I have a deep love for Starbucks, and for coffee in general. When friends and family balk at the price of a Starbucks drink, I point out that the extra dollar is worth my low blood pressure, because when I visit Dunkin’ Donuts, I am inevitably frustrated and disappointed.

The routine is always the same. I walk up to the counter and state my order: “Medium decaf vanilla with milk.” The cashier repeats it back to me (usually correctly) and then immediately pours coffee out of the regular coffeepot. “Excuse me, is that decaf?” I ask. “Oh you want decaf?” the cashier responds, surprised. This happens no less than half the time. For this reason, I cannot order from the drive-thru because I can’t actually watch the person pour the coffee. I haven’t had caffeine (other than in chocolate) in over a year so you can imagine what would happen if I downed 16 oz. of regular coffee. On the off-chance that I’m given decaf, I’m almost certainly guaranteed to not get the vanilla I asked for (as was the case this week).

A few months ago I threw caution to the wind and went to the drive-thru because I had Nolan in the car and it was a million degrees out. Before I was even handed the coffee, I could see the mound of sugar resting at the bottom of the cup. “Um, that looks like it has sugar in it and I asked for just milk.” The cashier frowned and looked at the cup and then tried handing it to me, “Just try it! You’ll like it!” They remade my coffee when I refused, but forgot the vanilla. No surprise there.

What is surprising is that this happens at every DD. It’s not like there’s one bad location by me and I should just try another. Am I really asking for that much???