About Those Off-Menu Items...

There are a lot of people who follow the coffee community social media sites (although apparently only six of them live in Mt. Lebanon).

Lately there has been a lot of talk on social media channels about espresso drinks called "cortado" and "Gibraltar". And a few people come in here and order them, so we try to accommodate those folks rather than say 'we can't make them.  We have an 'off-menu'' sheet for staff explaining each drink we know is being discussed out there.  Cortados, flat whites, piccolo lattes, Gibraltars, topped-up macchiatos (the ones with latte art instead of the traditional dollop).

Here's the thing.  Some of these drinks are glassware-specific.  We already have glassware up the wazoo and have no intention of adding more.

Let's take a cortado for instance.  The traditional Spanish/Portuguese cortado recipe is a couple of ounces espresso and a couple ounces (or less) of steamed milk. About four ounces total.  

Here's what we've got for service:

Demitasse cups = 2.5 ounces
Mini-water glasses (for water served with espresso) = 3 ounces
Martini glasses (bicerin/shakerato) =  3.5 ounces
Tall "test tube" (signature drink) glasses = 3.5 ounces
Cappuccino cups = 5.5 ounces
Libbey Gibraltar water glasses = 7 ounces
And a whole lot of stuff ranging from 10-16 ounces

So we can do something "in the style of" whatever is being ordered, but someone ordering a cortado is either going to get a cappuccino cup filled to only about 80% of cup volume or a shorter drink of 3.5 ounces in a test tube glass (a difficult shape for latte art).

Same with the Gibraltar, which was named for the glass style (originally served in a 4.5 Gibraltar rocks glass).  We don't have that size.

The glass size we have a large stock of is the 7 ounce Gibraltars.  So we've created a drink specific to that size.  It's 1.5-1.8 ounces espresso and ~5 ounces microfoam steamed to about 130-135F so you don't burn yourself trying to hold the glass.

We call it  the "Wharrgarbl".  Because.