Some friends of my wife sort of ridiculed me the other day for saying I go to Starbucks’ pretty regularly. “Don’t you like coffee?” they jokingly asked, implying that one can only like Starbucks’ coffee if one doesn’t care about one’s coffee’s quality.
Opinions on Starbucks’ coffee, please. Is it as bad as my wife’s friends (and others I have heard) claim? If so, what’s wrong with it? If not, why do some people say it’s so bad?
I rarely drink straight coffee, anyway. I drink froofy stuff w/ whipped cream and cinnamon and stuff in it, so I can’t really judge the taste of a company’s coffee in and of itself.
But I’m a bit of a coffee purist (Stewart’s, fresh-brewed and black) and I suspect Starbuck’s NEEDS to have exceptionally strong bitter coffee as a base for its froofy whipped cream and cinnamon overload - otherwise you wouldn’t be able to tell there was coffee in it.
Relatively it’s pretty good coffee. Not as good as fresh ground, french drip homemade, but at least as good, if not better, than what most restaurants offer as after dinner coffee.
Its definitely drinkable, and I commend them for the holiday beverages, but I do think that they roast their beans a bit too long. And as a caffeinehead, I resent any over-processing of the beans.
Its okay, but for just plain old black coffee, I actually find the stuff McDonald’s (gasp! :eek:) uses to be better tasting…not to mention costing about a 1/3 as much for the same amount of coffee. In the mornings, sometimes I pass a shopping center that has a McDonalds and Starbucks. The McDonalds has a drive-thru, the Starbucks does not.
Hmm, faster service, better tasting coffee, and cheaper product…what choice do you expect me to make?
Second the burnt smell/ taste. I was in a Starbucks when they were grinding their coffee, and it smelled, well…like crap.
The coffee snob in me is also irritated that people will ask for a macchiato and be shocked when you hand over a tiny cup with a dollop of foam. And those frou-frou “coffee” drinks are pure fat bombs. If I’m going to consume something with that much fat, it should come with a steak knife.
See, I have a sort of pseudo-utilitarian view of fat; I’m slim, I eat what I like, but if I’m going to eat something fatty, then the pleasure I derive from eating it must be as high as the fat content.
Hence, in aurelian’s world, McDonald’s =not worth it - it’s mediocre, hence not worth all the fat and calories.
But the yummiest chorizo tacos with refritos (made authentically, with lard) in the state = worth it.
I don’t drink “normal” coffee, but my parents are both addicts. My dad says that he doesn’t particularly like Starbucks brew because it’s too strong, and adding enough milk or whatever to make it sufficiently mild makes it too cold.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Starbucks coffee. I hear the “burnt” complaint a lot, but it seems to me that used to be called “French roast”, and was considered a good thing. I guess if you don’t like dark roast, then you won’t like Starbucks. But I don’t think that makes it intrinsically bad. I rather like the fact that when you go into a Starbucks, you can count on getting a decent cup of drip coffee, and it’s not gonna be a crapshoot. It’s certainly not the best, but it’s not bad. But I’ll take Pete’s coffee any day if I can get it.
On the other hand, Starbucks’ espresso drinks are pure crap. A Starbucks employee wouldn’t know a cappucino if it bit them in the ass. A cappucino at Starbucks consists of a pitifully weak shot of espresso, way too much hot milk, and a small amount of foam on top. That’s actually what a latte is supposed to be. If you’ve ever had a real cappucino, it’s not anywhere even close. I don’t even know what a Starbucks latte is - even more milk? I honestly think their drinks with milk in them are solely for pussies who don’t like the taste of coffee, but like to think they’re cool “coffee drinkers”. You should be able to taste some fucking COFFEE in there somewhere. Otherwise, just fix yourself a nice glass of warm milk.
My guess is that they roast the coffee within an inch of its life because that allows them to use cheaper coffee. The darker the roast, the more you taste the roast instead of the bean.
Which, if my theory is true, makes their prices even more outrageous.
As with anything successful, a lot of people will talk through their asses in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. I drink strong coffee, and I drink it unadulterated. I prefer Starbucks to most coffees, including the brands that go in and out of vogue with the changing of the wind. Starbucks has the turn-over to mean that their beans are generally far fresher than anything you can get at other stores (be they chains or the nonsense boutiques). I also like that I can go into a Starbucks in Tokyo and know that it’s going to be pretty much the same great cup of coffee I get back in Toronto, or New York, or San Francisco.
On the other hand, of course, that’s not to say that you can’t do better than Starbucks. Just that most people who deride Starbucks wouldn’t know good coffee from sewage.
The theory I heard was that they’re so huge, they have to get their coffee from all kinds of different sources, and therefore have to roast the shit out of it to maintain uniformity of the product - I guess the idea being that if it’s all really darkly roasted, it’ll all be the same.
That makes a certain amount of sense as well. I wonder if there’s anyone out there who drank their coffee before they became the evil coffee empire and could tell us if the coffee used to be better and/or not as darkly roasted. Anyone?
Of course, it could also be a combination of the two; incinerating the beans provides uniformity and allows them to use cheap beans.
I managed a coffee shop where we roasted the coffee fresh every day. Compared to that Starbucks just doesn’t do it. But I was spoiled. I literally would walk in, grab beans out of the roaster, grind them up and make my morning cup o’ joe.
It’s okay but not as fresh as I like. Also I do not like dark roasts. Too bitter and not enough caffine. (LIttle known fact, the lighter the bean the more caffine) Want to get realy jacked? Get a triple shot of espresso using American roast Costa Rican and drop in 2 chocolate covered coffee beans. Top with whipped cream. That is just about enough caffine to kill an elephant. A perfect morning wake me up.
And yes, roasting the shit out of inferior beans will make a (somewhat) drinkable brew.
