffee hoarders.
So I want to know the reason(s) behind this change. Are coffee giants like Starbucks and Caribou trying to cut costs? Or are they worried about my health and the potential of drinking bad milk? Was there some health advisory that was recently released that I don't know about?
I must investigate.
2 comments:
Fortunately I can answer this for you as I was once a Caribou employee.
Whether it be Caribou policy or actual county/city policy, it is actually the health risk for a couple of reasons:
1) The obvious milk sitting on the counter for too long resulting in bad bacteria and the potential for many nights in the hospital.
2) So many people are touching the milk jug that you probably don't want to know how many germs there are and just where those hands have been. (They had told us that we were the only people allowed to hold the milk jug therefore we had to splash the milk in their coffee)
We always hated it as much as the customers did that we had to stop the flow of drink making (they time you on a screen and if you take more than 30 seconds to a minute on average during a shift to make a drink they will give you a stern talking to.... oh the joys of corporate arm flexing).
Some people would bypass this issue by bringing in their own reusable mug that already had their 2%, 1%, skim, half & half, heavy whipping cream... maybe some Bailey's and then the person pouring coffee couldn't overfill and they didn't have to wait for a milk jug to be passed their way.
If you go to a smaller coffee shop (not a chain) they will be better able to accommodate you.
I understand how annoying it is to have to wait and have other people annoyed with you because you just wanted that dash of milk!
I don't like to visit those chain coffee shops anymore because they take the joy and taste out of their drinks.
After Caribou I found Taraccino Coffee, which is based out of Minneapolis and there are three stores total (2 being in Iowa which is where I worked).
Even if you can't find that shop, try the local shops. Way friendlier and faster... usually.
I recommend the coffee shop at 43rd and Bryant. Been there a few times and it's a quaint but quick place to go, plus, they've never been in a big enough hurry to miss my exact order. :)
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