What is the most expensive Starbucks drink you can concoct?

Billy Chasen wanted to use his free-drink coupon for the most expensive drink possible. Here's what he came up with: A 13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel.  It cost a total of $13.76 (with tax). (Read the story at anerroroccurred...)

Comments

[Juicy]

Uggh, what a waste of paper! Did you see the receipt he had at the end? She punched in each individual extra shot. Use the Quantity button and help save a tree!!

[Rawrrr Barista]

ROFL ZOMGWTFBBQ

That...sounds nasty. Did he even enjoy it, or was he just being a jerk for the sake of it?

[Rawrrr Barista]

I actually think it would probably be way to sweet, however the shots probably balanced that out.
Now the real question, how many calories were in that drink, anybody have a guess???

[Rawrrr Barista]

Oh and if you would like a drink just as nasty as the one this man probably ordered, try the sugar free mocha *puke*

probably not too many calories as espresso is very low calorie-wise... also, it would be super easy to make a more expensive drink... get less shots so there would be room for more milk... order 4oz of organic, 4oz of soy, and a few pumps of most all the syrups... add chocolate chips, matcha powder, vanilla bean.. etc, etc.

[Rawrrr Barista]

lol yeah..

so is 4oz the amount we start charging for soy and breve?? because I have had disgruntled employees charge angrier customers who ask for an americano to be topped off with steamed breve or soy...

[fuwalda]

If people just want a little bit of soy in their drinks, I don't charge. But if they want it steamed, they have to pay. At least in my book.

What's the point in coming up with such an expensive, but undrinkable drink?
That was just a waste of paper, syrups, coffee and recovery coupon.

[Sheik]

Forget about "waste of syrups, etc..."

The douchebag who ordered this is a waste of LIFE.

[max]

Seems like if you used ristretto shots, you could get twice as much for the same price, no?

[Stacy]

Ok the story is a little funny. Retarded but funny.

"probably not too many calories as espresso is very low calorie-wise"

um, yeah right. A Venti soy WM, just by itself is 560 calories. Even if you take into account that there wasn't very much room for soy, it would still be at the very least a 600 calorie drink. Espresso has 5 calories for every shot, each syrup has 100 calories for 5 pumps(which comes in a Venti).

Rawrrr Barista,
According to the BRS, you start charging at 4oz. If it's under that, it is considered a condiment.

[Dave]

Is it acceptable to have a pastries in the drink?

[Kit]

I can't imagine there being much room for milk at all in that drink.

[FLASM]

...as in a Peppered Bacon, Egg & Cheese Latte?
mmmmmmmmm

[R]

If someone orders a tall bold with 1 pump of vanilla, do you guys charge them for syrup?

[seventysix [76]]

Yeah, I would. However, sometimes I'll have customers who want 1 pump of some syrup and 1 pump of another and I usually don't charge for both, just one.

[Matt]

I believe according to Starbucks own Beverage Resource Manual that they're technically only allowed to charge for the first extra syrup added to a drink. I know there are baristas that don't do this, and I'll double check, but technically he should have only had one 30 cent charge for the extra syrups.

[rightattitude]

Matt, you are right -- charge only for one extra syrup. I had a drink like that today -- there were 4 syrups in it. Only one extra got charged - the rest is "sub" on the register.

[BaristaB]

hmmm... at our holiday meeting our SM told us that if it was out of recipe that we needed to charge for it. so if someone wants 1p H in their CM you would have to charge. if they wanted 1p P in their PM then don't charge.

He can go ahead and get whatever nasty drink he wants. He's the one who has to drink it.

[Veen]

And if I remember right, you don't get charged for syrup already in a beverage if you want extra. So that extra white mocha, which was entered as an extra mocha, wouldn't be counted as well.

Some people are just jackasses.

[aeiou]

Did the rule change about syrups? I could have sworn that it said that you didn't charge for one pump of syrup, but two or more you would charge for. I've even been charging customers for a tall latte instead of a tall mocha if they only want one pump of mocha and no whipped cream because I thought I had read that in the bev. resource manual.

[Darleen]

In regards to all of the questions about charging/not charging for syrups in a drink. I have a great idea....next shift you work, open up the BRM and look it up. I have seen so many uncertain baristas on here, myself included at times. Read the manual, it will give you a quick refresher. Tomorrow when I go in, I'm going to pull it out on my lunch and read that sucker till all of my questions are answered. MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!!!!!!!

[chitown's best/angriest barista]

most expensive drink we ever had was a guy buying two mugs and wanting 10 doppio espressos in each, for a total of 40 shots of espresso, plus the cost of the 2 mugs, totalled something like $43. we thought he was going to die, but my ASM said that after he left our store, his life -and the explosion of his heart- was no longer our responsibility.

re: the 10 doppio espressos.

I have done that for a party, where I was out of coffee. Ran down to Starbucks, had them pull a similar amount of shots and took home to use for mixing in a few alcoholic drinks.

when i said espresso doesn't have many calories, i meant just that... espresso (which is coffee) has hardly any calories at all.... next time you quote someone and tell them what's up read what they wrote... espresso doesn't mean a sugar-laden espresso drink... it means heart, body, and crema! Happy Holidays!

[heidi]

thats great good for this dude!

[VEGASSM]

Last I remember any syrup not included in the recipe you charge for, even if it's only one pump. If it's extra syrup in the drink there's no charge. Also you only charge once for an added syrup to a drink even if it's more than one.

