Guide to Ordering Coffee - How to Order Coffee

Be it winters or summers, coffee is something that works to de-stress you every time. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee is enough to help you relax and ease off some of your tensions. However, ordering a cup of coffee at a good coffee shop is no simple task in itself. You need to select from amongst the large variety of coffee offered there and then decide on the extra topping that you want, if any. Keeping this in mind, we have provided information that will help you in ordering the perfect coffee for yourself.

Your Guide to Ordering Coffee

To know how to order coffee at a coffee shop, keep the given-below points in mind.

Coffee Lingo

The most basic coffee is the drip coffee, which is nothing more than simple, black coffee. However, no coffee shop serves a single coffee, right? So, you need to make yourself comfortable with the most familiar coffee lingo. Some of the most common terms are:

Espresso: Purely coffee and water, without milk or sweetener
Americano: Espresso and water
Drip Coffee: Old-fashioned brewed coffee (Simple, black coffee)
Dry Coffee: Coffee with more foam
Café Au Lait: Drip coffee with steamed milk
Caffe Breve: Espresso and steamed half-n-half
Caffe Latte: Espresso and steamed milk
Caffe Mocha: Espresso, steamed milk and chocolate
Cappuccino: Espresso and foamed milk
Espresso Con Panna: Shot of espresso, with whipped cream
Espresso Macchiato: Shot of espresso, with a dollop of foam
Granitas: Frozen drinks
Half-caf: One shot each of caffeinated and decaffeinated espresso
Skinny: Coffee made with skim milk
Steamer: Steamed milk with syrup (not necessarily chocolate)
Wet: Coffee with less foam

Coffee Size

Regardless of the type of coffee you go for, you have to decide on the size of the coffee. Espresso, Espresso Con Panna, and Espresso Macchiato come in single, double or triple shots. Rest of the coffees comes in small, medium and large sizes, with only a few coffee shops offering an extra large size. However, the coffee shops rarely use these terms, instead they use fancy terms that mean almost the same thing. In case you do not find the size written in the menu, specify how many ounces you want, depending upon number of shots required.

8 ounce drink has one shot of espresso
12 ounce drink has two shots of espresso
16 ounce drink has three shots of espresso
20 ounce drink has four shots of espresso

Some More Tips

Some coffee shops put two shots of espresso in every drink, be it of any size. So, it is better to specify the number of shots you want.
Caffe Lattes and Caffe Mochas are made both ways, hot and cold. Make sure to specify how you want your coffee.
You can specify the type of milk you want in your coffee, whole, low fat, nonfat, soy and half-n-half. If you do not specify anything, you will get whole milk in your coffee.
Drip coffee might be offered in three varieties, namely a dark roast, a light roast and a decaffeinated brew.
You can easily modify your coffee by adding syrups. Coffee shops offer a number of syrups apart from the chocolate one, including sugar-free syrup.
If you want to limit your intake of caffeine, better go for decaffeinated espresso.
You can tell the coffee maker as to whether you want the drink “for here” or “to go”. ‘For here’ means that you will be served in ceramic mugs, for you to drink your coffee at the shop. ‘On the go’ means that you will be given coffee in paper cups; you can drink it in the shop or take it outside.
After drinking coffee, you are expected to give a tip. The amount of tip will depend upon the quality of service, the quality of coffee and the type of coffee (simple or complex).
After drinking your coffee, make sure to clean up after yourself. The napkins and disposal cups should be put in the waste bin. If a bin has been provided for keeping used ceramic cups, you should put your cup there.

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How to Order Coffee

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