Coffee culture debates the ethics of latte

Create-your-own approach provokes lively discussion in online forums

At Starbucks, the cost of a tall iced latte is about $2.45.

Don't want to pay that much? Order a shot of espresso and a cup of ice -- cost: roughly $1.35 -- and use the milk at the condiment bar to make your own latte. That's a savings of $1.10.

But is it stealing?

The question of whether create-your-own coffee is a social faux pas or worse is a hot topic in online forums where baristas go to vent about their jobs and customers.

Starbucks is not the only coffee seller affected. But the Seattle-based company is at the center of this percolating debate.

At www.starbucksgossip.com, many of the more than 400 posts on this topic said customers are taking unfair advantage of the company, which for the month of August reported revenues of $617 million, up 21 percent from August 2005 revenues.

"The condiment bar is called a 'condiment' bar for a reason," a barista wrote. "The milk should be used as a condiment, not the base of a beverage."

Others disagreed, including one poster calling himself "coffee guy."

"I'm personally more disgusted that two coffees cost $10 when the ingredients are obviously cheap enough that they can put half of them out for free," the man wrote. "It's not that these people are cheating Starbucks out of money -- it's that Starbucks is extorting money out of those who pay 'full' price."

Even a few baristas said they don't consider this to be cheating.

"Ordering a cup of water and dumping it out and refilling it with milk, now that's cheating," one barista said.

In a statement released Thursday, Starbucks sided with customers.

"Customization is a fundamental attribute of the Starbucks Experience," the company said in an e-mail statement. "We provide condiments to our customers so they can make their drinks to their liking and we appreciate their patronage. We trust our customers to make the choices that are right for them."

The statement reflects the company's "Just Say Yes" policy, another way of saying the customer is always right.

There are myriad ways Starbucks customers can exploit convoluted coffee menus to their advantage, but iced drinks are among the most popular.

One barista on the gossip site cited the example of a woman who orders venti and grande-sized Americanos with no water and half ice and then adds her own half-and-half from the condiment bar at a cost of $4.82.

The same drinks ordered over the counter are called a quad venti breve latte and an iced triple grande breve latte and cost about $10.24.