On yarn and getting "milked"

[sparkfrost]

I had another expedition to the yarn store this weekend. I had originally bought two skeins of that lovely baby alpaca yarn, but after getting through them the scarf was still not long enough. So my friend Gerti and I went back out to Woolwinders in Rockville to get me some more skeins and to then hang out and knit. Well. I guess I wasn't the only one drawn to that yarn, because it was sold out. I spoke to the woman who owns the store, and she is special ordering two more skeins for me, but still, that was disappointing. So I ended up starting early on my friend Chris' Redskins scarf. I bought 4 skeins, two of a rusty red, one cream, and one yellow. Stripes will happen! And tassels! Gerti suggested that I try doing a ribbed scarf, and taught me the purl stitch. However, 3 inches in and the stitch wasn't looking that great with the cotton yarn. So I've pulled it apart and am just doing a garter stitch for this project. When I start on the fingerless gloves I'll give purling another try, but I'll probably also get a thicker yarn to do it in.

So after the yarn store we walked over to Mayorga, a local coffee chain, to drink coffee and knit for a while. I ordered my new favorite drink, a dirty soy chai. I know, it kinda makes me an obnoxious coffee drinker, but here are my justifications: 1)Lactose intolerant, must drink soy. 2)Love chai. 3)Chai is not caffeinated enough to prevent me from getting headaches. 4)Kind of hate how espresso and soy taste together, with a few exceptions. So! It makes the most sense for me to get a soy chai, and have them throw a shot in there. Tasty and prevents caffeine headaches! Rock on! Except for on Saturday, because the barista gave me cows milk. The chai and the espresso masked the taste, so I didn't realize anything was wrong until about halfway through. Which means I drank 8 oz of cows milk. I don't know how many of you are lactose intolerant, but in case you didn't know, digesting dairy products without the aid of an enzyme pill like Lactaid is incredibly painful. I was in a severe amount of pain and discomfort for the next 4 hours, alternating with bouts of nausea so bad I *wished* I were throwing up rather than feeling this. It ruined our plans for Saturday evening, and I felt like shit until I finally was able to go to sleep around midnight.

Look. I'm a barista, I get that sometimes mistakes happen. But I have NEVER made a mistake that could hurt someone. When a person orders soy, I don't assume they're doing it to be trendy, I assume they are either lactose intolerant or have a milk allergy. And I ask! Because if it is intolerance, I just need to rinse out a pitcher. If its an allergy, I need to sanitize a pitcher, or grab one that hasn't yet been used. I don't fuck around with something that can hurt people! And I'm really pissed that this barista either didn't write down that I ordered (and paid for) soy, or didn't care. I've submitted a complaint to the company, though I doubt anything will come of it. And I won't be going back to that coffee shop. Frankly, I'm not really in a place where I'm trusting anyone but me to make my own drink, because I don't want to be poisoned again. Soy. Not an unreasonable request!

Anyhow! This took longer than I though, and I have homework to do. So. Off to work on my final exam, and finish up my term project powerpoint. Til later!

Also- it might make me a hipster, but I am clearly using this icon ironically. SO ANGRY! WILL NOT BE CALM!

Comments

[bunnymcfoo.livejournal.com]

Oh FUCK THAT. I've only been making coffee drinks for, like, a month now, but I'm the one who instituted the Soy Pitcher at work because some of my MORONIC coworkers weren't even rinsing thoroughly between drinks. They honestly thought that people were requesting soy because they were pretentious or trying to make our lives hard or something - but like, other than capps, it's NOT harder to use soy so wtf!?!

The last time I had a really bad exposure to raspberries it was in a dressing on a salad that I'd requested be plain balsamic vinaigrette and which they swore was - I suspect, however, that they used the same tongs or something that they used on the raspberry vinaigrette because otherwise my throat was swelling for shits and giggles. And I know how assholes disbelieve guests when they bring up allergies because I've been working food service for almost a decade now. And yes, sometimes people are douches who request things because they don't like them and justify it with ~allergies~, but 99.999% of the time if someone is getting really particular about what's in a dish it's either a) allergies, b) some other health reason (we have a regular who has to watch her sodium intake like a hawk.), or c) religious dietary restrictions and ALL OF THOSE THINGS ARE IMPORTANT AND SHOULD BE RESPECTED.


