Starbucks uses espresso machines where the espresso shots themselves are pulled by pressing a button, and a thermometer built into the steam wand automatically shuts off the steamer when it gets to a preset temperature. Not to mention that at Starbucks hot drinks are generally not made one at a time (at a busy location, anyway, and they’re all busy, aren’t they?); one huge pitcher of steamed milk for lattes (and mochas, etc.) sits at the ready, another for cappucinos. Whoever is manning the espresso machine simply puts the cup under the espresso thing, pushes a button for the number of shots, adds ingredients if need be and then pours already-steamed milk out of a mug. (Yes, somebody steams it, but it’s not enough individual attention paid to one drink for me. YMMV. And the point is that this means Starbucks employees never learn how to pull an espresso shot and get decidedly less experience with steaming milk for individual drinks, which is a key skill in the barista world.) Frozen drinks are made exactly to specifications, with no skill involved. (Granted, that may well be true of many local places as well, but at least there’s usually some element of local (at that location) creativity involved, rather than just copying the recipe from a corporate manual.) I think you’ll find that the finer local coffeehouses are picking up talent from Starbucks and teaching them actual barista skills, not the other way around. That’s how it works in San Diego, anyway.
Actually, what you said was that Starbucks was one of the few (perhaps even the only) places to go hang out for four hours after only spending four dollars. My point is that a cursory search on Yelp can uncover dozens of such places in any major city, Seattle especially, many of which have higher quality and priced the same if not lower. If you meant coffee houses in general are the only places where you can do that, I’m sure you’ll excuse me if I failed to pick that up telepathically–and you’d still be wrong, as any major city will have plenty of bookstores where one can sit around for four hours and read without spending a dime. Either way, if Starbucks is your default way to do that, I would suggest that you’re missing out.
I’m not sure where you’re getting the “only” vibe. They’re aren’t a lot of places where you can go just hang out. I stand by that. One of those places is at coffeeshops. Book stores are another, like you said. I don’t think that was too hard to pick up from what I wrote.
I’ll concede to you that starbucks’ espresso isn’t as good as indie espresso (most of the time, I’ve had some crappy espresso, let me tell you). I just get annoyed when people get all up ons starbucks while being seemingly ignorant of the differences between drip coffee and espresso, and of coffehouse culture in general.
Wow, who would have thought that different people have different tastes when it comes to something as varied and complex as coffee? You really do learn somthing everyday. Consider my ignorance fought!
So, I don’t come back to this thread for a while and I’m jumped on for my comment about the quality of Starbucks coffee and its patrons but no one addresses my comment about the hypocrisy of selling bottled water to help people impacted by an environmental issue. Selling bottled water to help people who need clean water is like someone buying carbon offsets: you are not helping to solve the problem in any substantial way and, in fact, you are still contributing to it.
You want to help provide clean drinking water to people in need? Try thischarity.
From their faq:
Bolding mine. 100%. Look at that again. 100%. Not 2.9% which is what Starbucks contributes per bottle.
You don’t want to buy water but still want to help out? Try the Clean Water Fund. Or WaterAid.
Either of those groups leave Starbucks in the dust. Their Ethos water is another example of drive-by charity: Buy something that has a label saying that part of your proceeds go to the save the lemmings foundation and you feel good without having to actually do anything. Starbucks rang the bell of charity, you salivated at the idea of helping without having to get dirty, and you got a reward of a clean conscience as you walk away with a piece of plastic that will be around after your great, great grandchildren are long dead.
Make the effort of going out and helping the causes by either doing the work or participating in the program. You can’t travel to Darfur to dig wells? Then actually research the organizations, communicate with them and contribute. Don’t just write a check. Actually talk with them and show that you give a damn. Every year I participate in the St. Baldrick’s shave-a-thon to help fight children’s cancer. I can’t work in a lab but I’ll raise money for them by getting my head shaved. Seems stupid and inconsequential in comparison with children’s cancer but I also help with the event planning and set up.
