Lakota Coffee Company - Downtown

The staff is rude and my drink was terrible.

I've only been to this coffee shop a few times this winter, but I had a very rough experience here today. In the summertime, I'm an iced latte drinker and today I ordered my first iced latte of the year at Lakota. I sat at the bar and watched as the barista poured my espresso over ice before adding milk and thought, "bummer, no tasty latte for me today." When espresso is poured directly over ice it shocks the coffee and dramatically changes the flavor. The recipe is to add espresso to milk first then ice or combine the ice and milk then add espresso. Since this is my favorite drink, I occasionally encounter this bitter version. When made correctly, it tastes smooth and rich like chocolate milk. Because there is such a difference in flavor I always do make mention of it and, if I come back, I'll order my drink specifically, as if it were a "special order". Many times the barista offers to remake my drink the way I like, however, trying to be polite, I always decline. Today was different.

When the barista handed me my drink I said, "you wanna know a trick I like for an iced latte? If you combine the coffee and milk first, then the ice, it doesn't taste bitter." This has never been a bad conversation until today, it was as sour as the drink in my hand. What happened next is why Lakota gets one star. The barista was incredibly rude. She turned away and curtly said, "I think I know how to make a latte." I agree with this statement 100% i.e. I believe that is what she thinks. I said, "have a great day," and left. I won't be back.

Nobody likes to be challenged by someone outside of their perceived domain, but I think this is important to the person who has invested in all of the ingredients for a premium beverage business only to waste them on sour lattes for their customers. I know baristas are stereotypically pretentious, but I think that if you are to be pretentious you should at least be right. I won't spend my money here again to be treated poorly. I know the two iced mochas behind me in line got the same bad recipe. Most coffee shops get this right and some will even refuse to pour espresso over ice (yep they've got the tude too but at least they are right). Even S bu*ks has never messed this up for me, even in second world countries. I hope Lakota can get this recipe right for the rest of this summer's iced espresso drinks, I will be enjoying my simple pleasure elsewhere.