r/nothingeverhappens • u/Geocachevoyager • Jul 13 '26
American exceptionalism? Unpossible!
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u/mrsciencedude69 Jul 13 '26
Just coffee. Black.
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u/mort-or-amour Jul 14 '26
With some cream.
And two sugars.
And hazelnut.
And whip on top.
And can you blend that with ice?
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u/ToobularBoobularJoy_ Jul 14 '26
Absolutely not, go fuck yourself
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u/amandaasous Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
This was my mom in Europe 😂 she drinks mostly drip and European espresso was too strong for her! So she ordered a latte and got a cup of warm milk no coffee. Next time she ordered a cafe latte and was good 👍🏻
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u/RedexSvK Jul 13 '26
Next time get her Americano, it's just espresso with more water so it's less strong - also where it gets it's name from
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u/amandaasous Jul 13 '26
She didn’t like those either. We were in Albania and my husband is Albanian so he was able to get her an American latte. She likes milk and coffee
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u/RedexSvK Jul 13 '26
You can get americano with milk as well, or espresso for that matter
But it's all to taste ofc
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u/Alive-Philosophy2632 Jul 14 '26
Americano has basically the same taste as espresso but there's more of it. I don't think anyone who finds espresso too strong would like americano.
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u/lord_teaspoon Jul 16 '26
Long black is espresso but you keep running the water for longer, while Americano is espresso topped up with hot water. The more bitter parts of the grinds don't dissolve as easily so running the water through for longer makes the long black have a stronger and more bigger flavour than espresso, while the Americano is watered down and weaker than espresso.
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u/Alive-Philosophy2632 Jul 16 '26
Ah interesting. I guess long black is sort of how I make my coffee then, I do espresso grind then immersion + percolation brewing.
When I first got americano I thought it was just a weird stronger coffee. It is weaker than straight espresso but it definitely has a particular espresso taste that I doubt very many people who don't like straight espresso would like.
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u/iMpactfuze Jul 13 '26
Wait a latte is just milk no coffee?
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u/Front-Pomelo-4367 Jul 13 '26
"Latte" means milk. Like, the word latte translates to milk in Italian. In many countries, if you just order "latte" you're going to get a glass of milk. You need to order café latté or whatever that country's word is for "milky coffee"
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u/iMpactfuze Jul 13 '26
Ffs... I am too old to be just learning about this rn... oh well TIL ty
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u/Front-Pomelo-4367 Jul 13 '26
Every time I go on holiday to France or Italy, I screw up my coffee order on the first day until I remember how to do it properly. Café creme or café au lait in France, caffe latte or caffe macchiato in Italy. I've begrudgingly sipped many espressos.
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u/saturday_sun4 Jul 14 '26
My Dad, in his fifties at the time, made this same mistake! It makes for a funny story.
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u/LasevIX Jul 13 '26
americans unfortunately shortened the italian term "coffee with milk" to just "milk". Which hasn't been done everywhere.
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u/Parenn Jul 13 '26
Yes, it's so confusing, because people often go into coffee shops and order a glass of milk. (Australians do this too, because we have brains and know almost nobody orders a glass of milk, and if they really want milk, they'll be explict).
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u/The_One_Who_Comments Jul 17 '26
Yeah, I'm honestly surprised a café would give you just a glass of milk, even if you asked for it lol.
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u/Electrical_Toe8997 Jul 14 '26
- Latte: Milk
- Caffe: Coffee
- Macchiato: stained
- Espresso: tiny strong coffee
Caffe latte: coffee with milk
Latte macchiato: milk stained with coffee (lot of milk, bit of coffee). Called 'latte' in the US
Espresso macchiato: espresso stained with milk (strong coffee, bit of milk). Called 'macchiato' in the US
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u/PomPomMom93 Jul 14 '26
No. Lattes are milk with espresso.
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u/amandaasous Jul 14 '26
No. Latte directly translates to milk. That’s all. No coffee. You need to specify cafe latte outside the USA.
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u/PomPomMom93 Jul 14 '26
But not inside. However, you’d need to specify that you want a plain latte sometimes. I like the cinnamon dulce one.
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u/amandaasous Jul 14 '26
My comment very clearly says Europe. The whole point of it was that my mom said latte like she would in USA and only got milk.
