The Coffee Bean – so SLOOOOOOOOOOWW!!

First, let me say that I absolutely love Chai Teas, and in Manila – there’s only one place that I go to for Chai Teas and that is – The Coffee Bean. Why? Well because they use Chai Tea leaves and not those powder mixes.

But one thing that discourages me in going to The Coffee Bean is it’s slow, slooooooow service! It takes them forever to make a cup of tea or coffee. I mean comparing them to the other coffee houses – I think they’re the slowest! It seems like whenever there’s an order – all hell breaks lose! The Baristas are everywhere – sometimes even bumping into one another! I don’t understand why they’re so unorganized!

Last Saturday night – after watching ‘The Invasion’ in Eastwood – I was craving for a Chai Latte. Thus – I decided to order one – my Panget who’s not a fan of CBTL opted to stay outside – in one of the tables – and wait for me. He said he needed to sit down – because for sure it’ll take the baristas longer than usual – to serve me my Chai Tea. And he was right!

You see – when I ordered my Chai Tea – I already saw Terry (the barista) making 4 cups of various hot drinks – after paying – I headed to the ‘claim section’ and waited for my drink. My Panget on the otherhand – decided to time the service – he started to watch Fergie’s MTV on his P990i when he saw me leave the counter. After watching – seeing that I hadn’t gone out yet – he watched another one – Sway by the PSD. He assumed that in the middle of the MTV – I’d be coming out and sitting beside him already. It was already finished when he noticed that I haven’t gone out yet. He called me to confirm – and as expected – he asked what the hell were they doing? Were they serving me with a ‘grand‘ Chai Tea?

Yes – Imagine the length of the 2 MTV – that’s how long it took (and more) for them to serve me with my Chai Tea. In 5 other incidents – this also happend! They took about 10 minutes to serve me my tea – sometimes – even more! And all they could say is that they’re short staffed – I don’t think so! They staff was there (they’re always there!) – they were 5 – one was in the kitchen – just texting – won’t that person need to help out his staffmates?

Coffee and Tea (I think) are supposed to be served fast! Especially – a ‘to go’ order!

This is not the first time this has happened, this has happened to me EVERY TIME I go to The Coffee Bean. I mean – I do love their drinks – but if I need to wait for so long for them to make it and serve it for me… nevermind nalang..

I always point out to my friends – that Starbucks is really efficient with their service – the lines in their cups – serve as measurement already – isn’t that so reliable? We over look the green lines on the cups and think that they’re just for aesthetics – the real reason is that the lines are used as a measuring thingie – for mixing the drinks! Cool right?!