Timeline for answer to How do I ask for an espresso if there's a good chance they don't know how to make it? by PLL
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| May 14, 2018 at 12:38 | comment | added | Andrea Lazzarotto | @PLL if you are talking about “espresso”, there is not an “Italian style” one, it's the only one. It's like going to an animal shop and asking “Could you give me a cat? I mean a feline-style one”... if the barista knows how to do the job they will think your request is quite weird and redundant. But you could replace the word “Italian” with the word “correct”. | |
| May 11, 2018 at 13:55 | comment | added | Quassnoi | @BruceWayne: they call it "espresso". The problem is that those who don't make what I'm expecting call it "espresso" as well. | |
| May 10, 2018 at 18:03 | comment | added | BruceWayne | As noted elsewhere, once a barista makes the espresso like you're expecting, I'd ask them "What would you call this? So when I order next time I can know what to call it." | |
| May 8, 2018 at 13:47 | comment | added | PLL | @Quassnoi: Yes, it may well also make sense to describe what you want in more specific detail. But my main point is: it usually works best to frame your request as “this is the style of espresso I prefer” (i.e. purely about your own preference, and not overriding their judgement), not “this is the correct way to make espresso” (which comes across as criticism if they normally do something else; and even if they would have made a good classic espresso anyway, they may resent a customer assuming a position of superior knowledge and telling them how to do their job). | |
| May 8, 2018 at 12:47 | comment | added | gowithefloww | Little risk that the barista retorts ironically that he knows what’s an “Italian style coffee” is. | |
| May 8, 2018 at 11:57 | comment | added | Benjamin Gruenbaum | I love that this doesn't shame the barista or claim there is a "right" way for making an espresso but instead focuses on communicating what you'd like directly. Note that there are places with good coffee in the larger cities in Russia - they're just a bit of work to find. Nespresso also works as a quick non-premium-but-usually-good-enough workaround. | |
| May 8, 2018 at 11:29 | comment | added | Quassnoi | Thanks for the answer. Unfortunately words like "Italian-style" or anything like that don't really work, you have to be extremely specific. The guy at the counter probably never got any complaints about serving too much coffee and has got many about serving too little. | |
| May 8, 2018 at 10:53 | comment | added | Astralbee | Great answer. Possibly worth noting that the commonly used term 'Americano' for elongated coffee has come about for similar reasons. If enough people ask for coffee "Italian style" then perhaps they will add it to the menu and it could even catch on. | |
| May 8, 2018 at 1:49 | review | First posts | |||
| May 8, 2018 at 4:46 | |||||
| May 8, 2018 at 1:47 | history | answered | PLL | CC BY-SA 4.0 |