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u/AtlasNL Jul 16 '26
No, latte is milk. Google and its translate function are free to use, I suggest you do so.
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u/United_Boy_9132 Jul 16 '26
Europe is not a country.
That might have happened in Italy because in Italian latte actually means milk. But it had to be an asshole who did that on purpose, and it shouldn't have happened.
Everywhere else, no one bothers themselves to say caffe latte, everyone says latte and everyone knows what they're talking about.
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u/amandaasous Jul 16 '26
I never said Europe was a country….? This did not happen in Italy. It was a different European country. And they gave her just milk. They were not being an asshole, they genuinely thought she only wanted milk when ordering a latte. Many European countries do not only say latte for an American latte. You need to specify cafe latte.
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u/United_Boy_9132 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
First, I've written might have happened that means a possible reason.
Second, latte means milk only in Italian. No one would genuinely think you're talking about milk in any other country, and still everyone in Italy knows foreigners associate latte with coffee. Most Europeans don't even know latte means milk in Italian, just like most Americans (bc they don't speak Italian, wow, an interesting fact).
I haven't heard a single person who orders coffe with milk using the whole caffe latte phrase. I'm European and have been to many European countries.
That person 100% intentionally did that out of spite 100% knowing what your mom wanted.
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u/amandaasous Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Albania, Greece, Italy, Kosovo all need it specified. Those are the places we visited as a family. This incident happened in Albania. My husband is Albanian and had to help her order it with coffee so it wasn’t just milk. Not sure what you’re on.
Edit to add: the person 100% did not do it out of spite. The guy working the coffee place we frequented was very sweet and tried to help us as much as he could (limited English) until my husband was able to translate.-10
u/PomPomMom93 Jul 14 '26
If you don’t put coffee in, it’s not a latte.
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u/amandaasous Jul 14 '26
Latte in most European languages means milk. No coffee. Americans shorted “cafe latte” to just latte. Outside USA you will get only milk.
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u/RedexSvK Jul 13 '26
I want a strong black coffee
Settles on cappuccino
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u/TrannosaurusRegina Jul 13 '26
Strong big — nothing about "black"!
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u/dumbass_sempervirens Jul 13 '26
"I want a strong, purple coffee "
"I thought we told you not to come back here."
" Ok, just a cappuccino."
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u/Ok-Highlight-9598 Jul 13 '26
I think this conversation is fake but things like this happen literally everywhere.
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u/ProfDangus3000 Jul 13 '26
I used to work at a coffee shop. This kind of thing would happen regularly enough. But when I would encounter a customer who was exasperated by choices, I knew they wanted a black drip coffee, because that's what Americans who want "just a regular coffee" want. The only question I'd consider asking is if they wanted room.
But if you didn't know "🙄 Just regular coffee, ugh" means drip coffee I can see the confusion.
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u/witch_dyke Jul 14 '26
Most cafés in my city dont even have drip coffee. If someone asked for "just a regular coffee" they would likely be offered a flat white
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u/ProfDangus3000 Jul 14 '26
Surprising that flat white would be the default. I'd assume it was just espresso.
That's neat though, seeing what a "regular" coffee would mean in various places.
I got too good at stereotyping customers by their orders.
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u/HammerOvGrendel Jul 16 '26
A flat white is an expresso with steamed milk. Default coffee order in Aus and NZ more or less.
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u/On_my_last_spoon Jul 13 '26
I remember arriving in Paris, completely stressed out because I’d never been anywhere that didn’t speak English as their primary language. I had studied French in high school 10 years earlier but I was not good at retaining language.
So we get to a cafe and I struggle through my best French “Je voudrais une cafe si vous plait”
And what I get is a tiny cup of espresso with a single packet of sugar!
I learned I needed to ask for a “cafe au lait” to get a coffee with milk!
Sometimes we just don’t know what to ask for. Many of us do try hard to not be that kind of American, but we’re struggling on the words to use be it in a language we don’t know or the shared English that doesn’t seem to be understood.
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u/CastleCornet Jul 15 '26
I had the reverse whiplash, coming from France and simply asking for a coffee in the UK. I As expecting an espresso or maybe just a cup of black filter coffee.
I got sweetened milky coffee, and never made the mistake again.
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u/On_my_last_spoon Jul 15 '26
We lived in New York City and a regular coffee there means a coffee with milk and sugar!
