Comment on Ordering coffee in the USA triggers me
spongebue@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Did you expect them to offset the less ice with more coffee?
In my experience, many iced coffee drinks are made a bit warm and more concentrated. The ice melts a bit, diluting the drink and giving more liquid overall.
Do they do that to an extreme? Probably. But there’s also more to it than “I got a drink with less ice and it wasn’t very full”
kungen@feddit.nu 4 days ago
Is there a big difference in price and/or size if you’d order a normal latte? If not, yes, I’d 100% expect similar sizes.
spongebue@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Again, part of the overall drink is supposed to be made of the water from melted ice. It’s hard to compare sizes perfectly with that in mind, but it’s a less-extreme similarity to comparing a jug of orange juice with a can of concentrate (the kind you mix with water in a pitcher at home). Different products, but also different sizes for a reason.
kungen@feddit.nu 4 days ago
So you mean they have an entirely different “base” coffee when making a normal latte vs an ice latte? A latte should just be espresso and milk, and an iced latte is just that + ice…?
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Depends.
In metal general, if you’re making the coffee + milk, then adding ice, you have to make the coffee part “strong” in one way or another, because that ice is going to melt. It’ll melt fast, too, at the beginning, so not adjusting your process is going to lead to weak, watery iced lattes.
If you then reduce the ice, the problem goes in reverse where the concentration of coffee compounds is higher, so it doesn’t taste like it’s expected to taste.
Now, some places chill batches of the espresso, mix it with the milk chilled, and the ice is just there to extend the time it’s cold, with an expectation of less melt.
Afaik, dunkin doesn’t have a chilled container of the latte shipped in, or made in bulk. They could have changed from the last time I talked to anyone that worked there, but at the time it was in smaller batches and stored at the temp it came out in. So if they changed the amount of ice, it would change the finished drink.
If you make your own iced latte, you’ll likely just make it regular, then pour it over ice. It’ll be thinner, and it’s up to you how you like that or not. Stores tend to go for consistency between products as a priority, so they don’t have as much freedom.
spongebue@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I’ve never worked at a coffee shop, but I know our taste sensitivities are different at different temperatures. I’d be surprised if they were exactly identical products to account both for that, and the fact that your product is about to be diluted when it gets combined with ice (depending on the temperature before that happens). The ingredients may be more or less the same, but the proportions and concentrations may not be.