Café Olé

The bookstore I go to on Sunday mornings carries three drink sizes: small, medium and large; or to use their own words: tall, grande and venti. Fuck those fancy names, I always say small, medium or large when ordering and they always understand. Sometimes the barista will correct me saying something like "oh, you mean venti". . . whatever dude, just give me my frikking caffeine.

Yesterday was no exception to the rule and I ordered my usual small cafe au lait (pronounced as café olé). The dude behind the register asked me if I wanted to upgrade it to a "grande" for only twenty cents more, but I declined. "Small is more than enough" were my very own words.

Turned out that small wasn't really enough and I end up having to buy another small café olé in order to pump some more caffeine into my system and lift my spirit. I used the same cup though, and didn't ask for any discount because seriously, a few cents off in a Sunday coffee would really make it or break it? Any wise barista would've said that he'll give me whatever discount he considers appropiate, as all those coins were gona end in his tip jar anyway, but this guy didn't mention anything and the sole Nickel I got as change went straight to the bottom of his little jar. I'm sure he thought that I was a cheap bastard, because when I was a barista I used to think that of whoever gave me a nickel as a tip. But I learnt my lesson and I was very "customer service" oriented type of guy, giving lots of discounts.

And yes that little coffee shop went out of business; and no it wasn't due to all my discounts.