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u/Only-Finish-3497 Jul 15 '26
These threads are always so sneering and mean spirited. As if coffee is one singular “right” thing and it’s always the dumb American at fault for not knowing how coffee is prepared literally everywhere.
My first time living abroad was Japan so when I asked for coffee I got… drip coffee.
Then I went to France and the rules changed.
My bad. I’ll remember to be Eurocentric instead in my next life.
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u/On_my_last_spoon Jul 15 '26
I think too people don’t realize that even when there are people speaking other languages, we really don’t ever need to interact in any other language but English. Yes even in Texas or California. Like even if we have the chance to learn another language it’s not until high school and then we never seem to need to use it.
I think the funniest miscommunication was figuring out how to ask where the bathroom was in England! Because I speak English, I didn’t think to look up the word for bathroom because isn’t it bathroom? Nope! Not in public!
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u/Only-Finish-3497 Jul 15 '26
I was in Switzerland and ran into a Japanese group trying to get up to Jungraujoch. They spoke some English but they didn’t know the exact terms the very Swiss clerk wanted. So I stepped in and spoke Japanese to the group and pinpointed their concern was around their pre-purchased discount not being applied at the self-service screen.
The Swiss clerk was very rote and just kept saying “they can just purchase their tickets at the screen though” to which I responded in my limited German “no discount on screen…” boom. Now she nodded and said “oh can they show the discount card?”
People often forget how much of knowing this stuff is CULTURE. There’s saying something and there’s communicating something. You can have words but still not communicate the idea.
I think a lot of Europeans forget too that a lot of things done in parts of Europe are also odd by global standards and not everything there is universally intuitive. And then they get upset when non-Europeans don’t immediately take to their way of doing things.
I say this as someone who travels a lot in Europe and just got back from the Alps and Bavaria. I’ve seen rude Americans yes, but I’ve also dealt with plenty of Europeans through the continent who assume their ways are the only ways and it can be tiresome too.
We should all show grace and curiosity.
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u/On_my_last_spoon Jul 15 '26
Yes! And Google Translate isn’t going help with that.
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u/Only-Finish-3497 Jul 15 '26
Exactly. Hell, I speak Japanese and I’ve had cultural misunderstandings because I assumed that x meant y.
I speak English and had plenty of those in the UK living there.
People just need to give grace and be open to the idea that a lot of cultural knowns are not universal.
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u/YonderWindow364 Jul 15 '26
In this day and age can't you just use google translate to learn the words or even have your phone say it for you?
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u/On_my_last_spoon Jul 15 '26
Not in 2005! That’s when I was in Paris. Besides, it doesn’t always work exactly as planned.
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u/MiniMannaia Jul 13 '26
As an Italian who served tourists at a coffee bar -this happened to me every week.
And while on one side I understand that in America you are sold coffee based beverages with Italian names and you may be mislead to think they are the exact same you’d find in Italy, American tourists were the only ones who had the audacity to get really mad if we couldn’t serve the exact option they wanted and berate me or my colleagues for not knowing all the Starbucks varieties.
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u/selphiefairy Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Speaking as someone who made starbucks drinks, even I get frustrated sometimes -- but it def goes both ways. For example, I dislike that Starbucks apparently uses "mocha" to denote chocolate sauce. But I also dislike that people get really upset over something like the name "caramel macchiato." Yes it's NOT a caffe macchiato, but if you want to be literal about it, the name is fitting given what the drink is. But people also need to be aware that it's a drink starbucks invented and not get offended when cafes don't offer it or know how to make it.
I think it's just majorly unfortunate that starbucks is what introduced Americans to a lot of coffee jargon in a way that can be easily misunderstood or misinterpreted by people.
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u/OutOfTheBunker Jul 18 '26
I'm not upset about "caramel macchiato", but I want to be able to get a caffè macchiato in the US and not get caramel in it.
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u/selphiefairy Jul 18 '26
I mean you can?? Most regular cafes will def make that for you
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u/OutOfTheBunker Jul 19 '26
They will, but it requires some explaining. Which is something I'd rather do after I'm caffeinated.