Sorry, I apparently have a lot of feelings about this. I just, allergies exist!

Also, yay for knitting! Always buy more yarn than you think you'll need. You can always use the extra for little squares which can then be sewn into a scarf or bag or blanket or something. :3

[sparkfrost.livejournal.com]

I have feelings about this too! It really pisses me off when restaurants don't disclose what all is in their food. I got a "creole" pasta dish from a restaurant a few months ago, and they definitely included cream in the sauce even though it wasn't listed in the menu. Luckily that time I had a Lactaid with me, and took it before I felt too crappy. But still! Disclose!

[bunnymcfoo.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY. Like, whatever, don't give us the recipe, but I have WEIRD allergies and don't want to have problems later because you wanted to keep shit a secret or were being all artistic with your menu descriptions.

This occasionally makes life sad, because I love food and I love eating out and I love desserts and almost every dessert ever these days seems to have raspberries or chocolate (ew) or bananas in it and I get all excited over deserts that don't mention them and then I can't order because when I ask the server what all is actually in the dessert they're like "That bread pudding is made with raspberry-banana bread with a chocolate drizzle" and I'm like, WELL FUCK. D:<

(Sorry for the hyper spam, I've had a lot of caffeine today.)

[sparkfrost.livejournal.com]

That's cool! I'm enjoying your comments, don't apologize!

I'm lucky that I only have lactose intolerance, I can't imagine having multiple food allergies. We had a guy come into the store and ask whether a certain product had nuts in it, which it did. I then asked if he was allergic to all tree nuts or one particular type, and he responded "tree nuts and seeds." omg. Can't even imagine. None of the food we had left was edible for him, all of it contained either nuts or seeds. I felt SO bad. I'm trying to get my bosses to start offering gluten-free stuff as well, but so far no luck.

[thesilentpoet.livejournal.com]

Also cannot have milk. When I was working at Starbucks, I made a point to always clarify if an order with soy was with or without whipped cream, and I always always rinsed out, if not also sanitized the pitchers before and after use. However, I had this one co-worker, who I would watch not only not do that, but use the dairy and soy pitchers interchangeably. I called her on it more than a few times, it got to the point that whenever I ordered a drink I either requested anyone else in the store made my drink, or I'd make her make it over until she did it right. Of course, she never saw me get sick from drinking milk either.

Needless to say, she never liked me much.

[sparkfrost.livejournal.com]

At my store we have a regular family who comes in, and one of their sons has a severe milk allergy. Which means that when he gets his hot apple cider, we not only grab an unused pitcher, but we fill it with 190 degree water, put it on the steam wand, and steam it up even hotter to sanitize the wand and clean off any milk product left. Our methods seem to work, because the epi pen has (thank god) not made an appearance.

But seriously, I don't understand how people are so careless about food allergies. Those can mess up someone badly!

[thesilentpoet.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Of course, I'm coming from a background where I'm used to people not necessarily believing I'm "dairy-sensitive", as I call it, as I apparently don't have the normal symptoms, and I can eat certain cheeses and yogurt (frozen as well) in small amounts.

I always made sure to clean the steam wand in between uses, to the point, I've had people to tell me to just hurry up and make the drinks at times. There's so many reasons I left the business, and that I tend to frequent independent coffee shops more often now.

[lostrack621.livejournal.com]

What happened to you is definitely not okay. But, as a columnist wrote in the Food section of the Washington Post last week, there is no national (or even state in most cases) regulations regarding allergies in dining/food-serving establishments. ...Just one of the many reasons why I always have Lactaid and some of my other crazy herbs with me when I go out to restaurants. ...non-Lactaid gas is DISGUSTING and so painful.

