NO ICE PLEASE... and get a glass or cup half filled...

i was discussing this situation with my lawyer, for the sake of conversation. according to him, ice or no ice you are paying for a glass a soda, and the glass should be filled to the brim.
when purchasing a drink, you are paying for a glass of it's contents. no ice should have no bearing on the unit of measure. it is reasonable assumed when purchasing any drink, you are getting full contents of that glass or cup.
so there you go.

I'm sorry but there's a difference between getting a soft drink without ice (where ice isnt a standard part of the drink) and an iced chai latte wherein ice is a standard ingredient.

[Robin Garr]

so there you go.

So, if your lawyer thinks you have a cause of action, what's your next step? Sue the so-and-so's for not giving you a full glass?

[Robin Garr]

no need to sue, stand your ground. basically one is not getting for what one paid for.

I dunno ... I hear you, Annemarie, but when you think about the "bourbon, no ice, and fill the glass" analogy, it makes you think. Put something more pricey than Coke in the glass, and all of a sudden, the burden of bearing the chutzpah does start to shift in the direction of the consumer.

Or how about wine by the glass? Proper wine snobs know you're supposed to leave it less than half full in order to sniff and swirl propahly. But some people get their knicks in a wad if they don't get a brimful glass. Wine bars and places that know what they're doing will give you a proper (half-full) pour, as they should. But how do you explain that to a poser who gets offended?

it is reasonable assumed when purchasing any drink, you are getting full contents of that glass or cup.

I don't think so and I don't think anyone else on the forum has thought so. The drink is tea with ice; your friend chose to exclude one of the ingredients.

You can't expect to get more of ingredient A just because you don't want any ingredient B.

It doesn't matter if we are taking chai tea or bourbon. If you don't get a free refill, you shouldn't get extra because you don't want ice. It's unreasonable and unfair to the business.

so justin, for the sake of discussion, you go to a place and order a coke no ice, and you get a glass half full. is that reasonably expected when you are paying for a glass of coke. ice has nothing do to with it.
bottom line, you are for a glass of coke.

Nope, but you get free refills with Coke and it's cheap. Chai tea is not that cheap. If a place went from selling est. 8 oz of Chai coffee for $4, to selling 20oz of Chai coffee for $4, they wouldn't stay in business. Why should a place give your friend 12oz of chai coffee for free?

It's actually not that reasonable to expect to get more than what you are paying for, however you want to look at it.

and there are many places here in lou. that don't give free refills. and charge $2.00 /$2.50 for a glass of coke.

it should be reasonably expected to get a full glass of coke if you ordered it with no ice...

if a place is advertising 12oz of a beverage, one better be getting 12oz. period. because here they are advertising by weight and not by glass.

I've never been anywhere in Louisville that doesn't offer free refills, but you are still comparing Coke (cheap), to Chai coffee (not cheap).

If the 12oz of beverage "law" holds true than every business is lying, no drink is 12oz when you figure ice.

I'd really like to see what the menu reads, I guessing it read "Iced Chai". Remove one of the ingrediants (ice) and you get less product, plain and simple.

. . . when at the bar you order a drink and the bartender uses a jigger to measure the booze. in the end you are getting the same amount of booze with ice and no ice. the glass will be fuller when it's over the rocks. in the end the unit of measure is the same for both drinks.

And your friend got the same amount of "iced chai". Quoting " the glass will be fuller when it's over the rocks. in the end the unit of measure is the same for both drinks."

. those people don't know the rules.
ever notice when at the bar you order a drink and the bartender uses a jigger to measure the booze. in the end you are getting the same amount of booze with ice and no ice. the glass will be fuller when it's over the rocks. in the end the unit of measure is the same for both drinks.

um.... yeah. exactly. i think you just shot down your own argument?

again no one is arguing with you on a SOFT DRINK, it's the point of an ICED CHAI WITHOUT THE ICE.

not so when it comes to a beverage of coke. it is reasonable assumed to get a full glass. ice or no ice. spirits are a different breed altogether. you are getting the same amount by measure with or without ice.
so if i go into a place and on their menu it says 16oz coke $2.49. i would expect to get 16 oz of coke with or without ice. not 12 oz, without ice.

There's no way you can expect to get 16oz of coke in a 16oz glass if ice is included. Ice takes up volume. Lost volume means less coke. Less coke in a 16oz glass with ice means there will not be 16oz of coke in the glass. Period. end of story. the rules of math exclude the possibility.

You're paying for a cup size when it comes to coke. Places are going to give you the full cup of coke, sans ice, because the product is dirt cheap. That's not the case with chai, or wine, or bourbon, etc. etc. They are going to give you the product volume, regardless of what size/type glass you want it in.

I can see the original poster's frustration from a service standpoint as a consumer.

But as a food-service professional, I understand the business side as well.

Comparing chai to fountain drinks is like comparing steak to hamburger.

A 12 oz. serving of fountain soda including the 20 to 30 cents for disposables (cups, lids, straw and napkin) has an actual cost of about 50 cents.
On the other hand, chai is much more expensive. I priced Oregon Chai, which is widely recognized as some of the best, and found that it is actually 60 to 75 cents per serving, just for the chai. Once you include the price of everything else including your labor to make the stuff, then you have a food cost of around a buck.

Most of us in the "Bizz" would agree that beverages are one of the biggest profit makers left in a restaurant setting.

So, if the barista filled up the said $4.00 cup full of chai; then what would have been originally a product with a food cost of around 25%, becomes a money loser when you double the portion and decrease your profit margin by 40%

Sorry guys, but I'm with the Border's cafe on this one.

I doubt that they were trying to bilk that person as a customer.
A big corporate place like that probably has a large SOP manual that the person serving the drinks for minimum wage plus the tip pool has to follow to the letter, fearing severe reprimands from their manager.

This thread has been such great comic relief for me this week. The idea that someone would contact an attorney about the size of a soft drink has cracked me up for two days now.

By the way, the "12 oz" size of a drink is fluid measure (volume), not weight. Next thing you know that same attorney will be advising us to take a digital scale with us to Burger King

I really believe annemarie is just having a little fun with us, especially since she torpedoed her own argument and said it's a "different breed" when it's liquor. Is it April 1st?

Mcdonalds is bad about leaving a 1 and a half inch void at the top of their drinks. It always feels light unless I ask them to "top it off"

The Stoneybrook Movie Theater refreshment stand on the other hand jams so much ice in the cup that it only takes 3-4 sips to empty your $5-6 drink.

Well, I talked to a friend of mine who's a psychiatrist, and he said we're all bananas for spending so much time on this subject.

Everyone always claims they aren't trying to get more beverage, they just "prefer it without ice," - but just try giving them the same amount they'd get WITH ice, sit back, and watch - what they really want is more beverage for the same price!

Like Dan said...a Coke? No big deal, but do us a favor and just admit you want more for your money. But a premium coffee or specialty tea drink that is advertised as iced, forget about it.