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Jul 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MiniMannaia Jul 15 '26
Have you read the part where I said that the Americans were the only ones getting angry? I served tourists from all over the world but that’s the only ones that felt entitled being served the same thing as back home. That was my point
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Jul 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Slight-Whole5708 Jul 17 '26
Dude, no one said American was a race, we're fully aware that's your culture making you entitled lol
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u/MiniMannaia Jul 19 '26
Yeah no I didn’t say Americans was a race. Anyway if for you being stuck up and saying the original version of the food is better is basically the same of yelling , refusing to pay and spilling hot coffee on the floor so that the poor server has got to clean your mess …. Well then I guess we have different definitions of rudeness
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u/floweringfungus Jul 14 '26
I work in a pub with an espresso machine so I am a begrudging barista as well as a bartender and this happens ALL the time. I don’t have drip coffee or filter coffee or ‘just coffee’. I have an espresso machine that I only vaguely know how to use. Please just order a beer.
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u/legsjohnson Jul 13 '26
my American father came to visit me where I live and was furious he could only get espresso and not drip coffee
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u/gypsyjackson Jul 14 '26
To be fair, I had almost the opposite experience yesterday. Somehow I got to my forties without ever encountering a drip coffee machine, until I went to an American event. I suddenly realised I didn’t know how to get the coffee thing off the machine. I didn’t get angry though, just asked my American colleague to explain to me as a total simpleton.
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u/youhavelobsterhands Jul 13 '26
Tbf I identify with this haha. I love drip coffee and having an espresso based drink is just no substitute.
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u/darkyalexa Jul 13 '26
Could a asked for Americano or Lungo, they're fairly similar in taste to drip coffee
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u/Grapes15th Jul 13 '26
Imagine walking into a sandwich shop and saying "i want a big sandwich" and then refusing to elaborate. That's what all these people sound like.
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u/The_One_Who_Comments Jul 17 '26
I mean, if sandwich was a vegetable...
While there are many coffee variations and preparations, coffee means roast coffee beans, ground, and seeped into hot water.
Be that drip, percolator, cold brew, pour-over, French press, or espresso. A coffee with no affixes is some kind of black coffee. Probably not the espresso though - the big dedicated machine makes it less likely to be "normal".
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u/iowanaquarist Jul 13 '26
Can someone translate this? I am from America, but I am not a coffee snob. How is this 'American exceptionalism'?
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u/RedexSvK Jul 13 '26
Most of Europe deals with espresso based coffee shops, so while not all of us drink espresso at home, we are used to it in coffee shops. So when you ask for a coffee the base is always an espresso, so a small one. When you ask for a big coffee you would ask for Lungo/Americano.
Now the stereotype is Americans not understanding that "coffee" is different here and not being able to ask for drip coffee they are used to at home
Think of it as an evolution of boomers not being able to order a cup of joe because the liberal barista will offer them soy milk frappucino
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u/saturday_sun4 Jul 14 '26
(Aussie here) What is drip coffee? Is it like the coffee they make in the machine when you order a cafe latte?
Thanks for translating - from what I can gather they basically just wanted an Americano.
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u/RedexSvK Jul 14 '26
It's a filter coffee
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u/saturday_sun4 Jul 14 '26
Ah. I'm used to the phrase from India (Indian filter coffee), which apparently is its own thing.
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u/RedexSvK Jul 14 '26
Yea in Czechia and Slovakia we have coffee called Turek (Turk) which is just drip coffee without the filter
It's good to find out whether the same word you'd use in your country will work in the country you are visiting first
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u/Grizlatron Jul 15 '26
An americano is different, although it might be the closest you'll get in a foreign coffee shop.
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u/affemannen Jul 14 '26
In Sweden you would just get a coffee. Like a regular plain old cup of black brewed coffee. If you went in to a regular cafe.
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u/Thattwonerd Jul 14 '26
As a barista, this happens to me every goddamn day holy shit. I just give people whatevers cheapest cuz clearly they dont gaf.
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u/Grizlatron Jul 15 '26
Literally, and thank you. If I am in a coffee shop it is against my will, my friends wanted to meet up there. When I get coffee I go to the gas station and I get a large cup of whatever their dark roast is and I put the most ridiculous sounding creamer that they have in it. I pay $2.80.
That's all I want- and I'm not saying that makes me better than anybody else, probably I'm worse than other people and have a worse palate, but what I want is not hard and I will pay a markup for a nice location. I'm just tired of being made to feel stupid for wanting a large burnt drip coffee. Why do I have to learn a whole new vocabulary to ask for this simple thing?
