Atlanta Coffee Guide

Barista Spotlight: Jono Moehlig, Land of a Thousand Hills

Jono Moehlig Land of a Thousand Hills
Photograph by Andrew Thomas Lee

Favorite drink to make for customers: A cappuccino. Anything with latte art is always fun. [It’s gratifying] to see the looks on people’s faces when they see an unexpected design in the foam.

Most annoying coffee trend: The confusion over the flat white. Coffee professionals can’t figure out what customers mean when they ask for one. There’s no definition for it, but it probably came from Australia or New Zealand and resembles most closely the cappuccino.

Weirdest request: Once a customer asked for 21 pumps of vanilla syrup in a latte and insisted on adding it in himself to make sure he got enough. It ended up being about five ounces of syrup.

On customers who order only one drink and stay for five hours: Most of the time it doesn’t bother me, honestly. Our owner says his vision is [to offer] a place of peace in a fast-paced world, and I think coffee shops do that. We do have some people who come in and stay for an hour or two and don’t order anything; that’s just rude. Wi-Fi and electricity aren’t free. —Evan Mah