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I'm a native English speaker and lived in the US my whole life and this makes no sense to me either. I think it means that coffee automatically comes with one u

by joeyo 17y ago

I'm a native English speaker and lived in the US my whole life and this makes no sense to me either. I think it means that coffee automatically comes with one unit of cream and one unit sugar and that saying "no cream no sugar" is insufficient to remove them; instead you have to know the magic phrase "black coffee". My guess that the parent poster is only familiar with their local (NYC?) coffee culture where a regular coffee always comes with cream and sugar and thinks it applies everywhere else too. In any rate, it doesn't matter at the vast majority of places where I order coffee because they won't even add cream and sugar for me if I ask for them-- I have to add them myself from a side counter.

gojomo 17y ago
I agree, electromagnetic's insistence may be a generational or regional thing. I've mainly ordered coffee in west coast cafes where you add your own milk/cream/sugar. I see the efficiency of saying "black coffee", but it's never been a habit -- I say "small coffee" and expect to get it black. In NY or Boston, this has sometimes led to disappointment.
- electromagnetic 17y ago
  Here if you were ordering from Tim Hortons or McDonalds, or other fast-food place saying "small coffee" would get you a small black coffee. They never put anything in without a request, however saying 'no cream' or 'no sugar' sounds like a request. I've noticed here it's typically worse with the older staffers in stores, which only forces the behaviour onto younger employee's. In downtown Toronto or Hamilton some of the Tim Hortons are barely different from a vending machine. I've seen lines 30+ people long.
  - foldr 17y ago
    >however saying 'no cream' or 'no sugar' sounds like a request. It sounds like a request not to have cream or sugar!
electromagnetic 17y ago
I live in Canada and this is the norm from Toronto, to the smallest cafe in a backwater town (and I've been in coffee shops on dirt roads in the middle of nowhere). I'm from the UK, and this was the norm of my experience there too. Here's the basics for here: Black Coffee, gets you a black coffee. Adding 'regular' gets you 1 cream and 1 sugar, 'double double' gets you two of both, 'triple triple' and 'four by four' respectively get you 3 of both and 4 of both. If you add 'with milk', you'll get the respective amount with milk and sugar, similarly if you add 'with sweetener' you'll get it the respective amount of artificial sweetener. If you use these words, it'll never be your mistake. Tim Horton's (the biggest coffee shop chain in Canada) teaches their workers these words, and they have specific buttons on their tills to ring it in like that. McDonalds and anywhere else that serves coffee teaches their workers the same here. Starbucks might be different, I wouldn't know through the faux-italian crap.
- foldr 17y ago
  "No cream, no sugar" means no cream and no sugar -- what else could it mean?. I'm really not seeing your point here. I don't think the customers who say that are necessarily being deliberately difficult. (FWIW, I'm English, now living in the US, and to me this does not seem like a strange way of ordering a black coffee -- especially since just saying "black coffee" leaves it open as to whether or not you want sugar.)

by joeyo 17y ago

gojomo 17y ago

I agree, electromagnetic's insistence may be a generational or regional thing. I've mainly ordered coffee in west coast cafes where you add your own milk/cream/sugar. I see the efficiency of saying "black coffee", but it's never been a habit -- I say "small coffee" and expect to get it black. In NY or Boston, this has sometimes led to disappointment.

electromagnetic 17y ago
Here if you were ordering from Tim Hortons or McDonalds, or other fast-food place saying "small coffee" would get you a small black coffee. They never put anything in without a request, however saying 'no cream' or 'no sugar' sounds like a request. I've noticed here it's typically worse with the older staffers in stores, which only forces the behaviour onto younger employee's. In downtown Toronto or Hamilton some of the Tim Hortons are barely different from a vending machine. I've seen lines 30+ people long.
- foldr 17y ago
  >however saying 'no cream' or 'no sugar' sounds like a request. It sounds like a request not to have cream or sugar!

electromagnetic 17y ago

I live in Canada and this is the norm from Toronto, to the smallest cafe in a backwater town (and I've been in coffee shops on dirt roads in the middle of nowhere). I'm from the UK, and this was the norm of my experience there too. Here's the basics for here: Black Coffee, gets you a black coffee. Adding 'regular' gets you 1 cream and 1 sugar, 'double double' gets you two of both, 'triple triple' and 'four by four' respectively get you 3 of both and 4 of both. If you add 'with milk', you'll get the respective amount with milk and sugar, similarly if you add 'with sweetener' you'll get it the respective amount of artificial sweetener. If you use these words, it'll never be your mistake. Tim Horton's (the biggest coffee shop chain in Canada) teaches their workers these words, and they have specific buttons on their tills to ring it in like that. McDonalds and anywhere else that serves coffee teaches their workers the same here. Starbucks might be different, I wouldn't know through the faux-italian crap.

foldr 17y ago
"No cream, no sugar" means no cream and no sugar -- what else could it mean?. I'm really not seeing your point here. I don't think the customers who say that are necessarily being deliberately difficult. (FWIW, I'm English, now living in the US, and to me this does not seem like a strange way of ordering a black coffee -- especially since just saying "black coffee" leaves it open as to whether or not you want sugar.)