Reddit Is Roasting This Complicated Starbucks Order
For years now, Starbucks employees all around the world have united over one mutual frustration: The brand allowing — and encouraging — customers to customize their drinks as much as they want. Although the company has good intentions, the rise of TikTok videos showing wacky off-the-menu 'secret' Starbucks drinks that regularly go viral has led to baristas having to sometimes create ridiculous drinks just to keep customers happy.
While Starbucks proudly claims that there are more than 170,000 ways in which patrons can customize their drink, baristas have taken to social media to show the world just how wild the orders can get (via Starbucks Stories). A Starbucks representative even admitted to Insider that 75% of their customers only have up to three modifications for their drinks, but that also means that the remaining 25% tend to get a bit out of hand.
From customers that have walked in asking for 41 pumps of syrup to be added to their coffee, as well as requests for heaps of sugar and ice, baristas have had all sorts of strange requests (via Spoon University). Some even order what are supposed to be limited-edition seasonal drinks at Starbucks year-round, just by customizing a drink enough. But, of all the over-the-top requests that Starbucks baristas see every day, a recent order for a Venti traditional Caffè Misto has sparked a discussion on Reddit for just how ridiculously the drink has been modified.
Reddit can't get over how much sugar this Starbucks order has
As seen in a picture of the order posted on a Starbucks Subreddit, a customer asked for what seemingly could have been an innocent Caffè Misto (which is half coffee and half milk, via Starbucks Stories & News) — but, things got complicated when 10-plus modifications were made to it.
While the request for extra whip, sprinkles, and drizzles may not be out of the ordinary, the customer also asked for eight packets of sugar, eight pumps of mocha, five pumps of vanilla, 12 pumps of dark caramel sauce, and more than 20 more pumps of different syrups. Redditors wondered whether, after all this, the drink would have any room for actual coffee at all!
Others wondered why anybody would add so many different flavors to the drink and couldn't imagine it tasting any good after all that. As expected, there was also concern over just how much sugar the drink must have had. To put things in perspective, Popsugar found that just one pump of Starbucks' vanilla syrup and caramel sauce has 20 calories, 5 grams of carbs, and 5 grams of sugars. Now, multiply the vanilla and caramel syrups by five and add all the other syrups and sauces that the customer requested, and the final result was likely a very sugary and unhealthy drink.
As one person on Reddit said, "PSA to everyone out there — if you don't actually like coffee and need to add this much stuff to it to make it palatable, you don't actually have to come to Starbucks. No one's forcing you. No one. You can save money and your health for that matter, by just not coming."
Another comment offered some insight and said that, in some countries, holding a Starbucks cup in hand is still a status symbol. So, it could be likely that even customers who hate coffee so much that they'd rather disguise it with heaps of syrup, sauce, and sugar, could very well be ordering a drink like this only to be seen holding one — or to go viral, which clearly this ones succeeded in doing.