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Personally I don't go into into Starbucks, Costa or any other coffee chain. I prefer to frequent local coffee shops where they use higher quality beans and take the time and effort to produce a drink that actually tastes of coffee.
If you enjoy coffee then avoid all coffee chains and especially Starbucks.
"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult." - C.A.R. Hoare
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I've been there only twice, coffee is a different thing in each country, in USA is big, soft, and like hot water with some residual coffee taste, in European northern countries (i.e. Denmark) coffee is not very tasty as it's done using the same coffee machines, but they are drinking it all day, continuously, in Brazil, Italy and Spain coffee is short, tasty and hot, usually people there take it after eating lunch and on afternoon meetings (i.e. meeting someone in a bar).
Then Starbucks is a different thing: it is like adding plenty of things to coffee to get a softer taste and a big thing, I can take it just to taste something sweet, that reminds more something like a cake or a milkshake than a coffee itself...
I don't think you can call it an affront, it is a chain company that supplies meals, like burger king, McDonalds... you know what is there, in this case Starbucks tries to sell their goods as a premium thing which, from my point of view it is not.
The good thing on these meal chains is that if you have any allergy then you know exactly what to expect: i.e. years ago in Russia a girl that was doing the same travel than me saw a Starbucks and told me: "now I know a place I can eat in case of emergency as it will follow all the regulations as expected". It's the same when travelling with my wife, she has the celiac disease and those chains have specific products that, given it's simplicity and the mechanical way they make things you are safer than in most other places...
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Read most, not all, of the comments.
I used to take my coffee the same way my mother did - 1 teaspoon of sugar and some milk (we didn't have cream). Drank it that way for close to 30 years.
A couple years back, I dropped the milk and then the sugar... now, it is black.
I will go to Starbucks as a last resort.. I prefer almost anything else (except McDonald's)
I like the dark roast; the caffeine is a bonus, but I like the flavour of a heavy, dark roast.
Coffee is my beverage of choice; I make it the way I like it, just as I would expect others to.
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Don't care for Starbucks. I've got an old camp percolator that brews awesome coffee.
New version: WinHeist Version 2.2.2 Beta tomorrow (noun): a mystical land where 99% of all human productivity, motivation and achievement is stored.
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It's delicious. I like the peppermint latte that while it's not on the menu can be had for the asking year round. That said, I find it distasteful to pay that kind of money for coffee. Or wait in lines to get it.
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Chris Maunder wrote: Discuss
ting.
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Starbucks' flavored beverages can contain up to 25 teaspoons of sugar per serving, points out a new report by an advocacy group called Action on Sugar. While the assessment was done on drinks in the United Kingdom, many of the numbers are pretty similar here in the states.
In nutritional label terms, 25 teaspoons is 125 grams of sugar. To put that in perspective, a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola has 33 grams of sugar. Put yet another way, 125 grams is about 12 and a half Krispy Kreme donuts.
(Huffington Post)
Marc
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Curious that they didn't mention which beverage was at-fault. They give themselves the title, on their own website, of Specialists - whatever that means only they know.
First - I drink my coffee neet. I lost my taste for sugar in coffee rather abruptly and unexpectedly. Sweeth-tooth of youth evolved to salty and then 'artistisinally spicy'.
I'm very leery of these public attention-getters - like the major hype against high-fructose corn sweeteners (brought to you by the cane sugar industry!). Fructose is converted extremely rapidly to glucose (once eaten) - and glucose is the only sugar your body really metabolizes. Even the cane sugar (a disaccharide) is broken down into glucose. Probably begins in your stomach (see Invert Sugar, used long ago). Fructose is sweater than sugar. The real bottom line with these expositions of what is good/bad for you are generally warped/hyped.
Some people have cilleac disease and should avoid gluten. The massive industry for gluten-free, at this point, is a sucker's market. Gluten is what kept the human race alive for thousands of years: the primary source of protein, usually via wheat. On the bright side, life's gotten easier for the cilleac people who really need to be careful, so all is not lost.
But seriously, when a claim is made so lacking in any content one wonders what was done to measure the value (or perhaps it was an estimate?). One can keep adding all sorts of sugary content to a Starbucks beverage to get the content up arbitrarily high.
A cup of coffee still has none.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
modified 23-Feb-16 12:30pm.
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Well if you consider what the alternatives were on your side of the pond when Starbucks came around.
Mostly water damaged grey filth, with very few exceptions.
In comparison I have to say that a cappuccino from Starbucks is fully acceptable.
The fact that they are mostly selling overpriced coffee flavoured sugarbombs is completely beside the point.
I believe Starbucks can take a lot credit for the fact that there actually exists a bit of coffee culture in the US nowadays as opposed to bacteria culture.
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Someone may have already said this (I couldn't be bothered to read through 6 screens full of comments) but you really can't beat a freshly brewed cup of tea, or two.
