I had a customer yesterday who had an off the wall request. He had a concoction in Italy apparently, and wanted to know if I could make one like it. So I asked him to describe it to me.
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[SIDEBAR] part of my schtick is that I try to carry everything imaginable. Every alternative milk option, every type of chocolate, every syrup, etc. I myself am not a fan of sweetened coffee, but lots of folks are. And I’m in business to satisfy my customer’s tastes, not my own.
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So he tells me “Well, it was like a milkshake, but it was lightly flavored with anēce” (that’s how he pronounced it. He meant anise).
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“Okay?”
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“And it had chocolate in it and was really creamy.”
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“Okay?”
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“Can you make something like that?”
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“Sure. What size, how strong do you want it, and what kind of chocolate?”
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“What do you mean what kind of chocolate?”
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“I have twelve kinds of chocolate. Ghirardelli, Mexican chocolate, an Italian chocolate, a double-dark chocolate, white chocolate, German chocolate…”
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“Double-dark chocolate!”
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“Okay. Regular milk, or something exotic?”
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“Do you have coconut milk?”
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“I do.”
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“That’s what I want!”
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So I made him a quad ristretto, dark chocolate, annisette, coconut milk, 24 ounce parfaited frappe. I got a little fancy with it by drizzling some dark chocolate sauce in a spiral on the inside of his cup. He took a sip: “Yes! This is it!” He paid and walked off grinning.
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A few minutes later, he stops by again: “I’ve been looking for someone who could make that ever since I went to Italy three years ago. No one carries that anēce, and that chocolate was incredible.”
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“It’s actually pronounced annisette. This is a syrup form of a traditional Italian aperitif.” (I flashed him the bottle).
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“Well, whatever it’s called, yours are better than the ones I had in Italy.”
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Yes, it’s a pain in the ass to carry over 100 different syrups in a mobile restaurant, but ya’ know what…? If just one in a thousand customers challenges you like that and you satisfy them, you know you’re in the right bidnez. 😎
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