[sparkfrost.livejournal.com]

Lactaid doesn't do any good when I've already unknowingly consumed the dairy. And I don't take Lactaid unless I know (or guess) that dairy might be an ingredient. When I order, and pay for, soy, I expect soy. Allergies shouldn't even come into it, I should get what I paid for.

[lostrack621.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree with you and I would be pissed as HELL. In fact, as soon as I figured out what happened, I probably would've called the place, spoken with the manager, and really ripped them a new one. Mistaking orders should never be excused. :(

And that sucks - if I consume some dairy, I'm at least able to take Lactaid within 15 mins or so and be fine. :(

[sparkfrost.livejournal.com]

I can usually take Lactaid within about 10 minutes of first consumption, and be reasonably ok. But with this drink, I was sipping it slowly over the course of 40 minutes, and I couldn't taste that it was cows milk. It wasn't until the nausea started to kick in that I realized something was wrong. :(

I did file a complaint online, and have received an apology. I'm still not going back there again. First time, the drink wasn't great. This time, the drink made me ill. And, done!

[lostrack621.livejournal.com]

Totally! I mean, it's one thing if it's OBVIOUS, but I know from experience that if it's decent soy, you can't taste the difference (especially with other flavorings).

Yeah, not going back is the best thing - I mean, why patronize a business that obviously does not care about you, the consumer?

JERKS.

[daemonnoire.livejournal.com]

This is why I always, always, always watch what the barista is doing. And after one particularly nasty incident at a con, any time I ask someone to pick me up a drink, I ask them to do the same. I can not count the number of times that I have either caught the person using the milk pitcher, making a big pitcher of milk and pouring it into a line of cups (including mine), or grabbing the milk instead of the soy. And then there was the guy at the coffee shop who fucking SNEERED at me for asking if they had soy, because he didn't see why people drank that damn hippie shit. I am cool with smaller shops not carrying soy because they don't get requests for it all that often, but having someone be an asshole about my allergies just pisses me off.

[sparkfrost.livejournal.com]

Normally I do watch people to make sure they use soy, and I did that last time I was at this coffee shop. This most recent time, I was trying to set all my stuff down and get organized, and didn't even realize he'd started making my drink until he walked it over to me. Never again will I not watch.

Your coffee shop guy sounds like a dick. I would think someone more of a hippie for drinking Parmalat over soy, but even then I'd still serve it to them! Considering that 2/3 of the world's population are thought to be lactose intolerant, soy is not an unreasonable request.

[lostrack621.livejournal.com]

Like you said earlier - you never know why a person orders what they order; could be anything - preference, allergy, etc. Since I rarely order coffee or anything like that, I don't have to be super vigilant with watching..but I was trained as a young kid to go through food orders when I got them at the table - my dad's allergic to cheese and so we always ordered without cheese. Similarly, I do not prefer tomatoes and if a dish comes with them when I've ordered it without, I make it really clear that simply taking the tomatoes off will not cut it -- and if whoever in the back does it, the manager hears about it.

How is it that assholes seem to be in the jobs that most require customer service and compassion? (yourself excluded, of course) - by and large it seems like there are so many more jerks in roles like that than nice, understanding people. I know that you've been frustrated by customers (biscotti lady, for example), but I know that you would NEVER be careless with an order or give lip about it.

[sparkfrost.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest, I give lip about unreasonable requests- bone dry soy cappuccino? Sorry, isn't going to happen, soy doesn't foam the same way cows milk does. I'll make it as dry as I can, but it won't be comparable to a skim cappuccino. But for the most part I try to be accommodating; I know that people are really particular about their coffee and that I don't always know the reason for it. So long as it isn't an impossible request, I will do my very best to comply.

[daemonnoire.livejournal.com]

It was a little coffee place just outside of the town where the big local ren fest is held. I made sure to let people know exactly how he treated me, and some of the more local people went to go have a chat with him. He didn't start carrying soy, but he did apparently stop making nasty remarks about people who asked if he had it. I wouldn't personally know, since I never went in there again.