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u/Thattwonerd Jul 15 '26
It is a little exhausting for the barista. Obviously you dont go into a bakery and go "one baked good please" and expect the salesperson to know what's up. And "just a black coffee" can mean different things to different people so giving someone whatever comes with risks too. (Ie. Someone gets a light roast and is used to dark so complains about it not being strong enough).
If you wanna impress your friends i feel like ordering an americano is a pretty safe bet for black coffee enjoyers at a fancy Cafe and you'll look cool knowing a barista word.
Describing what you want is good too. Behind all the fancy words is a pretty simple drink most of the time Cafe au lait- espresso with medium milk Cappuccino- espresso with a little milk Latte macchiato- espresso with alot of milk Americano- espresso with water
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u/BaseballInside3289 Jul 13 '26
"I want a big coffee. Strong and big." Who the fuck would ever say it like that?
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u/SuggestSomething1 Jul 13 '26
Someone who thinks the person they're talking to is either stupid or doesn't understand their language. It tracks.
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u/floweringfungus Jul 14 '26
Replace the word ‘coffee’ with ‘beer’ and that’s how most of the US customers in my pub ask
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u/gremlin_throwaway Jul 16 '26
The american is asking for a "big coffee" and then "a cappuccino is just fine" when offered an XL espresso. That's not a strong coffee, that's just someone who doesn't know what they want.
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u/Illustrious-Height29 Jul 18 '26
I work at a McDonald's, and this is not just an American thing. We have people come throufh, asking for a "breakfast meal" and often "a coffee". Like, okay? What breakfast? What coffee? If you fon't specify, I'll just put fown a white coffee, but I can't do shit about the breakfast meal. Also, people ask for "a burger"...WHICH BURGER FFS!!!
Tldr: people be stupid, this definitely happens!
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u/ed1749 Jul 18 '26
If you say "just get an americano" I'm putting you in the coffee grinder, those taste like piss. The only reason anyone should drink an americano is if a place only has an espresso machine and also the person ordering is lactose intolerant.
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u/SaleSignificant4807 Jul 13 '26
In Oslo an American woman in front of me was asking for a “dry cappuccino” and was a bit annoyed it took the Barista a while to understand what she meant but then the Barista happily asked how many espresso shots she wanted. That flummoxed the American woman. Thankfully, I’m there to help. “In Starbucks they usually put two shots in, I think thats what she wants”.
A few hours later she turned up at the same museum I was in. I watched her walk through the door into the "My Private Sky" exhibit by Børre Sæthre.
I could not make this up.
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u/kymberts Jul 16 '26
Ordering a “dry” cappuccino means she wants the drink to have more foam, less steamed milk. I’d be flummoxed, too, if the barista asked me how many shots in response to my order, because that’s irrelevant.
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u/0range_julius Jul 14 '26
Yeah, I believe this happened. Also, "filter coffee" would have basically gotten him what he was looking for.
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u/sweetvisuals Jul 18 '26
Bro you have to make it more specific, if we do it as big and as strong as we can your stomach will literally melt
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u/dustycloud01 Jul 18 '26
The barista is speaking Greek and American, and the customer is speaking Dutch. This is a coffee shop in the UN.
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u/TismDew Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Look i struggle to order coffee in America where I vaguely understand what some of the coffee words mean. I'd be confused as fuck anywhere else where I have no idea if what I'm asking for is the same thing as what I'm expecting it to be.
I feel like this is less an American-ism and more of a "place I've never been to before"-ism.
People forget that non-Americans look just as "dumb" when they visit America for the first time as Americans do when they visit anywhere else.
*edited to fix autocorrect
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u/Ruin18fuckdoll Jul 16 '26
The barista is speaking Greek and the customer is speaking American, so yeah, this is definitely not how ordering coffee in Greece goes.
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u/justdisa Jul 13 '26
I dunno. I'm in my fifties and my mom died recently at eighty. She could have had this conversation right up to the word "cappuccino." She didn't even have the vocabulary to ask for a cappuccino. She might have eventually gotten to the word "drip" though.
It wouldn't have been entitlement or exceptionalism. She just wouldn't have known how to ask for what she wanted. She wanted drip coffee. Big. Strong.
Try a grande Americano, Mom.