The Brooklyn Paper published a story on the trend of an Australian import, the “babyccinno”, making its way to NYC. This sparked a frenzied regional print media attempt to stay relevant and became a punchline in a snarky NYMag blog post.

We’ve covered the babyccinno before – both for its cultural relevance (see Spruce Street listing) and the comic properties of its portmanteau – simply put, it is a macchiatto-sized child-friendly cup of steamed milk, perhaps with a dash of cocoa on top. At some point it became popular with chic Australian mums, who are always going out to coffee with baby in tow, and wanted a way to make little Andy feel like a grown-up while mummy sips her flat white and thumbs through a copy of New Idea. Seems safe enough, right? Think again, because babyccinos are ticking time bombs – some call them wasteful, some say they’re dangerous, and some believe they must be stopped once and for all.

From the Brooklyn Paper:

“I have one customer who says that and it annoys the hell out of me,” said Sean Chin of Gorilla Coffee in Park Slope. “It is not on our menu — which we are making an effort to stick to.”

Paul Caligiore, an Australian coffee expert says, “They interrupt workflow, create milk wastage and can be served at a dangerous temperature to a vulnerable consumer,”

The Brooklyn Paper piece continues:

Babyccinos can help coffee shops reach a whole new generation of java drinkers — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing for children, so long as they stick to decaf.

Doctors say that caffeine is not healthy for kids in large quantities, but a decaf shot of espresso contains less caffeine than a soda.

Babyccinos: Joe Camel of the specialty coffee world. Hooking unsuspecting children on a dangerous (potentially scald-inducing) path, a dark road that’ll dominate their narrative through puberty and beyond, leading them right into the scoffing, eye-rolling clutches of some awful barista who’ll inevitably say, “Actually, that’s not on our menu.”

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