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I work a couple times a week at a Barnes and Noble cafe, and we serve mostly Starbucks products and use their recipes. However, I always ask if people want their teas or iced coffee sweetened. Automatically sweetening just seems like bad service to me. And I really should try an iced Americano. Never had one.

While the official Starbucks recipes are national, people's expectations of how coffee should come are highly regional. Here in PA, black coffee means without sugar, but just across the river in NJ (even in a border town like Phillipsburg) places that don't have separate condiment bars will add sugar to "black coffee" unless you say "no sugar." And they'll add milk too, if you just say "coffee." Over there people drink milk, so Starbucks baristas offer "room for milk," and here it's "room for cream" by which they meant what in Jersey is called Half-and-Half. (And never go against the flow - here the Half-and-Half pitchers constantly get emptied and replaced, while the whole milk sits out as long as allowed - 4 hours - or longer. In NJ the reverse is true.)

I like my coffee with sugar, so I'm okay with the syrup - adding regular sugar to cold coffee only results in the sugar settling to the bottom like sand. Though I do ask for it only lightly sweetened because the "official" amount of syrup is too much.

I hate, hate, hate, hot coffee being poured over ice cubes, unless those ice cubes are also made of coffee.

Oh, also, this has been true for...what...ever? Why is this news all the sudden? The fraps are waaaay worse.

I see the problem here though, I once ordered an Iced Coffee at a cafe close by and not only did they sweeten it but they added a lot of cream to it. As I'm lactose intolerant I had to take it back. When I asked them for another one the manager gave me a look and said, "That's how we make them, I thought you knew." I promptly replied with "Really? I've never been to a coffee joint where they didn't ask you before adding sugar and cream to your coffee." I find it incredibly odd when other people want to doctor my drinks for me, unless I'm ordering something fancy and more complicated than coffee or espresso.

I'll bet that there is no "sugar" in that drink, but there probably is a shot or two of high fructose corn syrup in it...

Three Rules of Selling Food/Beverages to Americans:
1.) Make it sweet
2.) Add bacon
3.) Make the portion HUGE

For a successful product, pick any two of the above...

Thanks to all who entered, and congrats to winner caramel! You have been sent an email on how to claim your shirt.

The pancakes my mom made me, shaped like mickey mouse or a caterpillar, with real butter and maple syrup!

pancakes made with a combo of cornmeal, whole wheat, and white flour have the best texture and flavor. I also use buttermilk and baking soda for maximum fluffiness.

Bittman's whole grain pancakes (involves fluffy egg whites, wwheat, buckwheat, cinnamon, cardomom) with blackberry syrup (frozen blackberries boiled in a cup of real maple syrup) and mounds of creme fraiche! yumtastic.

The best pancake dish in the entire world would be bacon pancakes at the Original House of Pancakes in Atlanta, GA. Tender, fluffy pancake studded with savory, chewy bites of bacon... drizzled in maple syrup to soften the whole thing... mmmmm!!!!

Sweet potato pancakes with pecan butter.

Mickey Mouse! (trademarked, of course)