I went for coffee with friends a few days back and it just occurred to me how hard it is to order coffee nowadays... I mean way back when, coffee was just coffee and ordering it was simple as - 'One coffee please?'... Then a little later the sizes were introduced and you could now choose between a regular or a large... Then there was skim milk as opposed to regular milk... Which was cool since I could still understand what I'm ordering...

Today, to order coffee you need to learn an entire new language, with foreign words like espresso, machiatto and frappes... Instead of saying coffee with milk please, you go 'Tall decaf nonfat latte, thanks!'... We don't even say small, regular or large anymore, it's short, tall and grande...

What happened to the good old days when everything was more simple? Why the hell are there three different names for good old coffee with milk (four if you count cappucino, which is basically a latte with extra foam)? Why do you have to ask for an espresso instead of just really strong coffee? Did you know an Americano is just a cup of regular coffee? Why can't I just say cup of coffee? Why is it chai instead of tea? Why? Why? Why?

While researching this post, I also found out a couple of kinda cool facts... I mean hey, who knows, it might come in handy one day if I ever decide to go on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire...

Did you also know that frappucino is a name made up by Starbucks for ice-blended drinks? And that 'Iced Blended Mocha' is copyrighted by Coffee Bean?

Did you know that a caramel machiatto is just a vanilla latte with caramel sauce on top of the foam? There is no caramel inside the drink itself...

So in the end when you go into Starbucks (or every other Starbucks-like outlet) and see that big ass menu behind the counter and wonder what the hell to order, just take the plunge and just randomly pick something out... A cup of coffee's a cup of coffee after all, even if they decide to put extra foam on it... =/