Nailed it!
This morning I had a customer stop in to pick up an online order at my coffee shop. He said his name was Jeeves and he was on a road trip with his boss. He explained to me that his boss was a “coffee forward” person who usually ordered black coffee from big chain coffee shops because while his favorite drink was a flat white, his experience has been that no matter what he ordered, be it cappuccino, flat white, or cortado, extra shots, or “dry” all of them were prepared the same way: add coffee and fill the rest of the cup with whatever amount of steamed milk and foam you happen to have in the pitcher at the time.
He continued his story, explaining that despite all of these bad experiences, as he was placing the online order for his boss, he noticed that my coffee shop also offered a “macchiato,” which he assured his boss would not be prepared like a giant foamy latte like all of those other drinks because macchiato means “spotted” in Italian and is traditionally prepared by placing a mere dollop of foam on top of a shot of espresso. Even the picture on the app showed a shot of espresso with the tiniest amount of foam resting on top. His boss reluctantly agreed to give it a try.
Hearing his story invigorated me. I happily prepared his macchiato, taking the largest cup I could find in the store, pouring in some espresso, foaming some milk, and adding a dollop of foam on top. Turns out I had some extra foam left over, and as I always say “waste not want not!” so I poured it all in. As I handed Jeeves his order I happily exclaimed “I gave you some extra foam!” and I sent him on his way. I only wish I could have been there to see the look on his boss’s face because I’m pretty sure I totally nailed that macchiato (pic attached).