I went to dunkin’ the other day and asked for an iced latte with less ice because it’s winter and I wanted less ice. They gave me a cup that was halfway full of coffee. So I asked why and they told me they press a button on a machine, it fills it halfway full with coffee and then they add ice. So when you get a medium iced latte, you’re not actually getting a medium latte, you’re getting a small or a kids size nowadays of coffee, and then they just fill the rest of it with ice. If you ask for less ice, no screw you, you’re not getting the full amount of coffee that you paid for…
I have never heard of this in any other country. What the hell?
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Let me give you a tip for free coffees the easy way:
I’m a smoker, and after each drag I spit straight into a plastic cup that I carry around with me. I usually fill my cup up in about fourteen days (I like a medium too!) which means that if I start on a Monday with my pre-work cigarette, I’ll have a medium drink ready to go by lunchtime a week on Friday! The tobacco colours my spit brown, and the residual nicotine in the saliva actually gives me a kick (I can feel it in my heart and brain). It’s free, and it’s healthy because you’re spitting out all the really unhealthy stuff in cigarettes! I hope this helps, good luck!
If you went to any other coffee store that isn’t a mcdonalds-ified chain, they would have given you what you wanted.
This is like you complaining about not getting a medium rare burger from mcdonalds.
This is like you complaining about not getting a medium rare burger from mcdonalds.
lmfao careful commenting this, some “influencer” is gonna try that now and post it YouTube
In a real coffee shop you’d get a fixed amount of espresso and milk. A proper latte doesn’t just add milk to fill the cup, and “no ice” isn’t some hack to get an extra shot.
I’ve never heard of a country where places give you extra drink for free just because you asked for less ice, to be honest. I know some bartenders who joke about the people who think asking for less ice will get them more.
Ordering light ice at McDonalds always results in a full cup with less ice.
So with a soda fountain or similar soft-drink dispenser at most fast-food or fast-casual restaurants int he US, asking for light ice or no ice will still get you a full cup. That said, the general understanding here has always been (don’t know if it’s strictly true across time and space) that the cups cost more than the drink, and even if the particular place is not offering free refills or you’re ordering to-go, that’s a pretty normal expectation so being stingy with the Coke would reflect poorly on the restaurant beyond the value of saving a little bit of syrup and CO2.
Dunkin’ is definitely a massive fast-food chain, but a latte beverage, even iced, is kinda pushing the boundary of even what most Americans would expect with generous pours. OP might have reasonably hoped to get a full cup, but IMHO they shouldn’t be disgruntled that they didn’t get it.
I’m with you on that: but generally speaking a lot of the non iced variants cost the same because it’s hard to explain to people how little they are getting with ice. This was more an issue with the person serving the beverage than the cost. Admittedly it could have been a training issue but I cannot come up with a good valid reason for the choice.
Edit:
Turns out iced costs more. OP was actually helping them out.
As an (ex) bartender I know what you’re talking about… we would never over pour a spirit … but if asked we’d generally have no issue topping off the mixer. There is a difference. The literal difference between a modern iced beverage and an uniced one (depending on cup size and ice) can sometimes be 2-3 times the beverage… which while quite significant amounts to pennies in cost (if that.) More will be lost to a line cleaning, incorrect orders, etc than to a customer request. The fact that so many in this thread are defending the chain is mind boggling. This same chain likely has been upping the recommended ice and even potentially messing with the mix % to further dilute the beverage in the name of profit. Fuck that. These chains frequently show a cup size and list the oz on the container. They rarely, if ever, list the oz of the beverage in said cup because it would cause a riot. Unless they say 4oz of coffee per 12oz cup of iced coffee somewhere: the customer is absolutely right to expect however much coffee fits in the damn cup and not a drop less. That’s what they were advertised- and that’s what they paid for.
Some of y’all need to realize you’re in a guilded cage and that you are indoctrinated by capitalist owners. This isn’t even a big issue.
Edit:
The fact that so many in this thread are defending the chain is mind boggling
Lot of contrarian keyboard warriors on here lately and it’s almost like they’re disagreeing just for the sake of arguing
I don’t wanna fully don the tin foil hat but it’s a lot easier to poison a well when there’s less water if you get my meaning…
edit:
This whole thread is now hilarious. I’ll be getting out that tin foil after all.
