# Starbucks - No Decaf After Noon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 24, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159 "2010-10-24T02:49:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/21 "2010-10-24T16:59:41Z")
> [@AutumnLeaves](#): > > I don’t live somewhere that Starbucks is easily accessible anymore, but I used to get a tall coffee every now and then. Wasn’t the world’s best coffee, wasn’t too bad. But I don’t understand the hate; if you don’t want to drink their coffee, if you don’t want to be in the same building with the word “frappucino”, if you’re unable to comprehend the sizing system, then you’re free to head to the guy with the coffee cart around the corner. You know, get a life. The hate is mainly the hate that lots of people have for someone else’s success. ---
**Author:** ![Carnacki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@Carnacki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnacki)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/22 "2010-10-24T17:04:27Z")
On a somewhat, but not really, related point - I’m always baffled by the coffee places that are open from 8am-8pm. If I owned a coffee shop, it would be open from 10pm - 7am, when people actually need some caffeine to stay awake, and then close down during the day when it doesn’t make any sense to drink coffee. And then my store would probably go out of business. But I’d be making a damn fine point with my business failure. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/23 "2010-10-24T17:19:57Z")
The Second Cup frequently doesn’t have decaf drip coffee, but when I’ve ordered one they have cheerfully made a decaf americano for the same price as a regular coffee. ---
**Author:** ![dukette71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@dukette71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dukette71)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/24 "2010-10-24T17:41:13Z")
Decaf isn’t for everyone. I am sure Starbucks doesn’t want to serve stale tasting coffee that has been sitting around for hours with so few takers. I just ask for an Decaf Americano. It tastes just as good as fresh brewed decaf and doesn’t cost much more. ---
**Author:** ![wipetheclock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b19c9b/32.png) [@wipetheclock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wipetheclock)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/25 "2010-10-24T17:47:46Z")
Coffee loses its quality quickly after brewing. As a result, most coffee shops have a policy about how long until a pot should be dumped and another brewed (I’ve heard as short as 15 minutes but 30 seems more common). As you would expect, this leads to quite a bit of waste. My WAG is that the only brewing decaf on demand after noon is a policy of this store or the area of stores, not company-wide policy. Decaf is ordered much less frequently than regular and coffee shops get the majority of their business in the morning. It’s quite possible they go hours without anyone ordering decaf, so they would be wasting an entire pot every 30 minutes (or whatever their time limit is). ---
**Author:** ![AutumnLeaves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@AutumnLeaves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AutumnLeaves)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/26 "2010-10-24T18:11:10Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > The hate is mainly the hate that lots of people have for someone else’s success. I figured that, but don’t people get how bored others are of hearing Starbucks rants? Seriously, no one thinks you’re some sort of iconoclast because you refuse to order with the words “venti” or “grande”, no one’s in awe, no one thinks you’re a hero standing up to the man. We all just feel like we’re watching some low-grade standup comic who’s making it harder for us to get our coffee and get out. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/27 "2010-10-24T18:49:10Z")
> [@Carnacki](#): > > On a somewhat, but not really, related point - I’m always baffled by the coffee places that are open from 8am-8pm. If I owned a coffee shop, it would be open from 10pm - 7am, when people actually need some caffeine to stay awake, and then close down during the day when it doesn’t make any sense to drink coffee. And then my store would probably go out of business. But I’d be making a damn fine point with my business failure. 🙂 Most people who drink coffee do so for the taste. Some do it for the caffeine as well, but most enjoy the taste of coffee. It used to be very common for just about every adult in America to drink coffee throughout the day, and well into the evening. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/28 "2010-10-24T19:09:41Z")
> [@AutumnLeaves](#): > > When I hear people rant against Starbucks, it nearly always involves two points - that they drive out smaller shops, and that they’re overpriced. It’s actually three points - the third one is that the coffee is over-roasted and tastes burnt. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/29 "2010-10-24T19:27:33Z")
As someone who owned a coffee shop and coffee roasting company (until the city of fort worth decided to tear up our streets for three years straight), I can give some insight. First of all, a barista…a real one, takes months and months of training to do right. Foaming milk properly, and adjusting the equipment properly, is not something you can just pick up. Starbucks uses more automated machines, so this is less true there (and the quality suffers for it) but there sitll is a lot of training. It’s kind of like the difference between a good bartender who knows how to make every drink under the sun, and a concession stand employee at a baseball game who just fills a cup with beer and takes your money. There is a guild for baristas, and there are international competitions. Second: Coffee goes bad sitting in the pot, and has to be dumped. Decaf sells terribly. We lost money on decaf many days (not much, because we roasted our own coffee), but kept it around as a courtesy. With coffee prices going up, I’m not suprised they are brewing it will. Ask for a decaf americano next time. They can make that on the spot, faster, and it’ll probably taste better. As for Starbucks hate. It has nothing to do with them being succesful. Zoka’s is succesful, and I wish there was one on every corner. Intelligencia is succesful, etc. It has to do with the crap product they put out. People who really love coffee are offended by it. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/30 "2010-10-24T19:52:53Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Espresso is never ever made in advance. That is the derivation of the name. It is made “especially for you” on the spot. That’s debatable. It’s just as likely that the term derives from how the coffee is pressed out by the steam of the machine. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/31 "2010-10-24T19:56:25Z")
