Am I the only one who doesn't like Starbuck Coffee?

Don’t like it either – too strong and bitter for me. And I don’t want to drink fancy coffee drinks that have 600 calories in them.

I don’t like it. It’s too strong. I know it’s trendy and the cafes are a nice place to hang out, better atmosphere than Dunkin.

I also don’t see the logic of paying 4 to 5 dollars for a coffee drink. I see the logic of paying 2 dollars for a regular coffee like DD.

I don’t hang out in coffee shops so I’m not paying for the ambiance.

When Starbuck’s got their hugely successful marketing push going I was living in Seattle. I knew a couple of guys that did some of the buying. They literally were sent to the South American coffee auctions to buy the garbage beans, the thought being that they could cover the lack of quality with flavors and fluffy milk and glitz and glam. They over-roasted the beans to get the charred and bitter taste that covered the poor quality taste. Later they started adding in some higher quality beans to justify the advertising.

I admire the company’s marketing teams, they are the best they can be, and they have built a juggarnaut of an industry.

I hate the coffee, but damn, the company is outstanding.

Same here, nothing against them personally but I have never been into the frothy, flavored coffees, lattes, espressos, etc. don’t sit around puttering on my laptop in public places and have found that I can get just as consistent a cup of good coffee from McDonalds for a lot less cash. Only thing missing is the prestige offered by walking around with an actual Starbucks cup that screams “Look at ME! I am chic and chichi!”
My brown Mickey D’s cup just says “Look at me, I work for a living and like coffee”.

I have never had Starbucks.

I don’t drink coffee but I do drink hot chocolate. I tried Starbucks and thought it was just so so. Too pricey for just so so.

I am okay with Starbucks’ coffee. As long as it is their coffee drinks and not their milkshakes.

Starbucks is not nearly as bitter as Peets. Peets seems to burn everything.

I just walked up to North Beach in San Francisco to buy the best coffee around: a pound of dark roast from Graffeo Coffee Roasting Company.

I don’t like their house blend as I don’t find it strong enough to make decent espresso.

Anyone for sharing a cuppa tea?

@Hawaii_Jake Sure!

It’s disgusting. They closed down here. I think they might have a store somewhere in Australia, but not in my city.

No, you are not the only one.

I drink their teas, which are reasonably good although a bit pricey for my taste—Teavanna is a good brand, and so was Tazo before it, there just aren’t many options (with Tazo I had 2 green teas, with Teavanna I have 1). The water is a single temperature for all of the teas, so green and white teas can wind up a bit scorched when it’s too hot, but that’s the case for most coffee shops—one container of hot water usually set at a single temperature. But the leaves are whole, which gives a richer flavor—and they finally started charging by the number of tea bags rather than the size of the cup, so in the end, my largest complaint is that I have to loudly say “Emperor’s Clouds and Mist” to get green tea… Still, I prefer Peets, because I’m partial to Mighty Leaf’s Jasmine Green Tea because it’s just a lovely tea.

ACTUALLY—Just remembered what I was going to say from the get go: My biggest complaint is the number of baristas that don’t know how to “make” tea—the tag pasted onto the side of the bag does not go into the hot water. I do not want dissolved tea tag floating in my tea, and I do not want to burn myself trying to fish out the tea bag. I can’t even tell you how many times it happens. Technically a minor thing but it really really bugs me.

Amerikans like their coffee burnt. Dark roasts are the coffee equivalent of well-done steaks: flavourless charcoal briquettes for people who think spray cheez and Michael Bay movies are high culture. Unfortunately, this means other coffee chains also burn their coffee in an attempt to compete with Starbucks, resulting in a chain reaction of shitty, burnt coffee everywhere.

To me, a very decent cup is at DD for about $2. Also McD’s, any size for $1. I just request regular milk as they will default to half and half (aka “cream”), which I don’t prefer.

It’s not great.

I only get it when I get it for free. There’s a Starbuck’s in the Target near my house, and sometimes I’ll take advantage of some promotion or other that gets me a $5 gift card.

I save the gift card for a day when I need an hour of quiet time, when I’ll leave Ian with the hubby, and go walk around Target with a latte.

I always get the same thing:

“Grande non fat two pump no whip white mocha with an extra shot.”

That is, skim milk, half as much chocolate as they usually add, no sugary cream, and 50% more espresso.

It’s not great, but it is hot and coffee shaped, and I don’t have to make it myself.

I love coffee and I’ve never had a coffee at Starbucks. BBE has brought me one of their grocery store coffee brands, but I didn’t like it. Now, he brings me ‘Seattle’s Best Coffee Signature Blend No5’ and it is awesome. I won’t even drink the coffee at work. Because I love coffee.

@cazzie I love Kirkland Columbian Coffee. But the best more recent cappuccino I ever had was in this small crappy hotel in Paris. The room was crap but I loved the coffee and cheese and rolls. I inhaled it like it was some drug I couldn’t get enough of it.

The next best coffee ever was the one my aunt use to make. I haven’t had that coffee in over 15 years. My kids were never coffee lovers and still are not but when they smelled her coffee, they quickly begged to have some. Whenever she started to ask how many people wanted coffee a few people would say sure and once they smelled it, they would quickly change their minds. People would always watch her brew it, but we could never get it down to the exact way she made it. So we just gave up.

I’ve only had a Starbucks once and it was so so bitter and over roasted that no amount of trying to cut it with milk or half and half was effective.

I have absolutely no idea how other people can tolerate it. All the marketing in the world could not overcome that bitterness.

Back when I lived in Bklyn. When teaching I used to love Chock Full O Nuts but nowadays I can only find it at the grocery in cans. Just not the same.

When I’m out, I’ll get either DD or McDonalds and like them both. When at home, I’ll use either DD or Gevalia and both are really good.

However, surprisingly, there is a form of Starbucks which I do like. Their ice cream is really really good. Every other coffee ice cream is way too sugary and barely any coffee flavor. But Starbucks coffee ice cream actually tastes the way coffee ice cream should. Surprise surprise