Coffee Police Will Correct Your Terrible Order

Your barista might be your best friend, your lifesaver, your saving grace each morning, delivering a much-needed caffeine jolt in the form of a coffee. But don't you cross them — they'll be sure to correct you if you try to ruin their perfect creation.

One Washington D.C. coffee house, Chinatown Coffee, is in hot water after Internet rumors circulated of a barista's refusal to serve a customer. The reason? The customer asked for an espresso over ice. Scott B. recapped the encounter on Yelp:

Him: "Hi. What can I get for you?"

Me: "I'd like 3 shots of espresso over a cup of ice to go."

Him: "I can't do that. I could make you an americano instead. It has water in it."

Me: "No thanks. I'd like a cup with ice with 3 shots of espresso poured over it."

Him: "We don't do that because it will ruin it. We make the best espresso in the city and putting it over ice will shock it."

Me: [long pause] "Really?"

Of course, Chinatown Coffee issued a statement in response: "We take customer concerns about service and quality seriously. Having said that, we simply do not serve espresso to go or over ice. We.... hope the customers understand that we do so as part of our commitment to serving the highest-quality coffee, not to snobbery or to be rude to our customers — that's not our intent."

It's not the first time a Washington, D.C. coffee shop has angered a customer with a wrong order: Jeff Simmermon was denied the same drink (espresso over ice) at Arlington's Murky Coffee, and his rant went viral. Are baristas becoming coffee police, or just trying to save you from a crappy-tasting drink? You be the judge — but we'll be keeping our ice limited to our coffees.