Whenever I head to a café, while walking arm-in-arm with a friend or dragging my grumbling preteens, I always look forward to my order: a flat white, which is, as I’m sure you know, basically a latte with less milk. So delicious!

Not everyone has loved my coffee requests, though. When I was in Paris a few years ago, I stopped into a tiny café in the Marais and asked for an Americano with milk. “No,” the barista replied. I waited a beat, and when she didn’t explain her thinking, I figured she might not have a rate set for that specific request. “Oh, I’m happy to pay for a latte, or whatever you’d think is best,” I suggested, trying to help. “No,” she repeated, firmly. “Our coffee will taste burned if I make that, so I won’t do it.”

Honestly, I loved her passionate take. She knew her coffee best, after all, so I asked what she’d recommend, and she brewed two shots of espresso, executed beautifully.

Shopkeepers in New York will do this, too — “you can’t put Parmesan cheese on shrimp pasta,” or “chef won’t prepare a steak well done,” or “we don’t toast bagels, they already come warm.” I love someone who cares so much about their craft that he or she will put a foot down, hard.

Now I’m curious, please tell me: What’s your coffee order? Any recommendations? I’m still relatively new to coffee (I only started drinking it during the pandemic), so I’m always eager for tips. xoxo

Update: Many readers are commenting that they drink black coffee, which makes me think of the Brooklyn Nine-Nine scene where Jake and Charles are under cover as longshoreman. Jake, trying to be tough, orders, “Coffee — extra black, extra no sugar.”

P.S. Photos from our Paris trips, and two magical Paris itineraries.