A Woman Compared Baristas In North America To The UK & TikTokers Are Picking Sides
A woman is roasting coffee shop baristas in both North America and Europe on TikTok, and she absolutely nails the different sides of it in a single hilarious skit.
TikToker Andrea Celeste recently posted her video comparing a visit to a coffee shop in the U.S. versus the U.K., and it's piled up more than 5 million views from users who are cracking up over her take.
In the first part of the video, Celeste puts on a fake "customer service voice" and pretends to be a North American barista taking a customer's order.
"Hey guys, welcome!" she says in an over-the-top way.
After a bit of chit-chat she takes the order, "makes" the coffee and gets to the most controversial part of the exchange: the tip.
In the video, she pretends to hand over an iPad and puts on an aggressive smile while waiting for the customer (also played by her) to choose a tipping option.
In the same overly excited voice, the barista says “have a wonderful day!” before ending the service.
@anndreacelleste Honestly the smile is a bit much in the U.K. one #coffeeshop #cafe #comedyskit #viral #fyp #trending
The second part of the skit is noticeably shorter as the U.K. server doesn’t even bother saying hi to the customer. All she does is say "Yup" to the customer's order, and she doesn't ask for a tip because that's not the custom in the U.K.
The comparison had many people jumping into the comments to take sides, and there were plenty of users who really dug the British way of doing it.
“After a year in the US, I almost cried happy tears when I landed in London, went to Starbucks, and finally got treated coldly,” wrote one user who received almost 35,000 likes.
A self-proclaimed barista also replied to explain why so many coffee shop experiences are like this in North America.
“Starbucks barista here. If we aren’t overly friendly like that we get in trouble I hate it people will get mad at us for being too nice, but we have to,” read the comment.
Another user wrote, “my social battery would be empty after 2 seconds.”
“I think I’d like to go get coffee in the UK,” commented another.
"Talk about emotional labor in the USA," added someone else.
Others weren’t so keen on the British experience though.
One commenter wrote, “This was a big adjustment for me moving to the UK. I found it so odd that no one would start a conversation.”
"I love small conversations with the barista," said another.
One user summed the whole thing up perfectly. "It's either extremely friendly or weirdly passive aggressive," they wrote..
"There's a thin line," Celeste replied.
Tristan behind the espresso machine, about to be sprayed in the head.
