My thoughts on Starbucks

[coffeebuzz]

It does sound as though there may be a little anti-SB feeling going round. As with most company growths, some principles decline or even disappear. I don't know if this is the case here.

But as with anything, smaller producers, roasters and baristas bring out the best in the product. Here's to them all and long may they continue.

I'm afraid I'm one of the old fashioned types, preferring to stay with the smaller, one-off places and steer well clear of the SBs and MacDs of this world. Who wants to have the very same thing in every store in every city in every country? Especially when it is only mediocre!! Apologies, but I've said it before....it's all clever marketing and nothing special after that.

Stand up for our smaller producers, roasters and baristas......they're unique!!

 

[kahveci]

SB has recently entered to my city izmir, turkey. i'd have never believed people of izmir would be waiting in line to drink their coffee in a paper cup and freeze their b..s sitting outside in the freezing cold, just to show off.

after drinking turkish coffee anything else is light, particularly SB stuff :shock:

 

[Davec]

deleted

 

[Davec]

It does sound as though there may be a little anti-SB feeling going round.

It's not anti starbucks per se, it's anti "crap coffee"....Starbucks in the UK make absolutely rubbish coffee, virtually undrinkable.

 

[coffeebuzz]

It's not anti starbucks per se, it's anti "crap coffee"....Starbucks in the UK make absolutely rubbish coffee, virtually undrinkable.

Agree........I was just trying to be a bit more diplomatic!!!! :-D

 

[chavette]

If you had to choose between starbucks coffee or Caffe Nero?

I’m actually a BIG advocate of the classy independent coffee shop BUT for that quick caffeine fix, I regularly find myself at either Caffé Nero or Starbucks. Each place has its pusses and minuses.
Here is my list:
Starbucks

Coffee Good
No free Newspaper
Non Smoking (Huzzah)
No loyalty card
Standing around like a muppet waiting for your coffee
Wi-fi that accept roaming partners and hence more accesible

Café Nero

Coffee Good
Newspapers available
Smoking area which you often can’t avoid if you want some sugar, a newspaper or the toilet (Newbury is especially bad on this)
Loyalty Card (which therefore makes them a bit cheaper)
Standing around like a muppet waiting for your coffee
Expensive and limited Wi-fi

To help decide, i created a poll to see who likes which coffee house more. Here''s the link: http://www.pollsb.com/polls/poll/5507/starbucks-vs-caffe-nero

 

[shadow745]

It does sound as though there may be a little anti-SB feeling going round.

It's not anti starbucks per se, it's anti "crap coffee"....Starbucks in the UK make absolutely rubbish coffee, virtually undrinkable.

That's funny!!! At least I'm not the only one here that thinks Charbux is crap. Too much money for garbage. And I hope I piss alot of people off by saying it. Later!

 

[coffeezone]

The anti Starbucks opinion is pretty popular these days. Its not difficult to bash Starbucks. Yet, it still is difficult to argue with millions of customers that visit Starbucks everyday. I''m not sure all of these customers would exist if Starbucks were not there.

For me, Starbucks is certainly not my favorite choice for an artisan crafted espresso, but I do appreciate that they have contributed in a large way to expanding and growing the market for specialty coffee.

Competition is good. And the opportunity for raising the bar for better coffee and espresso is never better in my opinion. To be fair, I''ve been in enough independent coffee houses that have served up a pretty poor espresso. So its not simply a matter of Starbucks or not Starbucks.

And, for me, that''s what makes great espresso special!

Mark

 

[TopBean]

You all do know that even though you like and dislike SB, the search spiders crawl this site and pick up on the SB keyword. It's a possibility the forum comments could show up on the SB search results.

My oppinion on SB is that they are 80% great marketing and 10% speciality drinks and 10% real coffee drinkers. (my oppinion)

It seems as if they use past crop coffee and it's lacking components like flavor and body.
I have to agree with some of the other posts that it almost tastes like their coffee is over roasted and inconsistant throughout the day and from shop to shop.

Keep in mind, There are a lot of SB around, so it makes it easy to bash them. I've been into a lot of coffee houses and tasted a lot of bad coffee and good coffee too.
As for my final opinion on their coffee? It can only get better.

Randall

 

[Forrest Gump]

At least thier coffee is better than Dunkin's coffee! That stuff is WEAK tasting. Even thier turbo drink is not half as strong as a Seattle's Best Drink or a SB drink. I can make coffee on an electric percolator that is four times stronger than Dunkin's weak stuff!!

 

[manual_drip_brewer]

Too Much For American Tastes, but.................

Americans (Other than certain ethnic groups) have been used to light roasted coffees. Part of the reason was that mass marketed coffees tended to use robusta beans blends, which are bitter if roasted too dark and the perfect coffee was seen as smooth and not bitter. Having relatives in Quebec, I have been used to the Van Houte European roasts for years. The darker roasted brews

Starbucks is trying to go from gourmet coffee shop to the standard cup of Joe joint too quickly. Also other coffee places (i.e. Peet''s, Caribou and Green Mountain Roasters) are offering top quality coffees that are more in tune with the tastes of the man in the street.

Starbucks, like Microsoft is still the leader in the gourmet coffee field, but they are not listening to what the average Joe wants in a cup of Joe.

 

[Ongai]

Starbucks...

Here in the Philippines there are only a few major players for coffee and the biggest has to be Starbucks. I prefer some of the other players like CBTL and Figarro (a local coffee shop) but Starbucks is the most convenient of all. As a coffee lover, there are times when I just need my coffee and Starbucks first comes to mind when your on the road. They're everywhere and the brand recall is just too much to ignore.

That would be some of the reasons why Starbucks is really strong..it's all about marketing and finding great locations! And another thing, I guess if you're always drinking Starbucks, it becomes an acquired taste? I'm not sure..what do you think? Congratulations to them for succeeding in this!

 

[Capt.Coffee]

Apparently Starbucks over franchised and is closing down some of their shops. Also, they have started to add more water (not TOO much, but just a little) to increase their profits.

 

[pierreFrench]

there is so much good and bad about Starbucks. But surely the basic and most obvious point is that anywhere you go around the world, people all know that Starbucks is just about OK, but certainly not exceptional. Most people distrust Starbucks instinctively because it is a corporate giant.

This in itself is certainly enough for me and most of my friends in Britain, who would never visit Starbucks unless they were too busy to walk the few extra yards to the next proper cafe.

I use this site in the UK to help me find the best coffee where I live, it''s good for most kinds of cafes in Birmingham.

(note, not Alabama)

there must surely be other similar sites out there in the US and elsewhere we can use to avoid SB?

 

[sunshinecafe]

I have a friend who lives in Costa Rica next to a very, very large coffee plantation. He literally lives next door to it and spends a lot of time there as he has many friends who work there. He amazed me with the information he gave me regarding the purchasing that SB does from that particular plantation.
There are literally thousands of burlap sacks stamped with the SB logo on them ready to be filled with the "imperfect" beans, at any given time.
SB purchases these beans for a mere 65 cents per pound. So...my thought is that they dramatically over roast their coffee to hide the imperfections of the low quality beans they are buying. Now, I know this is just one of many places that they purchase large quantities, so if they do this at one place, you know they do it at all places.
I have tried SB maybe 5 times in my life and with all the same result wherever I may be. Burnt, bitter espresso shots and even more hideous drip coffees. People just aren't educated enough in these fast paced environments to know or care what they drink, it's a convenience for them, mooooove them through like cattle!!@!!!@##