Mildly Infuriating

If you ask for less ice, no screw you, you’re not getting the full amount of coffee that you paid for…

Actually you got exactly what you asked for: you asked for a product with less of something...

If they have a machine, you're getting exactly the full amount of coffee you paid for; you're just not getting more by removing a filler that they normally include, and that some people like. Now, I'm not saying there's anything morally wrong with gaming the menu at a giant chain if it can be done without fucking over the staff, or that it wouldn't be shitty if Dunkin' has done some sneaky shrinkflation, but there is a certain mechanical clarity here that I can't get too riled up about.

Go to a real coffeeshop.

I've never heard of a country where places give you extra drink for free just because you asked for less ice, to be honest. I know some bartenders who joke about the people who think asking for less ice will get them more.

You asked for a hamburger with no toppings and are surprised that you just got meat and buns.

They didn't give you less meat they just gave you less toppings. You're noticing the sandwich is pretty empty, because you ordered it that way

If your barista just presses a button and hands you a cup, you're at the wrong place for coffee.

Did you expect them to offset the less ice with more coffee?

In my experience, many iced coffee drinks are made a bit warm and more concentrated. The ice melts a bit, diluting the drink and giving more liquid overall.

Do they do that to an extreme? Probably. But there's also more to it than "I got a drink with less ice and it wasn't very full"

It triggers you to receive exactly what they offer?

I went to dunkin'

Ordering coffee in the USA triggers me

As if Dunkin' Donuts is representative of the thousands of independent coffee shops around the US...

You are actually getting exactly the same amount of coffee you paid for, without the ice.
Which is half a cup full.

By the way, this isn't a "coffee in the USA" thing. It's a Starbucks thing.
In most diners, coffee shops and restaurants in the US, you get as much coffee as you want, with free unlimited refills.

Have you tried ordering a medium iced latte with light ice in other countries?

So these comments aren't going the way you thought they'd go...

I have never heard of this in any other country

Which countries give you more coffee than you paid for just because you asked for less ice?

If you went to any other coffee store that isn't a mcdonalds-ified chain, they would have given you what you wanted.

This is like you complaining about not getting a medium rare burger from mcdonalds.

This “triggered” you?

I have to say, as a therapist who treats people with actual trauma, I find it mildly infuriating that people today use the word “triggered” to refer to something that mildly infuriates them. The concept of a mental health trigger refers specifically to something that reactivates a traumatic memory and induces serious distress in the person triggered. Using the term to refer to something that just annoys you trivializes and dilutes it as a term.

I get that language is a living thing and people who use the term this way don’t mean to be trivializing the issues of people who have real trauma, but it still irks me whenever I see people use that word this way.

You do you, OP, don’t take this as serious criticism. I just felt the need to get that off my chest.

No I understand this. When someone is pricing a product, they price it off of how much it costs to make a specific amount. In this case it would be the amount of coffee in the glass given the glass has ice. Additionally when buying coffee or alcohol you are paying for the coffee or alcohol by the shot (30ish ml) and that is then diluted. For your case it would be diluted in milk. So by ordering without ice you are either going to get a diluted product, more than what you paid for or a less full glass.

I mean come on they literally gave you exactly what you asked for. What do you expect of a drink that you specifically asked for an ingredient to be removed from. Obviously you are gonna get less. They teach this shit in grade school. Would you prefer them to have just topped your cup with water, if so fucking ask ughh.

Sincerely a bartender sick of everyone's shit.

I think this is about presentation,

If you had ordered a hot latte, they would have put it in a cup so it looked full.

If you order just a ice latte, then put it in a cup so it would look full.

You ordered something they hadn't designed for, and it's really up to the barista at the moment to decide how to handle it. At larger organizations they probably just have a policy, it's smaller organizations the barista might top you up.

If you're not getting a good experience, switch locations.

I'll just get my popcorn for this. Must be some really expensive ice.

I mostly care about how much caffeine I get, which I understand to be the same regardless of how much ice there is. Generally, small or medium is 2 shots of espresso, and a large is 3 shots.

Technically you got the coffee you paid for. You got the same amount of coffee as you would have if you got normal ice. It's priced based on the amount of coffee provided not the size of the cup. The cup being not full is more psychological than anything. If we want to get real technical, the price of a coffee is mostly labor and overhead not the ingredients. Thats why a large doesn't cost that much more than a medium.

Premeasured devices have been around for awhile. Fewer user errors and they can use the customer's mug/thermos if they want to.

It's not just coffee, soda cups have ice lines and a growing number of soda machines have automated / measured filling. And if you go to a theme park your cups are RFID chipped so you can't get refills (or only a certain amount of refills).

Just make it at home its so much better and cheaper.

What do you mean "in the USA"? You went to a Dunkin Donuts... Lol. That's not a Cafe, that's a place to buy mass produced, shitty donuts.

This was entirely your fault is your were after a great cup of coffee.

Bro in literally every other country they press the button on the espresso machine to decide how much coffee you get

Okay so I'm going to answer this with soda. So when people order soda no ice, they think they're being smart and getting more soda. Well, define soda.

You see, most of those drinks are specifically designed with the ice in mind. All drinks are some sort of mixture with water, and they take ice into account, they expect the ice to melt and become part of the drink. With soda, they made the drink with the ice melting in mind.

So when you order a soda no ice, you're not getting more soda necessarily, justa. More concentrated sugary syrupy drink that isn't properly mixed.

On the plus side, if this is the worst part of your day, you had a pretty good day

Sometimes i order a cortado/flat white (it's on the menu, i swear) and get a 16 oz paper cup filled to the top. What am I drinking?

I don't get overpaying a shop for coffee. I can get over 43 16 oz cups from a 2 lb bag of whole bean. Not the cheap shit, either. I buy the good stuff from a co-op in Wisconsin. With my minimal time and labor investment, I end up paying about $0.85 for 16 oz.

Why go to a shop? Human interaction?

Edit: Look y'all, do what you want. I'm not your dad. Well, probably.