[asmgirl]

Hey Vegassm-
I'm with you on the syrups. My question is how do you account for the inventory? We get a lot of caramel sauce lovers who want extra extra extra caramel on their frappuccinos and cms. I add extra caramel sauce when I partner bev my bev checks, but maybe there's a better alternative?

[Von]

In regards to the syrup charging ambiguity, you wouldn't charge someone for both syrups if they ordered an Iced venti 3 pump white mocha, 3 pump mocha. They are alotted 6 pumps of whatever they want in that Iced Venti Syrup drink. Ring it up as either a white mocha or a mocha, and then sub any additional syrups untill the 6 pump alottment is surpassed, at which point you would begin charging.

[Stacy]

Anon,
Maybe you should read the post you were responding to when you wrote that. Rawrrr Barista said, "Now the real question, how many calories were in that drink, anybody have a guess???" To which, your response was "probably not too many calories as espresso is very low calorie-wise." Using my context clues (grade school, anyone?), I read it as you were thinking the entire drink wasn't that many calories due to the 13 shots of espresso. Before you attempt to be a smartass, you might want to check to see if you're the one in step with the rest of the class... Happy Holidays to you too.

But wouldn't the 13 shots take up more room in the cup, and therefore amount to less of the calorific WM itself?

[Joe Clark]

You’re worse than Gawker with the refusal to provide a hat tip (me).

Von, If a drink gets syrup of any kind by receipe you do not charge extra for any syrup over the allotment of any size period!

[Stacy]

Anon,
Did you even read what the guy ordered?? Yes, 13 shots take up a lot of room. 13oz of room to be exact. Which leaves 7oz of room in the cup. So add each syrup (3 syrups at 5 pumps each, 1 syrup [WM] at at least 6 pumps to account for the extra wm. It equals less room for the soy. ... It is possible that the barista only put one pump of each syrup, but I doubt it because of the way he was rung up. Use your math skills. While the espresso took up a grand total of 65 calories for 13oz, there was still 7oz in the cup filled with heavy calorie ridden items (each syrup, soy, and whip).

If you eat a regular McDonald's hamburger versus your friend who eats a 6" veggie sandwich from Subway, you are still ingesting more calories than your friend even though your portion of food is smaller.

[sm]

I went round and round with a ssc person on this. If someone wants a syrup or syrups added to their beverage (not in the original recipe), you charge for the syrup but only once. If they want extra of the syrup already in the recipe, you don't charge extra. The number of pumps of syrup does not matter in how we charge. New syrup-30 cents. Existing syrup-no charge. The drink that started this post should have charged for the add shots, soy, one add syrup, and caramel sauce. This way jackasses like this guy can't try to run up the bill.

[Guera]

That's awesome! And why not? Cheers!

[zoom]

So if I asked for a large cup of caramel syrup what would I be charged?

(either caramel variety?)

okay everyone, I don't work at SB, but I have your syrup answer. (at least im 99% sure I do)

If someone orders a drink like a Vanilla Latte, they can get as many pumps of vanilla without being charged, however, as soon as they ask for a different flavor, then you charge for each new flavor.

This information was given to me by a black apron.... If its correct, only your manual will know =]

Happy Holidays

[cw]

Couldn't he have gotten 26 shots in that cup if the shots had been pulled short?

[Ryan]

she's a 15*****, she's too new to know about the quantity button! =p

to clear up syrups: If the syrup is doubled, you add "xtra syrup"...if I get a Grande 8 pump --- it is an "xtra syrup" drink. We used to get a lot of people who wanted LOTS of caramel on their caramel macchiatos, and it got to the point where our DM pointed out that we were actually losing money on making those drinks!

For holiday, the most expensive regular-drink I've received is an Iced Quad Venti Vanilla ENL. It goes up to $5.54 tax included, in MA.

[BaristaB]

she's a 15*****, she's too new to know about the quantity button! =p

I am a 15***** and I know about the quantity button... don't assume.

There's a couple people who I have seen on two different occasions now at my store in Lexington, KY. They order, with a straight face, two iced, eight shot, venti, nonfat, no ice, 15 splenda cinnamon dolce lattes with extra whip and dolce sprinkles. I have no idea how you could seriously drink something like that and not throw up. I think the total for the two drinks is like $15ish. Ridiculous.

[Bunnyspeciallatte]

I went and ordered a Grande 1/2 caf 2p caramel 1p cin 1p tn cr driz inside and out nonfat wc and cin sprinkles and they charged me for every syrup and cr sauce and I told them that a grande comes with 4 pumps of syrup and they should sub the others and they said no that they had to charge for every kind of syrup that they put in the drink so I thanked them and told them that I would not pay that much for a drink and they said that they would ask a supervisor and I just left.

[Eric]

They were definitely wrong, but wow, what a drink.

[sm]

Ryan,

Look in the manual. Extra of the same syrup= no charge. Extra of another syrup charge extra only once. Any drink can only get more expensive by .$30 for extra syrup. DM's can't make up new standards.

bunny-
i would have charged you for at least a couple of those extras, especially caramel sauce, because caramel sauce is never something you can "sub," and because you seem like a bitch and drinks like that are just irritating to make, and from all the starbucks experience i've had people who order crap like that order it more for the fancy sounding nature of it, rather than the flavor, since there can't be any flavor other than sticky sugar to that. really, it's a coffee shop, how about you order actual coffee for once?
but sometimes i just like to be a bitch right back.
:)

[CapLover]

He should of got a 20 shots venti 6 pumps peppermint white mocha, with carmel sauces.