Coffee Lingo
Coffee lingo. This topic continues to amaze me. I wrote about the phenomena of coffee trends in the past, but a recent trip to a local café inspired me to go deeper into the actual verbage of coffee. I do believe, next to English, it is the most common “second language” for people to learn.
My coworker and I went for an afternoon “jolt”. He, “coffee black” guy, me, a “what’s the trend” girl. We were standing in line looking at the chalkboard of flavours. Hmmm, what should I get…so many different options to choose? I knew he was laughing at me, since I seem to always look for something totally different to try out. And he, well, he is always…same same. I contemplated my craving, he observed, as I made the way to the till.
“Can I have a tall, soy, latte, with the matcha powder, but no sugar, and no foam?” My coffee buddy looked at me blankly…he didn’t know what I was talking about. Of course, the barista did, and in one swift breath had the cup prepped and repeated my request effortlessly, “One tall, soy, no foam, no sugar, matcha latte.”
When it was his turn to order, he was still a little dazed…trying to figure out what matcha was. I am sure he thought I was half nuts, since there wasn’t one “real” word in there that made any kind of normal sense. Shaking his head, he looked at our server and said, “Just a coffee please.”
Crickets. Silence. Everything stopped. I think I heard someone in the back corner gasp in disbelief. Just a coffee? What the heck is that? The barista looked at him, “Did you want medium or dark? House or americno? Decaf or reg? Tall or grande? To the rim or room for cream?”
Seems his “simple” order wasn’t so simple after all. And it was at that moment; I realized how coffee talk has evolved into an actual language. We laughed at the irony; it is really no longer “just” coffee, is it? Especially when someone can say words like “double double” and know that they’re not talking about bubble gum. I thought back to my days backpacking in Europe, flipping through translation dictionaries, hoping to the almighty that I wouldn’t look like a fool not knowing the language. Little did I know, we’d one-day battle a similar fate in our own country, over a little cuppa java.
© Desiree Daniel August 4, 2005
My coworker and I went for an afternoon “jolt”. He, “coffee black” guy, me, a “what’s the trend” girl. We were standing in line looking at the chalkboard of flavours. Hmmm, what should I get…so many different options to choose? I knew he was laughing at me, since I seem to always look for something totally different to try out. And he, well, he is always…same same. I contemplated my craving, he observed, as I made the way to the till.
“Can I have a tall, soy, latte, with the matcha powder, but no sugar, and no foam?” My coffee buddy looked at me blankly…he didn’t know what I was talking about. Of course, the barista did, and in one swift breath had the cup prepped and repeated my request effortlessly, “One tall, soy, no foam, no sugar, matcha latte.”
When it was his turn to order, he was still a little dazed…trying to figure out what matcha was. I am sure he thought I was half nuts, since there wasn’t one “real” word in there that made any kind of normal sense. Shaking his head, he looked at our server and said, “Just a coffee please.”
Crickets. Silence. Everything stopped. I think I heard someone in the back corner gasp in disbelief. Just a coffee? What the heck is that? The barista looked at him, “Did you want medium or dark? House or americno? Decaf or reg? Tall or grande? To the rim or room for cream?”
Seems his “simple” order wasn’t so simple after all. And it was at that moment; I realized how coffee talk has evolved into an actual language. We laughed at the irony; it is really no longer “just” coffee, is it? Especially when someone can say words like “double double” and know that they’re not talking about bubble gum. I thought back to my days backpacking in Europe, flipping through translation dictionaries, hoping to the almighty that I wouldn’t look like a fool not knowing the language. Little did I know, we’d one-day battle a similar fate in our own country, over a little cuppa java.
© Desiree Daniel August 4, 2005
posted by Desiree Daniel @ 8:42 AM
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