July 18, 2006
Coffee Prank
"I heard my name. What's going on?" Jake asked. "You're up to something."Ryan and I were grinning and suppressing our laughter. "You think we're up to something?" I asked.
Jake was about to sip his large Dunkin Donuts vanilla iced coffee "extra, extra" and that prompted me to get out my phone cam for a picture.
"What do you think we could possibly be up to? I asked Jake as he eyed us with suspicion.
Birth of a Prank
It started last Thursday while we were all at a local Dunkin Donuts. When it was Jake's turn at the counter he ordered his usual. Large french vanilla iced coffee "extra, extra." That means "extra sugar and extra cream."
Derek commented that Jake ought to just order a coffee milk, because it's the same thing. Jake insisted that it's not the same thing. Derek retorted that he doubted Jake would be able to tell the difference. Jake said he would.
You see where this is going, don't you?
Coffee Milk
For those "not from around here" you probably need a definition of "coffee milk." Basically, coffee milk is similar to the idea of chocolate milk, except that instead of using chocolate syrup you prepare it with a a sweetened coffee-flavored syrup. This is the official state beverage of Rhode Island. The syrup is made from coffee, but has a low level of caffeine. People all over New England drink the stuff, especially kids. (see Coffee Milk page on Quahog.com )
The Prank
Ryan insisted that we needed to switch Jake's usual Extra-Extra with coffee milk. Eventually, I agreed to help, though I was skeptical and thought he'd detect the switch right away. I chronicled our visit to Dunkin Donuts in pictures (it's also a Flickr photoset called Coffee Prank ).
 Ryan enters the store full of resolve. "Today we prank!" |
 It's coffee milk in its natural habitat. |
 We stand in the halls of coffee, beseeching and waiting for our request to be granted. |
 Ryan purchased the necessary provisions to pull off this prank, including an extra coffee container. That white thing in the middle is what an extra-sweet, extra-light looks like. |
 We prepared the prank right in the store. Here's where I took an active role, as I started to imagine that Ryan was right and that we might pull this off. I strained the extra-extra into the other container, to remove the coffee. Then, Ryan poured the coffee milk over the ice from the original container. That way, it still looked like an iced coffee. |
 And here's the final product. Which is which, you ask? Well, the darker, more-coffee-looking one is the coffee milk! I think we might pull this off. |
We returned to work, put the real coffee in the cube fridge and Ryan gave Jake his coffee milk.
A half hour later, he came downstairs to leave. He heard us talking about him,
so he came over.I repeatedly asked him what he thought was going on, but he couldn't guess what it might be. He thought maybe we were preparing for one of our semi-famous challenges. But, no, we were not.
During the discussion, which lasted about four minutes, he sipped on his coffee several times, allowing me to get an actual picture of him blissfully unaware that he was drinking coffee milk.
Ryan and I let him off the hook and gave him his real coffee. Jake said "I knew something was going on with the coffee! I even said something to Derek!"
However, he really didn't know we were pranking him. Derek revealed that what Jake though had happened was that we had mistakenly gotten him JUST an extra sweet coffee, and not an extra light one. In other words, he thought it tasted more like coffee than an extra-extra does, not less like coffee.
Conclusion
This prank, therefore, was a success! It is confirmed that when Jake orders an extra-extra, he gets something sufficiently like coffee milk that he still thinks he is drinking coffee.
The end!
Posted by James at July 18, 2006 9:53 AM
Comments
So the moral of the story is... well, there's no moral.
Here's one. "Always count your change!"
Posted by: Mike at July 18, 2006 10:33 AMHa! You bastards! Good show James! Excellent job Ryan! LOL
Posted by: Keri at July 18, 2006 11:23 AMLOL!!! great prank. I want to try coffee milk now though.
Posted by: at July 18, 2006 11:27 AMTry coffee milk now. :)
Posted by: Julie at July 18, 2006 11:36 AMEw to the xx and the coffee milk from Dungeon Donuts, BUT nice prank!
Posted by: Leslie at July 18, 2006 12:08 PMCoffee of the masses! I am regular people! Gimme sugar!
Posted by: Maggie at July 18, 2006 12:27 PMXX? That's downright sacreligious!
Posted by: pippa at July 18, 2006 5:50 PMTake that, Jake!
Jake - 0; Coffee Milk - 1;
Is it a coincidence that Jake quit right after this?
Posted by: James at July 20, 2006 5:18 PM