And as for my comments about the clientele at Starbucks, I apologize if I offended anyone. When I need a cup of coffee in the morning, I want hot coffee that tastes good and doesn’t cost a lot. I don’t sit in a coffee house for 4 hours reading the paper and working on my laptop. I take the cup on the train or to my office. I don’t want whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, amaretto flavor or calling a cup “tall” when it is actually a small. I don’t need comfy chairs, piped in jazz or wi-fi. My ideal coffee place is a diner with a bottomless cup of joe where I can sit on a stool at the counter to get served. To paraphrase Nick the bartender from It’s a Wonderful Life, “Hey look, mister - we serve hot coffee in here for men who want to wake up fast, and we don’t need any characters around to give the joint “atmosphere”. Is that clear, or do I have to slip you my left for a convincer?”
EVery once in a while I go into Starbuck’s or Seattle’s Best to get a Latte, but I refuse to call the sizes by those crazy names…I can’t remember if grande is the medium or the large, and I can’t even pronounce venti (is the e like in “pen” or “pond?”). I just order a medium hazelnut latte. The nice people at the register always say, "grande (or venti, whichever it is) hazelnut latte…that will be (insert huge sum of money here). Works like a charm.
While you’re within your every right to call things whatever you please, I’ve never seen a Starbucks that didn’t have all three cup sizes with the names right under them directly next to the register.
And there is no e in pond. . . so, I’m not sure what you were going for there. It’s “Ven-tee”.
“e” in “pond”? Colour me confused. You know, I can understand a bit of confusion over pronunciation of foreign words, is it “grand” or “grahnday” but the one that irks me is all these moronic Southerners who insist on ordering a “Ventay” ARGH!!!
I think that they were referring to the “en” nasal sound from French, like “le vent”. Anyway, the sizes are perfectly descriptive. Short=small, Tall=a size larger than Short, Grande=large, Venti=20 oz. What’s not to understand?
What’s wrong with small, medium, large, extra-large? Whatever. I say “medium coffee”, if asked, I answer, “bold”, and without fail I get what I want. If they don’t make a point of educating me on their vernacular, they even get tipped!
Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be successful; seems to me like Starbucks and Walmart get jumped on every time for being big and successful so everyone starts hunting for rocks to throw at them. Or is that my imagination?
Maybe because your less than insightful commentary on bottled water wasn’t interesting enough to rate a mention?
Despite the fact that I drink coffee from Starbucks, I am more than aware of the issues surrounding bottled water. I’m sure this will come as a complete suprise to you but you’ve got absolutely nothing of value to add to that knowledge.
But I get it, you’re a real American who drinks real coffee, none of that fancy stuff for you, none of that foreign language lingo, either. In fact, you’re such a real, salt of the earth guy you don’t even want kids to get cancer.
If Starbucks held a “Drink an expresso to fight childhood diseases” fundraiser would your head explode from cognitive dissonance?
This kind of vapid, knee-jerk reaction is such a pet peeve of mine. During the last election, the GOP called Kerry and his supporters “latte liberals”. Leaving aside whether Kerry would have made a good president, it is pitiful that what type of coffe a person prefers became a talking point during a presidential election and is the reason why, whenever I turn on the news, I think this world gets exactly what it deserves.
There you go…is it pronounced like in “pen” or like in “genre?” I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be pronounced with some fake-y French/Italian accent (like “grande” is pronounced, for that matter), or like a midwesterner like me would pronounce it.
And, Diosa, I virtually always go through the drive-thru, and they don’t have the cups displayed out there.
I’m not sure what a French/Italian accent is; they’re quite different.
At any rate, both “grande”(gron-day) and “venti”(ven-tee) are Italian. A midwestern accent is just fine; I’m quite sure the baristas won’t notice the difference. On that note, I have never ordered a “grande”, “venti”, “tall”, or Bread Company’s (Panera to the rest of the world) even more idiotically named “largo” sized coffee. I order small medium or large (ok, large), and have never had an issue. They just give me my coffee without comment.
