Friday, March 27, 2009

that's not a latte

I've been meaning to write about this for a long time now. Finally, I will air my grievances against Sonic, America's Drive-In.

In November, per our usual routine, my family drove from Mountain Home to Beebe, AR to spend Thanksgiving with Granlene and Granddad. It's a long drive -- about 3 hours down winding roads through small towns the entire way. Dad, a notorious caffeine addict, got a little sleepy about an hour into the drive. He needed his afternoon caffeine fix.  The only problem: we were in Mountain View, a tiny little dip in the road that calls itself a town.  

We talked about where we could possibly stop for a bathroom break and a coffee fix. There was always the regular gas station, but the coffee would be out of a pot and would probably have been cooking since early that morning. Then I had a great idea: "Hey," I said, "I saw on a commercial that Sonic has 'premium coffee' now." So we decided to drive by the Sonic for a nice, frothy latte. Dad and I each ordered plain lattes and awaited our yummy caffeinated treat for the afternoon.

The carhop delivered our drinks, and Dad backed the car out of the stall so we could get back to our long drive. Just before he started to turn right out of the driveway, I took a sip. I was immediately appalled at the sickly sugary sweetness. "What the..." I thought. "This is NOT A LATTE!"  I told Dad to take a sip of his before we left. He did, and immediately said, "Crap." He angrily threw the car into reverse, pulled back into the stall, and gave the "latte" to Mom. "Go get me a real coffee," he said. Mom asked if any of the lattes could be made without sugar. "Uh...I don't know; we just have latte mix."  

LATTE MIX?!

So, in short, I was disappointed and mildly outraged, even. Lattes do not come from a mix. If it's from a mix, it is NOT a latte! I really think Sonic should be sued for some kind of false advertising. But, maybe I am the only one who is upset enough to care. McDonald's is winning the competition in the "premium coffee" arena among fast food joints, hands down.

2 comments:

Michael said...

Best part of that story? The grandparent names. I have an uncle who likes to put on airs, and so when he had his first grandchild, he insisted on being called Père-Père, based on the French word for father. His grandchild, however, couldn't pronounce that name and called him Poo-poo instead. He had to switch to a plain "Granddaddy" by the next kid.

Angegg said...

Oh man, I totally have a similar story! My coworkers, Suzanne and Hayley, are also doing WW. So, they went to Sonic, wanted some caffeine, but didn't want whole milk or sugar. So Suzanne presses the button, and asks, "How do you make your lattes?" This completely confuses the sonic employee, who asks Suzanne to repeat the question about 3 more times, and then gives up and gets the manager to come outside. The manager finally comes out, Suzanne asks the question again, to which the manager answers, "Well, we open the packet..." at which point Suzanne and Hayley suddenly realize that these are not real lattes, and their efforts have been futile. Ha! Amy and I mocked this all Christmas, saying, "We open the packet, pour it in the water, stir the mix, put a lid on it, and send it out with our finest carhop" in a hick accent. Yes, we are easily entertained.