Reaching Boiling Point

(I am a very inexperienced barista for a large corporate coffee chain. I do not quite know how to handle difficult customers yet. One day, a very blunt lady asks me for tea.)

Me: “Sure! Would you like green, black, or white tea?”

Customer: “Green tea.”

Me: “No problem! What size would you like?” *shows her the cups*

Customer: *slightly impatient* “The medium.”

Me: “That’ll be $2.36 today. I’ll grab you your tea!” *places tea bags in the cup and pours hot water* “Here you go, miss!” *processes the payment*

Customer: *stares at the tea* “What is that?”

Me: “That’s our standard green tea, miss.”

Customer: “That’s not tea. It looks like marijuana.”

Me: *as I have never seen marijuana in my life, I smile and respond with a very confused tone* “I’m sorry, marijuana? That is our green tea.”

Customer: “I’m not drinking that. It’s disgusting.”

Me: *brings out a sheet with all of our teas listed* “Oh, well, if you’d like, I can grab you a different tea. Here’s a list of all of our current teas.”

Customer: *quickly skims the sheet* “This one. White tea.” *recites the white tea’s description to me* “Give me that.”

Me: “No problem!” *grabs the white tea*

Customer: *stares at the white tea* “What is that? That’s not white tea. It’s pink. That’s strawberry. I hate strawberry!”

Me: *super confused* “Um… that is our white tea. It has a berry flavour to it, so it’s pink because it’s fruity.”

Customer: “How is that white tea?! Ugh!” *grabs the green tea off the counter and stomps away*

Me: *stares at the white tea* “Okay, then. Have a nice day?” *turns to stare at my supervisor who had been listening the entire time* “What just happened?”

Supervisor: *smiles* “Don’t worry about it.”

(To this day, I still don’t understand what really happened.)