Why All the Hating on Starbucks?

[Cloud]

the Coffee Traveler for $13 is a great deal. Show up in the morning at the office with one of those and you're a hero.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Seriously. Starbuck's, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Peet's... they're all good, all using high-end beans. There's nothing to choose between them for quality of brew, every one of 'em knows their stuff, and the little independent places are as good. Their sole advantage is they can market bumper stickers that say "Friends don't let friends drink Starbuck's" which I just find cheerfully capitalistic and vibrantly competitive.

[TheMercenary]

eh, their coffee is over roasted. Not my first choice. Dunkin Donuts coffee is da bomb.

[skysidhe]

Originally Posted by classicman

That is so effed up, cloud. I dislike starbucks - got coffee there a couple times - didn't think much of it either. Certainly not worth the price.

We have a Great Harvest right next to a Starbucks coffee. I always make a beeline for G.H. For a dollar and a half I can get the best cup of coffee in there. It's called Tully's.

For 3 xs that much I can get a burnt cup with half a pound of sugar in it from Starbucks. No wonder people are mad. :p Except me. I'm smiling when I walk past those bitter sippers.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

So stick to the 12oz of brewed for a buck sixty. Come on.

Or only drink large lattes at home, homemade.

I can go to a wawa and get a 24 oz of Hazelnut for $1.54 - yup thats twice as much coffee for the same price AND it is actually enjoyable, unlike Starbucks which just tastes burnt. I hate when they just pump a flavor, whatever flavor, into an already lousy cup of coffee & then shovel sugar into it. It is not the same as having them brewed together.
I find it ridiculously overpriced and of sub par flavor, taste &/or quality. For 3-5 times the price too - you gotta be kidding :
Diff'rent strokes, I guess.

Originally Posted by skysidhe

We have a Great Harvest right next to a Starbucks coffee. I always make a beeline for G.H. For a dollar and a half I can get the best cup of coffee in there. It's called Tully's.

For 3 xs that much I can get a burnt cup with half a pound of sugar in it from Starbucks. No wonder people are mad. :p Except me. I'm smiling when I walk past those bitter sippers.

You and me both!

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Elspode

No one has the right to destroy someone else's property. That said, I rarely go to a Starbucks. Six bucks for a fuckin' cup of coffee? C'mon.

Yikes! I like Starbucks coffee but that's a lot of money. I usually drink Dunkin but drink SB if I'm at Barnes and Noble. I wonder how much regional difference there is in pricing? I don't think it's anywhere near$6 here.

[Sundae]

McDonalds are far more of a target in this country than Starbucks.
But then we had the McLibel trial, which showed the strong arm of corporate restaurants at its very very nastiest.

Also it sells meat, which doesn't endear it to many minority interests (whether religious, moral or green based ideology). And of course it's despised by those who grew up seeing it as cheap and nasty - I've heard plenty of middle & upper class people boast about never having eaten a McDonalds in their life, as if it's on a par swimming across the Channel for Sport Relief. Meh.

I don't drink coffee, so Starbucks doesn't bother me. In fact many Brits aren't that interested in it. It does mean it's mildly annoying when the franchise in a bookshop or a supermarket is a Starbucks, because we'd prefer something home-grown - with crumpets and muffins and teacakes, and proper tea, more tea Vicar? thank you. But not enough to really bother us.

[TheMercenary]

Yea, I couldn't understand why they would even attempt the UK market unless they went to all tea.

[wolf]

Dunkin' Donuts used to be good, but all of the local franchises have gotten taken over by Pakistanis, and those guys can't make coffee to save their lives, despite having a standardized recipe from corporate!

Wawa all the way for me.

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by skysidhe

We have a Great Harvest right next to a Starbucks coffee. I always make a beeline for G.H.

I'm moving across the country this weekend, to a town with 2 Great Harvest Bread Companies. I am going to be in heaven as soon as I get a job and can actually afford the stuff...

[classicman]

Where you headed Perry?

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by wolf

Dunkin' Donuts used to be good, but all of the local franchises have gotten taken over by Pakistanis, and those guys can't make coffee to save their lives, despite having a standardized recipe from corporate!

In my experience, most places that have "bad coffee" (I say that in quotes because all coffee is bad, m'kay?) are inferior because they reuse the grounds again and again to save money.

[Cicero]

Ok...I'd hate to bring this up in the middle of a serious discussion..

But- Jizya?

No coffee for me please. (I know I am so mature)

[Aliantha]

I think Gloria Jeans makes the best coffee when you're talking about chain stores.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

eh, their coffee is over roasted. Not my first choice. Dunkin Donuts coffee is da bomb.

Can't find much Dunkin' Donuts around my end of SoCal, though I remember liking it very much in places where I could... youth in South Dakota, in the Seventies. [Website says there are none within fifty miles of me.]

Now are you sure you actually want to taste your coffee? Because light roasts and some mediums just... lack something. A robustness. A forthright declaration. I'm still trying to figure out what the deal is with Kona, as every cup I've had of Kona blends even from high-end roasters and shippers like Lion has been unmemorable. Okay, but no dark roast.