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Let's not go there. Thinking about a decent cup of tea over here makes me sad and lonely.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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As far as I know, there are two kinds of coffee beans - the original, and best,
is Arabica and the other, Robusta - a sturdier species of coffee bean with higher
acidity and high bitterness. I don't know what Starbucks uses, but I believe
Arabica and hard water make the best coffee.
73
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xiecsuk wrote: you really can't beat a freshly brewed cup of tea
Blue tea, red tea, white tea, especially.  
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Starbucks is to coffee as Trump is to politics.
Cheers,
Mike Fidler
"I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright
"I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
"I'm addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn't matter." Steven Wright yet again.
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Not to defend the indefensible Star Bucks, but where are you guys getting better coffee? (Home doesn't count, we're talking about Coffee shops here). A lot of Starbucks have "Clover Leaf" Machines where you can have a cup brewed from some very select items not used on the front line. I find this coffee very good, but you have to pay for it, for sure. Having said all this, I am not a fan of cornered markets, and I miss the Caribou Coffee Chain - giving Starbucks at least SOME Competition. One more comment - if you put anything in your coffee besides coffee, well, you don't get a say. Anything else you put in makes it "not coffee".
Where there's smoke, there's a Blue Screen of death.
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Jet Fuel Coffee - A Toronto landmark[^]
The only place I know in Toronto that does it really, really well. And consistently. And they never change.
The fact that they are into cycling doesn't hurt, either. I grabbed one of their pro's bikes from last season for a steal.
Dark Horse[^] is a middling second. No bad, not fantastic, but solid.
My all-time, never yet been beaten place in the entire world (though a tiny place in the south of France came damn close) is The Brown Cow cafe[^]. Go there and go to heaven.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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I'm a coffee purest, I don't like flavorings, sugar, or creamer in my coffee. so if the coffee tastes like burnt S**t without the extras added, it's not good coffee in my book.
I'm not slamming anyone who likes the additives; feel free to enjoy them. I just like coffee for the taste of coffee.
Starbucks is definitely on my ban list.
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Concur. Starbucks coffee tastes like engine oil. A friend of my ex-wife who used to buy coffee for Dunkin' Donuts would run into the Starbucks buyers fairly regularly: according to her, they'd go out of their way to find the cheapest, shittiest beans they could. In the same way that Lady Gaga has nothing to do with music and everything to do with Lady Gaga, Starbucks has nothing to do with coffee and everything to do with Starbucks. The mystery is why it isn't all over yet. But (as evidenced by Lady Gaga) people do have dreadful taste...
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I don't know about Starsucks in the US or Canada or Australia... My experience with it, in Mexico City and surrounding cities, has been very positive.
When I go, I usually ask for either black coffee (or "Today's coffee or Daily coffee" or whatever they call it now) or black tea (English breakfast blend, usually). They charge me MXN$35 (pesos), which at today's exchange rate is a few cents under USD$2, and I get more than half litre of coffee or tea (100ml for 33 USD cents). While it might not be the cheapest, it has very good quality. The brews usually come from local states Veracruz and Chiapas, each producing very good quality of coffee, or Colombia, which is the greates brew I have tasted so far. Ocasionally they have coffee from Guatemala (which is Chiapas-like) or African countries, which IMO is good, yet not great.
Being in a coffee exporter country, it is very easy to find places with very good quality brews. You can get SB-quality coffee for as low as 25 USD cents per 100 ml. However, SB provides additional services, such as free WiFi and nice, cozy desks where to work. Given that, those extra 8 USD cents are well worth it.
Now, if you go for Italian-like coffee brews (cappuccino, latte, machiatto or mochaccino) then the prices escalate to MXN$55 and if you add extras (vanilla syrup, chocochips, mousse and such) your account can increase up to MXN$70. That is expensive, compared to what you can get elsewhere (cappuccinos for MXN$40 for example), and the beverage quality decreases (IMO) because the coffee taste gets diluted with all the additional sugar and milk.
So, all in all, I'd say I have had a good experience with Starbucks. Good quality, good prices for black coffee (which is what I usually drink anyway, coffee with steamming water and nothing more) or black tea, and a nice place to work or just hang out.
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I once made the mistake? of bringing a 4lb sack of ground coffee back from Columbia. It took me an age to get it through British Customs. They had sniffer dogs inspecting it before they finally let me through.
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Bad experience indeed, I hear you. I once made the mistake to land in Paris with unlabeled sodium bicarbonate and cajeta (some sort of toasted milk candy) that I had brought as a gift to a friend. It took me like two hours to convince them that the white powder was not cocaine (of course, they didn't take my word for it, they had it tested), that the cajeta was a candy (they did try it and tested it also, therefore ruining my gift), and that I was not a drug dealer. 
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I'm pretty sure Tim Hortons put crack in their coffee because it's disgusting but once I've had a cup I need another one.
It's very wrong.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Hopefully this one isn't too difficult. Had to put it together this morning, good luck!
_ψ.ψ…° (6)
Winner: PompeyThree
Answer: DESERT
modified 23-Feb-16 4:49am.
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