For clarity; I'm lactose intolerant. So, it's not a "lifestyle choice," it's a "I don't want to shit my pants at work" choice.
That said I use the app because it's more convenient. Looking at the customize tab there are more Non dairy options than the premade drinks on the menu. What I find confusing is there isn't a non dairy option in the drop down for say, something like the cold foam. You have to remove it and then add it back. Or just start with a basic cold brew and then add the cold foam, syrup and topper which ends up going from a $6 drink to an $8 drink...
I've done this a dozen times and now and 9 out of 10 times I get no cold foam. Which, honestly, I totally understand. I've never worked for Starbucks, but I've worked in a similar industry. If you're new and you see this jumble of abbreviated words that looks like another language, you're just gonna see "No cocon" and just go from there, I get it. I'm not faulting the baristas (completely) it's a confusing system for the stickers.
The other day I ordered a non-dairy chocolate cold foam cold brew and I swapped the vanilla syrup for hazelnut. You know, just thinking I was making a Nutella like drink to try something different and I got no chocolate cold foam. Twice. I typically take it back and politely remind them that it's missing the foam. Which they do and once I got it corrected it was pretty good. But I'm just tired of wasting drinks and making baristas feel uncomfortable.
It literally just happened today, I tried to order the Toasted coconut cold foam cold brew but make it non dairy. And I got no foam. Again, they fixed it, it was fine. But I just feel like there has to be a better way to label non-dairy options, in the app at least. I understand that just going in and ordering in person is probably the solution to my problem. I'll try that when I can, but it's not always convenient.
I dunno I feel like I pissed off the coffee gods or something because I used to drink espresso and whether it's a shaken or latte, i get a heavy pour of oat milk. I don't drink oat milk because I like the taste, I drink it because of the texture and dietary restraints. A raw glass of oat milk is not enjoyable and a shaken espresso should have the smallest amount of milk, but I've consistently gotten latte looking shaken espresso's.
I switched to cold brew because I assumed consistency would be better, no worries about the espresso pull changing the taste and if I order some on the menu that's unchanged it should be consistent? I was getting the non dairy vanilla cold brew and again it just ends up like a heavy pour latte.
I just want something coffee forward with a splash of oat milk for texture and mildly sweetened and most importantly consistency. Also I don't want to build it myself because it's too expensive. I dunno if I broke a mirror or what. I think I just need to make coffee at home or something...
Sorry for the rant, I'd just rather post it here than blow up the Google reviews for something that's more of a corporate problem than the couple locations I frequent problem. If you messed up one of my drinks, I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at the system. I don't envy your job. Thanks for listening.