A recipe...for disaster

Keeping with the Starbucks theme, I would like to point out that all Starbucks drinks have recipes. You know--two shots of espresso, 4 ounces of steamed milk, 2 shots of vanilla...that sort of thing. So why is it that Starbucks beverages can taste wildly different from one barista to the next? I mean, I can understand some variance--they're human after all. But when I get a sickeningly sweet caramel macchiato from one barista and a bitter-to-the-last-drop caramel macchiato from the next, it makes me think that Starbucks isn't really doing a great job of teaching their employees the recipes.

Today's experience falls under the category of you-know-your-drink-is-going-to-suck-when... I nearly always order a caramel macchiato when I go to starbucks. That's my drink. Sometimes I change it up, but not usually. I ordered the old car-mac today and was presented with this question: would you like whipped cream on that? Um, no. Whipped cream is very much not in the recipe. Thanks for playing. A properly made caramel macchiato should have a nice-sized dollop of foam on top. Why would I then want to top my foam with whipped cream?

As it turned out, the drink was OK. Not the best I've ever had, but certainly not the worst. The award for worst drink ever goes to the girl who forgot to put the espresso in my cup. It's going to take something really special to top that one.