Just a little news flash about a silly little mix-up that produced some major comic results. Seems a patron at a Starbucks that went unidentified in the story I read ordered what he thought was a coffee with a little alcoholic kick. What he got was more than he bargained for. Sort of…
The customer, who also went unidentified in the brief story I read, apparently came into his local Starbuck’s and ordered a Coffee with a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur.What he got was a nice little tray, with spoon, a napkin and a tiny ramekin bearing three Bay Leaves. No kidding. The Barrista must have been thinking about other things and relying on his brain’s basic pattern recognition system to decode the message.
Now, a little humour break…
I now temporarily direct your atterntion to one of my fave non-food websites, where such mishearings are archived:
The URL is an homage to the late great Jimmy Hendrix. The lyric of his most famous tune, Purple Haze, and it’s been misheard in dozens of different ways, the most famous of which is, yes: ‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy. It’s supposed to be: ‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky. The site is no end of fun, especially for some older folks who were into popular music in the 70s, 80s. and 90s.
Now… should we create a new Archive site called: ashotofbayleaves.com for misheard food orders? Sounds like fun. I know, from my own experience, though, that most food-related mishearings involve numbers. For instance: “I ordered four Sausage and Eggers and six Hashbrowns, not six Sausage and Eggers!” Or: “I said Venti, not twenty!” Perhaps this is an idea ahead of its time…
But I have another theory about the Bay Leaves…
I think the bay Leaves thing, in spite of being witnessed in a photograph, may just be an elaborate set-up for a hoax. Someone wanted to get into the papers and onto the Net by pulling a prank. Well, they blew it. No names have accompanied the pix to fame.
As the anonymous author of the Yahoo! story I read asked, “…why did the coffee shop even have a pile of bay leaves ready to serve up anyway?!”
The Moral of the story?
Don’t believe everything you hear. Or read on the Internet.
~ Maggie J.