> [@Captain\_Midnight](#): > > Starbucks can kiss my ass. They are like the Wal Mart of coffee houses, and because of this, most mom and pop coffee places with atmosphere goes under leaving this homogenized giant of nothingness. As with so many things, it all depends. The town I live in, there were NO coffee places before the first Starbucks showed up about ten years ago. No mom and pop coffee house, no local chain, nothing. So when Starbucks came, it was great – at last there was someplace in town to get a latte, even if it was not the best, quality-wise. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/32 "2010-10-24T20:24:42Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > That’s debatable. It’s just as likely that the term derives from how the coffee is pressed out by the steam of the machine. to clear, it’s not pressed out by steam. It’s water under 9 bars of pressure provided by a pump. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/33 "2010-10-24T20:41:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Starbucks can kiss my ass. They are like the Wal Mart of coffee houses, and because of this, most mom and pop coffee places with atmosphere goes under leaving this homogenized giant of nothingness. Somewhat counter-intuitively, a Starbucks moving in usually seems to help the mom-n-pop places. If you think about it, it makes sense since it’s not like Starbucks is cheaper and most small places make better coffee. So, assuming you make halfway decent coffee, it’s not like the Starbucks is going to steal away the customers you’ve already got and it exposes more people to espresso who then are a potential pool of new customers to pick up. The real risk to small coffee places is places like McDonald’s. They’ve been gradually getting the super-automatic espresso machines that allow their burger assembly technicians to make coffee that’s much better than it has any buisness being. And they really do charge a heck of a lot less than Starbucks or local places. Obviously McD’s isn’t going to compete on ambience, but for the crucial on-the-way-to-work rush, it’s bad news. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/34 "2010-10-24T21:05:33Z")
I’ve always enjoyed Panera’s decaf, but lately they don’t seem to be brewing after noon either. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/35 "2010-10-24T23:57:25Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > That’s debatable. It’s just as likely that the term derives from how the coffee is pressed out by the steam of the machine. The derivation has a clear provenance, and is well documented. It is derived from the Italian, where the machines were invented. You could start with : Espresso Coffee: The Chemistry of Quality edited by Andrea Illy, not only did Andrea write **the** book on espresso, this is that book. In the early days of espresso the pressure was much less, and the coffee was not the same as the current espresso. Indeed machines did use steam pressure in some cases. Cheap home machines still do. The stove top mocca pot, and very cheap pump-less pseudo espresso machines use steam pressure in the boiler to push the water through the grounds. Modern commercial espresso machines use rotary pumps, domestic machines use solenoid driven vibratory pumps, and the older traditional machines use pistons driven by hand by a long lever (sometimes using as large spring which is compressed by the lever and then allowed to drive the piston with an even force as it uncompresses.) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/36 "2010-10-25T02:57:54Z")
> [@Captain\_Midnight](#): > > Why does anyone drink decaffinated coffee? Do people really like drinking that? Because I love coffee, but I can’t have caffeine anymore, because it triggers my seizures. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/37 "2010-10-25T03:36:11Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > Somewhat counter-intuitively, a Starbucks moving in usually seems to help the mom-n-pop places. If you think about it, it makes sense since it’s not like Starbucks is cheaper and most small places make better coffee. So, assuming you make halfway decent coffee, it’s not like the Starbucks is going to steal away the customers you’ve already got and it exposes more people to espresso who then are a potential pool of new customers to pick up. > > The real risk to small coffee places is places like McDonald’s. They’ve been gradually getting the super-automatic espresso machines that allow their burger assembly technicians to make coffee that’s much better than it has any buisness being. And they really do charge a heck of a lot less than Starbucks or local places. Obviously McD’s isn’t going to compete on ambience, but for the crucial on-the-way-to-work rush, it’s bad news. That’s true. I’ve been pretty impressed with McDonald’s coffee lately, and it’s really cheap. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/38 "2010-10-25T03:58:37Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > It’s actually three points - the third one is that the coffee is over-roasted and tastes burnt. And this third point will drive away people who would otherwise buy a cup from Starbucks. I’ve tried Starbucks a few times, from various places, and the stuff just doesn’t taste good. I love coffee, but I can’t tolerate the caffeine in it. So when I’m out with friends, and they want to grab a cup of coffee and talk, I’ll suggest Denny’s or someplace, ANYPLACE but Starbucks. But some of them insist on the Coffeeshop From Hell. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/39 "2010-10-25T10:15:24Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > And this third point will drive away people who would otherwise buy a cup from Starbucks. I’ve tried Starbucks a few times, from various places, and the stuff just doesn’t taste good. I love coffee, but I can’t tolerate the caffeine in it. So when I’m out with friends, and they want to grab a cup of coffee and talk, I’ll suggest Denny’s or someplace, ANYPLACE but Starbucks. But some of them insist on the Coffeeshop From Hell. Don’t I know it! I once bought some Starbucks Italian Blend(?) for my pot at home, and it tasted pretty good. Then, some babe at work talked me into going into a Starbucks for the first time. “Oh, it’s the best I’ve ever had! Just try…” I ordered a cocoa with some flavoring. End result: tasted just like my Swiss Miss, except a bit more watered down. The flavoring was more of an insult than a flavor. The $4 price tag finished any credibility they may have had. A pox upon Starbucks. I’ll keep Rachel Ray and Duncan Donuts for my exotic coffee. Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159/40 "2010-10-25T20:56:35Z")
so they make more money and do not waste coffee PS former employee of 3 years [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-no-decaf-after-noon/558159.md?page=3)