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.
Comment on Ordering coffee in the USA triggers me
kungen@feddit.nu 5 weeks agoSo 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…?
spongebue@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks 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.
yggstyle@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
First: thank you for providing context actually based in facts and industry knowledge opposed to a lot of what is being thrown around.
While yes, absolute consistency is a big part of any brand… most of these brands also focus and typically even build into their training (almost annoyingly so) a focus on making sure the customer leaves happy. These are two very common core values that most chains build their business on.
With that in mind: I’d be hard pressed to assign anything outside either laziness or indifference to the employee OP ran into. If it indeed was a training issue or something they weren’t sure of - that’s what management is for. Letting a customer go with a half full cup and dissatisfied was only going to end poorly.