cappuccino vs latte

i am in caltext starmart to while away time. in their coffee house, i ordered cafe latte to the barista. unbusy as i am, i stood in the counter and watched as she made my coffee. grinding, brewing, foaming...i then asked that my latte be dabbed with cinnamon. the barista said, "kung butangan nko ni cya ug cinnamon mam ky cappuccino nani, dli na latte." taympa, unsa? that shook my only-enough-not-to-make-me-ignorant knowlegde of coffee. since when did cinnamon define wether your coffee is cappuccino or cafe latte?

according to my coffee vocabulary, thanks to starbucks leaflets, cappuccino is one part espresso and one part milk. cafe latte, on the other hand, is one part espresso and 2 parts milk. i opt for cafe latte at night as it has more milk then cappuccino, less caffeine to avoid the buzz in time for bed.

now, is my cafe latte that she just made really cafe latte? i bet she was hired, taught ONLY how to operate the espresso machine and voila! she gets to decide, according to her little understanding and elaborate imagination, what your coffee will be.

why bother with cafe latte to this barista. i can just order, "tall coffee please, whatever you fancy".

wake up call

5 a.m. that's usually the time i'm awaken by voices i thought are part of my dream. it's my father and mother talking over their coffee. this morning, i overheard them talk about a pack of instant coffee they bought a day before. mother talked about how she now buys coffee in store B as store A has increased from Php26.80 to Php26.90. father then blabs about how shameless store A is for increasing its price like that. they'd then create a pact and connive on despising store A. they talk about this with passion you'd think store A just committed a heinous crime.