Basic Trope: An overly complicated menu order.
- Straight: Alice goes to a coffee shop and orders a nonfat, diet, sugar free, decaf cappuccino with whip cream, a shot of vanilla, caramel syrup and hazelnut shavings. The barista has trouble taking the order.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is picky about the order in which the ingredients are added to the coffee, and the ingredients need to have been made at a certain time.
- Alice's order is so long and complicated that the coffee shop closes before she can finish it.
- Alice's coffee order includes a long and complicated list of details about the temperature of the liquids and the chemical composition of X brand of ingredients she wants that could pass as the final test for a molecular gastronomy course.
- Downplayed:
- Alice orders a complicated drink, but one that is already written down on the menu.
- Alice's order is long and complicated, but she always asks for the same thing, so the baristas are used to it.
- Alice asks for two omissions and/or substitutions, which the barista will take without question but is more likely to screw up.
- Justified:
- Alice is pretty picky when it comes to food and drink, so she won't consume something unless it strictly pleases her taste buds.
- Alice has a lot of health problems that she has to work around while ordering food or drink.
- Alice is trying to use her wish from a Jackass Genie to get a cup of coffee, and needs to specify temperature, size, cup, etc. in addition to flavor, or else the genie will give give her a gallon of superheated coffee in a 3 oz. plastic cup.
- Alice's kids have very different tastes, so she can't make use of the family size offerings the take-out restaurant has.
- Inverted: Claire wants a simple hot chocolate from an upscale shop, but Alice, working as a barista, keeps asking her questions about what kind of beans, milk, creamer, sugar, syrups, and various other specifications (including how much of each to put in her drink and what cup should hold it) that Claire really doesn't care about. She gets very impatient due to desperately needing something to wake her up.
- Subverted:
- Alice scraps her custom beverage once the barista says she can't take the order and just orders a plain espresso.
- Alice's friends, wondering why she is taking so long, guess that she made a complicated order. Turns out she decided to skip the coffee and get soda pop at the local grocery store.
- Double Subverted:
- Then she goes into deep detail about how she wants that espresso once more.
- She tried to haggle with the cashier over the contents of her soda pop.
- Parodied: Alice must drink a cup of coffee to save her life, but then wonders if the coffee meets her taste. She collapses because she spent too much time listing her preferences.
- Zig Zagged: Alice orders a drink off the menu, but goes into detail about how she wants it, but it's not really a custom order since it's already written down, but then she scraps the drink for another custom order.
- Averted:
- Alice just orders a plain cappuccino as is.
- Alice is never seen at the coffee shop.
- Lampshaded: "Give one more detail, and I think the barista might collapse."
- Invoked: The coffee shop only serves custom drinks with no menu, so you can be as picky as you want.
- Exploited: Alice is so distracted by her long order that she doesn't notice someone sneaking up on her (for whatever reason it may be).
- Defied:
- "Alice, just order a normal drink here. We don't really have that much time, okay?"
- "Sorry, but we don't serve custom drinks here."
- "I heard 'Blah, Blah, Blah, coffee'."
- Alice purchases an expensive coffee machine, as well as various sweeteners, syrups, and other ingredients so she can make such complicated drinks for herself in the comfort of her own home.
- The coffee shop puts all the various creamers, sugars, and other additives in a self-serve station so each customer can make their own order.
- Discussed: The characters talk about how far one can go customizing their drink before annoying a barista.
- Conversed: "Come on, Alice, just order a plain drink off the menu. Nothing can hundred percent meet your taste."
- Implied:
- When it's Alice's turn to order, she hands the barista a piece of paper to read. Though she orders first, she picks up her order last, but not before she leaves an extra tip before hurrying off to rejoin her friends.
- The menu now includes the Alice Special (or "the usual?" when Alice arrives), at $27, where all others have base prices between $10 and $15.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice is so picky that she can't enjoy a single cup of coffee, since it can't meet her standards.
- The barista gets annoyed by how picky she is and declines to take her order.
- Reconstructed:
- After lots of tries, Alice eventually finds a drink that suits her needs, and orders it so much that the baristas are used to making it.
- The coffee shop decides to train its employees in making custom orders to avoid incidents.
- Played for Laughs:
- Alice is a barista herself and her ineptitude at making these leads to Hypocritical Humor now that it's her turn to order one.
- Alice's order goes for a very long time with Bob the poor barista becoming increasingly unnerved by the overt complication and specificity of her order. When she ends, she notices Bob has become mesmerized by all of the information she has fed him and does an annoyed "well, get to it!".
- Alice is the type of Unsatisfiable Customer who can detect when her lattes were made with a single grain of coffee too many.
- Played For Drama:
- This order is proof that Alice is an Unsatisfiable Customer and an Obnoxious Entitled Housewife. The order is impossible to fulfill at all, nor it would be cheap or quick to make if it could be done. Alice is just looking for a reason to bully Bob.
- Alice has a laundry list of medical conditions that require such specifics in her meals to avoid worsening. Bob, out of deliberative malice or incompetence, does not follows the order to the letter and Alice ends up in the hospital from the conditions acting up, leading to the company (and thus Bob) on the wrong end of a (not so) Frivolous Lawsuit.
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