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And you keep coming back why ... ?

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  • And you keep coming back why ... ?

    Had my first gen-u-wyne SC today. You know, the Oh-So-SPESHUL customer.

    She wanted some kind of coffee drink ... but did we have liquid brown sugar? Or liquid cinnamon (I think that's what she asked for .. WTF ...?!) When informed that we did not, she furrowed her brow. Apparently she must have one or the other (or possibly both) and we were placing a dreadful burden on her by having neither. The actual barista on duty ended up trying to untangle Madam Speshul's drink wishes because Madam Speshul also wanted a chicken sandwich.

    Now, I have a penpal who describes our food to a T: "Fast food with pretensions." We are NOT a four-star restaurant. I'm not sure we even qualify for two stars.

    So I unwrap the pre-made sandwich and plunk it into the warmer. Warmer dings, I take out the sandwich, put it in a heavy bag, and hand it to her.

    "Oh ... could you cut it for me?" (Please note, this in itself is not an SC request. In the case of this customer, however ...)

    I cut the sandwich in half and hand it back to her again.

    Five minutes later she's back at the counter, complaining about the meat in the sandwich. I wasn't the one she spoke to, so I don't know exactly what she was moaning about, but it ended up with her getting a replacement sandwich.

    Manager on duty later told me that she and her companion do this constantly: come in, order, and all the while complain about this, that and the other thing.

    MOD, bless her (she's young enough to be my granddaughter), was worried that I would be upset over the incident. I assured her that I was thinking any number of things while all this went on, and most of them involved four-letter words. Once the SC started getting all angsty over us not having liquid brown sugar (?!?) I knew what I was dealing with and basically discounted any of her complaints thereafter.
    Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
    ~ Mr Hero

  • #2
    Well, liquid sugar in general is just "simple syrup" or in other words, sugar water , which dissolves more easily in cold drinks. You don't really need it in hot drinks. I don't believe I've ever heard anyone specify using brown sugar as opposed to white sugar to make simple syrup, although I suppose you could. The coffee shops around my town usually tend to have a bottle of simple syrup out with the other condiments.

    Liquid cinnamon, though - never heard of that.
    When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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    • #3
      Ah, thank you. We do have some kind of basic syrup that seems to go into everything (Type 2 diabetes, anyone ... ?) But yeah, never heard of liquid BROWN sugar, though from your description, she could easily make her own and just carry it with her if it's a matter of great importance that it go into her drinks.

      As for the liquid cinnamon, that's what I thought she said, but I could have mis-heard.
      Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
      ~ Mr Hero

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      • #4
        I would think that trying to make a simple syrup using brown sugar would create a very THICK liquid. I mean, it's effectively sugar + molasses.
        My Writing Blog -Updated 05/06/2013
        It's so I can get ideas out of my head, I decided to put it in a blog in case people are bored or are curious as to the (many) things in progress.

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        • #5
          There's an old episode of Designing Women where they end up working at a fast food place and a woman asks if the fish is fresh. I think your customer expected gourmet cooking.
          https://youtu.be/GiCqByI6GbA

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          • #6
            I have actually made simple syrup out of brown sugar before. It's definitely thicker than white sugar simple syrup. It's really only good for a pancake syrup substitute, although maple is best.

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            • #7
              I know that there is a cinnamon dolce syrup, but it's certainly not liquid cinnamon.

              As to the thread title -why come back- we know the answer... Because she gets free stuff.
              Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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              • #8
                Liquid brown sugar exists, although it isn’t common. It was a “thing” back in the 1970s and 80s. Marketed to sweeten your oatmeal or cocoa or coffee or on pancakes, etc. Since most brown sugar is basically just white sugar with molasses added, the liquid stuff is pretty much sugar water plus molasses.

                Back when I was a bar owner, our bartender came up with a killer recipe for Irish coffee that used liquid brown sugar. Unfortunately, some of the other ingredients (and the extra labor involved) were expensive enough that we had to price it too high for the market, so we had to revert to a less tasty recipe.

                (You can get brown sugar that is genuinely partially refined sugar, but it’s more expensive.)

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                • #9
                  Quoth Shyla View Post
                  There's an old episode of Designing Women where they end up working at a fast food place and a woman asks if the fish is fresh. I think your customer expected gourmet cooking.
                  https://youtu.be/GiCqByI6GbA
                  That is priceless.

                  Quoth Erinesque View Post
                  I have actually made simple syrup out of brown sugar before. It's definitely thicker than white sugar simple syrup. It's really only good for a pancake syrup substitute, although maple is best.
                  Good point. We made something similar to that with our "rock sugar" (made from sugar beets rather than sugar cane) at the tea shop: 2 parts sugar to one part boiling water and run it through the blender. Not brown sugar, but no reason why it couldn't be done with brown sugar. However, if she genuinely wants The Mothership to carry it, she needs to write to corporate -- not come and pester the staff at ONE location about it. We don't have anything remotely like that level of autonomy.

                  nutaxfornerves, I'd love to get my hands on that recipe, LOL. I've got some syrup that I bought at a local import shop, and it's basically the stuff we used to make at the tea shop. It sounds tailor-made for that.
                  Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
                  ~ Mr Hero

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                  • #10
                    nutaxfornerves, I'd love to get my hands on that recipe, LOL. I've got some syrup that I bought at a local import shop, and it's basically the stuff we used to make at the tea shop. It sounds tailor-made for that.
                    Well, here's what I remember. We opened the bar in 1978, so things have changed and my memory may not be great.

                    Our liquor license was for a bar/restaurant, so we had to serve food. It was mostly burgers, sandwiches, salads, etc. There were 5 owners. None of us had been in the business before, and we made every mistake in the books. Luckily, we grossed so much from the very beginning, so we didn't fail before we learned what to do. One thing we were bad at was understanding our market and pricing for it. Our customers were more upscale than the clientele of the previous owners (mostly winos who came in for 50¢ shots of gawdawful cheap wine), but we weren't a high end money-is-no-object place and our customers expected a certain price level.

                    The main owner installed an espresso machine, something really unusual in a bar in 1978. It did other things, too, but since I am not a coffee drinker, I paid no attention. For the coffee part of the Irish coffee, we used some super expensive special coffee, instead of the supermarket quality stuff served in the restaurant. We ground beans daily. The bartender did something with the espresso machine to make coffee for the Irish coffee.

                    The recipe used some Big Deal Irish whiskey, that I have forgotten. A glop of liquid brown sugar was added. Some recipes call for pouring a layer of heavy cream on top of the coffee. Some use lightly whipped cream. Some use whipped cream from a whipped cream thingie. We used lightly whipped cream. If you sell enough Irish coffee, you can have the whipped cream ready to go. Since we didn't, the bartender had to make it on the spot. I think they also put the liquid sugar into the whipped cream.

                    Beween the cost of the ingredients and the labor costs, we had to charge almost double what other bars charged. If we had a reputation for the best Irish coffee in town, we could have gotten away with it, but we were too new. We couldn't sell it, so had to switch to cheap whiskey and a layer of unwhipped cream.

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                    • #11
                      Quoth nutraxfornerves View Post
                      stuff//
                      . The bartender did something with the espresso machine to make coffee for the Irish coffee.
                      more stuff//
                      Irish coffee in town,
                      dammit now I'm in the mood for one.
                      AkaiKitsune
                      Sarcasm dear, sarcasm. I’m well aware that dealing with civilians in any capacity will skin your faith in humanity alive, then pickle anything that remains so as to watch it shrivel up into an immortal husk thus reminding you of how dead inside you now are.

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