Have you tried ordering a medium iced latte with light ice in other countries?
Sometimes i order a cortado/flat white (it’s on the menu, i swear) and get a 16 oz paper cup filled to the top. What am I drinking?
A flat white is like a latte but smaller (traditionally around 5 oz). It doesn’t contain less espresso than a latte, just less milk. A cortado is even less milk than that, it’s about a 1:1 ratio of milk to espresso. Cafes may add an extra shot for those larger sizes, but frequently it just means extra milk
Yeah but traditionally they don’t come in a 16 oz cup. It’s basically a fuckin latte at that point is it not?
It depends on the cafe, a cortado will almost never come in a 16 oz cup. It could if they wanted to brew up 8 oz of espresso and serve it with steamed milk, but yeah, otherwise it’s just a “latte”. Lattes also don’t traditionally come in a 16 oz cup if we’re talking about the strictest of Italian classic coffee bevarages. From a technicality standpoint, a latte is a 6-8 oz coffee drink
cortado
If they have a machine, you’re getting exactly the full amount of coffee you paid for; you’re just not getting more by removing a filler that they normally include, and that some people like. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything morally wrong with gaming the menu at a giant chain if it can be done without fucking over the staff, or that it wouldn’t be shitty if Dunkin’ has done some sneaky shrinkflation, but there is a certain mechanical clarity here that I can’t get too riled up about.
Yeah… you’re be getting exactly the same amount of coffee you had been paying for before. Getting upset at how little that coffee amounts to normally is one thing, but getting upset with the notion that you are now getting -less- coffee is just silly.
Let me pose a question here: most chains actually sell coffee at the same (or similar) price as any other fountain drink. What’s the difference then? Was the 1/2 ice too hard of an order? The machine is preprogrammed for roughly the time it would take to fill an ice filled drink. Was the person filling the drink pre-programmed to not be able to problem solve? Based on the thread responses I’m inclined to answer that as self evident.
Edit:
Soda fountains keep being brought up here. If you order a soda with no ice, you typically get more soda. But that’s because the way the sods fountains fill is based on the volume in the cup, not the volume dispensed. The coffee machine in this post evidently measures based on coffee dispensed. If soda were dispensed the same way, it’s likely soda with no ice would also give you a less than full cup.
Also, don’t go insulting or blaming the worker in this instance. They likely have to follow the guidelines of the job or risk losing it. “Pre-programmed to not be able to problem solve”? Fuck right off with that. If the machine is set to dispense a certain amount of coffee, the worker would either need to press the button twice, giving away more product for free, or press it once and give a half-full cup. This has nothing to do with problem solving. Maybe the customer shouldn’t be pre-prpgrammed to expect more for less. I get the frustration of not having a full cup, but you’d only be getting a half-full cup with or without the ice in it. You are getting what you paid for.
Soda fountains keep being brought up here … The coffee machine in this post evidently measures based on coffee dispensed… If soda were dispensed the same way, it’s likely soda with no ice would also give you a less than full cup.
I’ve worked with those machines before. Most are simply time based triggers. They use knowledge of volume per second to determine pour size. It’s functionally identical to a bartender executing a free pour. The difference however is in why they are doing it. A bartender is doing that to ensure proper ingredient amount - the machine at a franchise is most notibly focused on time saving: a server pushing the button until it is full cannot do multiple things and ‘at best’ can fill two cups at once - (yes, yes, I know you can do more but… let me have this) With the machine a rep can fill multiple glasses unattended and contine working in the background. This is chiefly about efficiency (time is money.) Labor is expensive - coffee is not.
Also, don’t go insulting or blaming the worker in this instance. They likely have to follow the guidelines of the job or risk losing it. “Pre-programmed to not be able to problem solve”? Fuck right off with that.
