Barista is one of the bigger café chains in India, and it feels like the go-to spot for most people. I went there twice and had pretty different experiences, though neither of them really made me understand why it is such a default pick.

The first time, I got their iced matcha latte. I went in with low expectations, which is maybe unfair, but somehow it was still worse than I thought it would be. The matcha tasted like it was not great quality to begin with, and then it was just completely drowned out by milk. At that point I don't even know if I was drinking matcha or just slightly green milk. My parents got some kind of non-caffeinated drink, and those were actually really good, so maybe I was just ordering wrong. But also, if the matcha is on the menu, I feel like I am allowed to judge it.

The second time, I tried to be safer and got the Belgian chocolate frappe. It was fine, I guess, but it was way too sweet and I could not taste the coffee at all. The only reason I got it in the first place was because I tried to get a regular iced latte or literally any iced coffee drink, but they were out of all of them somehow. I don't understand how a café runs out of iced coffee, but anyway.

Overall, Barista is probably reliable if you want something sweet or if you are just going with people who already like it. But for coffee or matcha, I do not really get the hype. Maybe I just ordered the wrong things both times, but until I have something actually good there, this is not really a place I would go out of my way for.