Why Has Coffee Ordering Become So Complicated?
Ordering a coffee now often means hearing about roast curves, flavor layers and single-origin beans before a cup is chosen. Starbucks once used Tall, Grande and Venti to mark sizes; today many menus explain origins in detail. For newcomers, that detail acts as a barrier rather than a welcome.
The shift reflects a coffee knowledge culture that prizes flavor and quality, and devoted drinkers gain from it. The concern is scale: the market keeps expanding and depends on a broad customer base, so menus that skip the plain word coffee can confuse people who just want a quick drink.
Walking into a coffee shop, you might want to simply order a coffee, only to be met with a barrage of professional explanations about roast levels and flavor profiles. From Starbucks' Tall, Grande, and Venti to today's coffee shops offering detailed introductions to single-origin beans, ordering a coffee seems to have become increasingly intimidating. For seasoned enthusiasts, this might be a welcome change; but for ordinary consumers who just want a cup of coffee, the complicated menu has instead become a silent deterrent. Starting from this everyday scenario, this article explores the tension between the current state of menu design in the coffee industry and the consumer experience.
Planning to grab a coffee? Why not take a quick quiz first:
"How many types of coffee drinks are listed above? And what's the difference between an Americano and a lungo?"
Have you ever encountered a scene like this: you push open the door of a coffee shop, just wanting to simply order a coffee, but the staff starts enthusiastically introducing various roast curves, flavor layers, and taste differences. You're listening in a fog, while in your heart you just want an ordinary cup of coffee—at that moment, doesn't a certain classic meme pop into your head:
From Starbucks once using Tall, Grande, and Venti to distinguish sizes, to today's coffee shops where ordering has evolved to detailed explanations of single-origin coffee beans, for those who don't know much about coffee and just want a casual cup, successfully buying a coffee has actually become quite a difficult task.
On the coffee shop menu, you can't even find the word "coffee"—the recommendations and introductions start directly from roast levels. For devoted coffee fans, this is certainly something to be proud of—it means more and more people are starting to pay attention to the flavor and quality of coffee itself.
However, for beginners just getting into coffee, or for those with no interest in coffee knowledge who just want a quick drink, such a menu is tantamount to putting up a sign at the door that says "No Amateurs Allowed."
The coffee market continues to expand, and in the long run, it still needs to rely on a broader mass consumer base. Overcomplicating something that was originally simple will only make customers more confused, unable to figure out what the shop is actually selling. The coffee shop's sign doesn't have the word "coffee" on it, yet the menu lists a dazzling array of options—even ordering a cup of coffee requires going through a round of professional interrogation...
Image source: Internet
Video source: Tiktok alexeykolb
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
