Apple fans still ordering thousands of Starbucks lattes thanks to Steve Jobs call

It’s been six years since Steve Jobs made the first public call on Apple’s original iPhone. And the impact of that groundbreaking moment during the history-making unveiling event for the device continues to be felt by the San Francisco Starbucks and barista on the other end of his prank order for thousands of lattes.

Jobs was demonstrating the ability to quickly click on a listing on Google maps and dial a number – pretty revolutionary in January of 2007.

“Yes, I’d like to order 4,000 lattes to go, please,” Jobs joked before quickly ending the call. “No, just kidding. Wrong number. Goodbye.” You can see the call at the 5:00 mark of the video below.

Fast Company managed to track down employee Ying Hang “Hannah” Zhang, the barista who took the call.

It turns out, Zhang still works at the same Starbucks. She tells Fast Company she just thought it was another prank call, and didn’t learn until much later what had actually happened.

“Honestly, I was shocked,” she said. “I have never heard somebody order 4,000 lattes to go. I didn’t say anything because I was shocked. But my first impression was that he was just being humorous. He sounded like a gentleman.”

Zhang – who goes by Hannah, says she first learned about it from rabid Apple fans who’ve turned a visit to the store into a pilgrimage.

Hannah says she feels lucky to have had the opportunity to talk to Jobs, albeit momentarily. “My friends were surprised and jealous, like, ‘Wow, you got a chance to talk to Steve Jobs?’ They say to me, ‘You should’ve said more. You just say ‘Good morning’ and ‘How can I help you?'” she laughs.

And six years later, Apple zealots still think it’s funny to call the store and order thousands of lattes, Hannah says.

The store’s manager says she only learned about the Jobs prank recently after Fast Company inquired about it for their story. Until then, she was clueless as to why people were repeatedly calling and ordering 4,000 lattes.

Since then, Hannah and her boss have done some serious number crunching, estimating at 44 seconds for each order for each latte it would have taken them 48-hours to fill Jobs’ order.

While she regrets not knowing it was Jobs, her biggest disappointment is not getting the chance to invite him down to the store “so I can make him the perfect drink.”