I’m really not an Anglophile, per se, but when that douchebag ascended to the throne, to me it seemed a bellwether that the sun was going to set on one of one of history’s greatest empires.
Ahem.
Elon Musk?!
I’ve never seen that syrup (looks disgusting), but serving milky coffee to very young children is a thing in Scandinavian countries and areas with a large Scandinavian population. My brother-in-law is a second-generation Finnish immigrant, and he first had milky coffee at around 3. Maybe that’s where it came from?
Not at South. At North, you would have almost definitely. I hid out there almost all summer of 95 to escape the deadly heat, working many double shifts for that reason.
Was wondering the same thing myself, where it comes from that is. The wiki says it was an Italian custom. It might turn out to be popular in many countries. I recall seeing Coffee Syrup in New York groceries before moving here to RI, but no finished concoction I ever noticed, or would ever care about any coffee product.
I’m a little conflicted by the OP. When I’m by myself, and in my hometown, I rarely go to Starbucks. There are other places not too far that make better coffee.
But there are still plenty of occasions when I do go to Starbucks. First is when I’m traveling away from my home and want coffee. I know if I go to Starbucks I’ll get exactly what I expect; generally I don’t have time or patience to research other options. Second, my 12 year old son likes their decaf mocha Frappuccino, so we go there sometimes for him.
I have experienced situations while travelling where there did not seem to be a convenient option other than Starbuck’s (though, if the demand for coffee was there, why did nobody open their own independent coffee house)? Then, if you do not have time to start searching, your options are either to go into the Starbuck’s, or do without coffee and hope they have something decent at the conference. This will not be a problem in a big city (and even many small cities, depends where), though.
Yes but I asked for cream and sugar. I should have specified coffee with the drink. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it but WOW. the amount of sugar was an eye opener.
Weak coffee is terrible. I hope they at least made it triple-strength to cut through all the spurious flavours.
In the Netherlands “coffeemilk” (koffiemelk) is evaporated milk you add to coffee as a creamer. I really wish we had that here.
Of course you can buy evaporated milk in the US, but it doesn’t come in nice re-closable bottles which makes it inconvenient.
My growing up experience with coffee was weird. My folks divorced when I was young, and my mother was a dedicated coffee drinker, and my dad a dedicated tea drinker.
With my mom, I was always curious about coffee because it smells so amazing, but I found it burnt and bitter tasting (I was like 5, what do you expect?). But if she put 2 or 3 spoonfuls in my glass of milk, it was wonderful! So I grew up liking coffee if it basically tasted like melted coffee ice cream (which was my favorite flavor for years). Thus, when Starbucks became a thing, it suited my pre-existing tastes perfectly.
On the other hand, my wife loves, and I quote “Beast coffee. Like a beast would drink if a beast drank coffee.” Super dark roasts, black, no cream, no sugar. So if we went to Starbucks, I’d be getting a latte with syrup (vanilla, chai or hazelnut depending on mood), and she’d be getting the darkest brew available.
But, again, I’m at the point where if I really want that coffee and sugar fix, even with inflation being what it is, a half-gallon of a decent brand (Breyers for example) of coffee ice cream is less than a single drink at Starbucks. Much less something I make at home, especially when I can add Irish cream, Rum, Brandy, Kahlua or similar adult additions.
I love Starbucks but largely stopped going when the pandemic forced the ones here in Hawaii to adopt to-go only. I don’t like my coffee on the go, I want to sit and enjoy it. Seating has started making a comeback here but not yet at all of them.
Having had the world’s worst coffee (a 24-hour Mom and Pop truck stop in rural northern Ontario, where the coffee didn’t pour at 3:00 am, it oozed), I find nothing wrong with Starbucks. It’s perfectly drinkable, and while it may be not to everybody’s taste, can be downright pleasant to those of us who have had plenty worse.
What bothers me is the cult that grows up around coffee chains. A golf buddy always wants us to stop at Tim Hortons on our way to the golf course. “Y’know, buddy, they’ve got coffee in the course clubhouse.” “Yeah, but it’s not Tim Hortons. Gotta have me my Tims.” 
Fercryingoutloud, it’s just a cup of coffee. Suck it up, buttercup. If I can deal with oozing Mom and Pop coffee at 3:00 am in northern Ontario, you can deal with golf course clubhouse coffee at noon.
My GF and brother LOVE coffee. It is life to them (not kidding…getting coffee is part of how they run their day…as in they will go out of their way and be late for things in order to get coffee).
They hate, hate, hate Starbucks coffee. My GF describes it as burnt water. She thinks that is the reason for so much dairy and sweetener added.
Not to mention their absurd prices.
Your post reminded me of a long-ago girlfriend, who loved coffee just as much. We’d go out for pizza (usually Hawaiian, ham and pineapple, her choice), and she’d have coffee to drink. An Italian restaurant, for veal parmigiana? She’d have coffee. A British pub, for a shepherd’s pie, or perhaps a curry? She’d have coffee.
She was a nice girl, and coffee is certainly less expensive than alcohol, so I didn’t care. Still, I found it odd: how does one drink hot coffee with a hot meal, outside of breakfast, unless one really, really loves coffee?
Yeah that’s true. There’s a Mom & Pop donut shop near here. The donuts are excellent but the coffee is horrible. Starbucks coffee is a lot better than that, I can tell you for sure.
I think there was more to it than that. I remember Starbucks coffee tasting burnt, but I was pleasantly surprised one time when my psych professor brought us a large container of Starbucks brewed coffee, and it tasted fine. This would have been during my senior year of college, 2005/2006. I suspect that, while they probably had a rule about throwing out any unsold coffee after 30 minutes, it was roundly ignored, just like it is at every food and beverage place I’ve ever worked. The difference is, at, say, Dunkin’ Donuts, a pot of coffee doesn’t last 30 minutes anyway because it all gets sold. At Starbucks, where almost everyone orders some espresso-based drink, the pot of brewed coffee could sit on the burner all day, becoming thicker and more charred-tasting. I discovered that I could get around that by ordering an Americano. Quality control seems to have improved in recent years, though.
The burnt taste largely went away when they switched their house blend to something called “Pike’s Place.” Some people still insist it tastes burnt, but I honestly don’t notice it. They also have a blond roast (and lighter roasts have become much more popular over the last half decade or so) called Verdana (and I think maybe another one.)
Let me look up when that Pike’s Place roast was released. Googles. April 8, 2008, so it doesn’t quite fit your timeline, but it’s close.
I think Starbucks is pretty good for some things. Their coffee is average, and I do not drink their more sugary concoctions. Their food is okay but hardly their focus. A tall plain coffee is two bucks American, in Canada, for as many cups as you want, so it is a popular place to study. If you go to one in a bookstore, you can enjoy that too.
People have different political views. If they are not extreme, they will not factor heavily into my decisions. I agree workers should be treated fairly; this is why health programs and a fair wage are a thing in Canada.
Is it worth it to you? If not, there are alternatives.
Nitpick: “Pike Place”