No. The insult stands. I’ve worked over 10 years in that industry from food service to high dining. I’ve hosted, served, bartended, managed and assisted in opening two start up coffee shops. I have never, in the history of my work, seen a chain or management that would accept that behavior from an employee. Give me the chain number. I’ll call it and speak with the manager - Hell- I’ll speak with a district head. That’s how confident I am in this. I’ve seen similar behavior out of employees and coworkers before- and on days when I was being unquestionably a POS I’ve done it too… it’s wrong. Plain and simple. The marginal cost of the additional beverage is non-existent in the face of future business with the patron whom you kept coming back.
It fails the cost vs profit test, it fails the social test, and it fails the service test.
This is simply beyond reproach. If you feel otherwise please, by all means, explain to us all how a baseline employee was empowered to make a judgement call - that left a customer with such a foul taste in their mouth … that they turned the experience into a social media discussion. That action has now been seen by hundreds of eyes and will effect future purchases. All over arguably pennies in product that likely is thrown out regularly to cycle in fresh coffee.
If the machine is set to dispense a certain amount of coffee, the worker would either need to press the button twice…
(gasp.) Twice? And the problem is solved? See my lack of problem solving statement above. The kid was making excuses and at best was wrong and at worst was being a shit. I covered the machine and the rest of your comments following that above.
I’ve done my time in those trenches: as someone who’s been there: kid was a shit. As a customer, objectively, from the outside: kid was wrong - and likely being a shit. I wouldn’t give them my business following that.
edit:
Punctuation and stuff.
Amen. This Dunkin endangered a customer relationship over a triviality.
Dunkin’ has done some sneaky shrinkflation, but there is a certain mechanical clarity…
I promise you that they have done just that: like every other corporation has. The mechanical clarity is imagined but provides a fine excuse. That machine is configurable - just like any other timed / measured device. Yeah you pushed the ‘small latte’ button … but is that the same small late that x franchise sells across the street (who owns the same machine but different size cups?) It’s software. Anyone who doesn’t think that dunkin’ - a profit driven organization - isn’t going to milk the customer for every penny they can get… is either daft or willfully ignorant.
edit: wording
A lot of bootlicking going here…
OP voted with your money and next time just deny the parasite profit.
This ain’t negotiation and a lot of these consumer discretionary business forgot who pays them. Too much daddy owner attitude, not enough work.
But I guess normies LARP it, so why would am owner respect the customer?
Go to a real coffeeshop. Even we know Dunkin isn’t real coffee.
Any coffee with milk is a milkshake and is for children. Drink your coffee black like your God intended.
Go to a real coffeeshop.
Man unless they state somewhere that each drink only contains x oz I’d be a cunt and tell em to keep pouring. After that: yeah last time I’m visiting that chain. Customers aren’t always right but in this case they probably are.
I truly pity the cities that don’t have a coffeeshop in an old photomat.
And experience the exact same thing. A real iced latte will still be a standard amount of espresso and milk.
Except with better service, better atmosphere, and no premixed crap being spat out of a big machine, all while you support a local business instead of a multinational anti-labor behemoth.
If your barista just presses a button and hands you a cup, you’re at the wrong place for coffee.
Automated espresso machines are becoming the norm all over the world tbh.
Ordering coffee inthe USA triggers meYou might be saying it ironically but honestly: yup. This thread is littered with examples why.
No irony or sarcasm. The USA really triggers me.
ExtremeDullard
Just make it at home its so much better and cheaper.
And there’s lots of subjectivity with coffee; you can get the tools to dial it in exactly how you like it, or just a machine that makes it really easy, with lots of space in-between.
Gee, I’m sure OP didn’t think of that one.
I think this is about presentation,
If you had ordered a hot latte, they would have put it in a cup so it looked full.
If you order just a ice latte, then put it in a cup so it would look full.
You ordered something they hadn’t designed for, and it’s really up to the barista at the moment to decide how to handle it. At larger organizations they probably just have a policy, it’s smaller organizations the barista might top you up.
If you’re not getting a good experience, switch locations.
Dunkin is a franchise, so the local owner should have the ultimate authority on this policy.
On the plus side, if this is the worst part of your day, you had a pretty good day
It’s not. I wish it was
Sorry to hear, I hope your day improves or that tomorrow is a better one
