mocha mudslides

i received a MUG award tonight - and it was well deserved!

actually the closing shift started off great. for a change the mid-day crew had turned over a great shift and it looked like it would be smooth sailing for the night.
but then murphy's law was in full effect and we had to spend the last two hours playing catch up.

it all started when my fellow barista brat decided to be nice and make an extra bar mocha for the morning crew. since the mocha is mixed with hot water we set it aside for about an hour before we store it in the refrigerator (the mocha doesn't thicken until it's been cooling for a few hours). so, as my fellow brat was placing the newly mixed mocha on the counter, she lost her grip on the container and ended up coating the counter, cabinets and floor with chocolate. instead of freaking out she said "it's a good thing it wasn't milk or i'd be crying" and laughed. we spent the next twenty minutes wiping the area clean and re-mopping the floor.

then our barista buddy tripped in the backroom and sprained his ankle. after filling out an incident report form he hobbled home - leaving just two of us to finish closing the store. we were still good on time so i made another mocha for the morning crew. but fellow barista brat had a major case of the clumsies and knocked the passion iced tea container into the ice bin - which meant we had to empty out the ice, clean the bin, and then fill it up again.

as i was putting the last bit of ice in the bin a regular informed fellow brat that the toilet was overflowing in the bathroom. apparently some customer decided to use ten toilet seat covers at once. i managed to fix the toilet and mop the floor in record time. when it came time to lock the door we figured we were safe from anymore problems - that is until fellow brat put the mocha in the refrigerator. like i said before - she had a case of the clumsies and ended up spilling the mocha all over the inside of the fridge. my only reaction was to laugh. we ended up finishing our shift without any other incidents, and my fellow brat gave me a MUG award for my mopping skills.

thank goodness our customers were well behaved because i'm sure i would have done bodily harm to the first person who got lippy.

barista rant: don't ask me to give you a discount on our valentine's day merchandise - especially when january is only halfway over. don't complain that our mugs are overpriced, or that the chocolate isn't as good as see's chocolate. no one is forcing you to buy our merchandise and no matter how much you whine i will NOT reduce the price.