We Brits take our daily coffee routine seriously, and most of us have our morning order down to a fine art.
Whether it’s an oat milk flat white with an extra shot or a sugar-free syrup swapped in just so, we can usually rattle off a complicated request at our local high street café on complete autopilot. That everyday confidence has a habit of evaporating the second we step off a plane, though.
New research from Costa Coffee shows that trying to explain your exact drink order at a bustling counter in Rome, Madrid, or Paris is a major source of holiday anxiety for millions of UK holidaymakers. If the thought of deciphering a foreign menu leaves you sweating, here’s why ordering a simple brew abroad makes us so nervous, and how to get exactly what you want without the awkwardness.
Most Brits don’t know how to order coffee abroad.
According to the research, only around 38% of people actually know how to ask for their coffee in a different language. Nearly a third admitted their usual coffee confidence completely disappears the moment they step off the plane, leaving them fumbling through an order they’d normally rattle off without thinking twice.
The queue is where the real panic sets in.
Things get worse once you’re actually standing at the counter. Over half of those surveyed said they feel a spike of anxiety once they reach the front of the queue, and roughly a quarter admitted to being afraid of saying the wrong thing or mispronouncing part of their order in front of a stranger.
Even a rehearsed order can fall apart.
It turns out that mentally practising the phrase beforehand doesn’t always help. Around half of people said they often, or even always, freeze up and lose their words entirely once the moment actually arrives. Faced with that panic, many resort to simply pointing at the menu board instead of speaking at all, while others quietly downgrade to a far simpler order just to avoid the risk of getting it wrong.
Coffee orders have become more complicated over the years.
Part of the problem might come down to just how specific modern coffee orders have become. Around one in five people said their usual order now runs to six words or more, which makes translating it smoothly on the spot considerably harder than simply asking for “a coffee”.
Despite the anxiety, Brits still want to learn.
Interestingly, the coffee-related stress doesn’t seem to be putting people off language learning altogether. Nearly two-thirds of Brits said learning a new language remains firmly on their bucket list, and around half said they feel a real sense of pride whenever they do manage to successfully order food or drink in another language while travelling.
There’s a growing trend of pre-travel language practice.
To help ease some of that pre-holiday coffee anxiety, some coffee chains have started offering travellers a chance to practise their order before they fly. One recent initiative saw multilingual translators stationed at an airport coffee shop, helping customers rehearse ordering their usual coffee in Spanish, French, and Italian ahead of their trip, giving people the chance to practise with real speakers before they actually needed the phrase abroad.
Coffee tends to be a deeply personal choice for most people, with many knowing exactly how they like it prepared, right down to the extra shot or particular type of milk. That’s precisely why travelling abroad can suddenly make ordering a carefully worked-out favourite feel far more complicated than it should be. Initiatives like this are designed to help holidaymakers feel more confident with their coffee order before they even set off, so they can spend more time actually enjoying their trip rather than worrying about the coffee queue.
