Starbucks

I'm addicted to starbucks haha..anyone else?

Worked as an actual Italian-style barista for a year and I still love Starbucks. Their Caffe Verona coffee they sell in stores is one of my all time faves, it's one part Liberace and one part Clint Eastwood, the only coffee I care for black.

Also, if you'd like to make your own Starbucks drinks at home much more cheaply:

StarHalo's Cheap Mocha Latte

9oz milk
3oz water
1 tsp Medaglia D'Oro instant espresso
~1/4 cup chocolate syrup (suit to taste)
~1/2 tsp sugar (suit to taste)

Microwave water on high for 40 seconds in large mug, then add espresso powder and chocolate syrup. Bring milk to a boil in a quart pan, add to mug with sugar. Stir and serve. Makes one 12 oz serving.

The instant espresso is sold in many grocery/specialty/online stores for $3-4 for a small jar that will provide >12 servings; it's frequently found at Target.

StarHalo's Homemade Bottled Frappuccino

1/5 cup brewed coffee
1 cup milk
1 tsp sugar
2 tblsp chocolate syrup

Brew coffee then chill in freezer 30-40 minutes. Mix all ingredients in a large glass. Makes one 10 oz serving.

The formula above (one part coffee to five parts milk) is closest to the original bottled mocha frappuccino product, being very mild and focusing mostly on the milk flavor. You can get the coffee and/or chocolate flavor much bolder to suit your taste - I prefer a nearly 1:1 mix with more chocolate and no sugar, which is quite strong.

Starbucks coffee is among the worst of the worst. Their coffee is thoroughly burned rendering their 'blend' of trash beans tasteless (improvement) and without any reason to endure swilling it down.

Starbucks pretty much serves America's need for another reason to legitimize getting fatter. If you like coffee get a nice light roast from your local small batch roaster or do it yourself.

YMMV

egrep said:

Their coffee is thoroughly burned

Click to expand...

Agree with this statement too, their bagged coffees are very inconsistent which is why I stick to their blended drinks most of the time; those use a pre-mixed base that doesn't rely on their beans.

Starbucks is horrible coffee.

For chain coffees, I like The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and Caribou Coffee.

Hey, c'mon folks, the OP is new here. :welcome:

I will say that when I took a cross-country bicycle trip back in 2002, things were OK regarding coffee shops out here in the West, but once I got to the midwest there were very very few options in the small towns we were going through. Starbucks isn't my favorite place for coffee, but on the rare occasion that I saw one at least I could expect some consistency, and was much better than truck-stop coffee.

The best and the worst-ever coffee I've had has been in some of the small independent shops - you'd never know what you'd be getting. :shrug:

Welcome to CPF!

Starbucks house drip coffee is acceptably warm and caffeinated.

Venti Coffee Frappe...Oh Yea!!!!!!!!!
BTW...The OP mentions being addicted to Starbucks, but does not reference coffee only.

+

I'v personally ground hundreds pounds of Starbucks beans if my life,...drink it every day
{..lived in Portland in early 90s' ,, lots of coffee heads there}

Do a 50/50 grind of House Blend & Espresso Roast
Get the House beans in the big bags @ $ams,,, & Espresso beans when its on sale at my local grocer..

Make strong coffee w/ bit of 1%,, that's it.

Kestrel said:

Hey, c'mon folks, the OP is new here. :welcome:

I will say that when I took a cross-country bicycle trip back in 2002, things were OK regarding coffee shops out here in the West, but once I got to the midwest there were very very few options in the small towns we were going through. Starbucks isn't my favorite place for coffee, but on the rare occasion that I saw one at least I could expect some consistency, and was much better than truck-stop coffee.

The best and the worst-ever coffee I've had has been in some of the small independent shops - you'd never know what you'd be getting. :shrug:

Click to expand...

Actually, I made a trip across America this summer as well. Didn't get a cup of coffee until a couple of days in, and decided to give truck stop coffee a chance. One of the things that totally floored me was the quality of the coffee at Pilot travel centers. Every stop had a bevy of different blends to choose from; consistent, mellow but not watery, and absurdly stocked condiments on the side. Not to mention if you get gas before you step in the store, you get a coffee discount. I never thought that I would gain a favorite truck stop, but Pilot changed my mind on that.

But i do agree that the best coffee can be found in the oddest places. I found a bookstore in Nebraska that might have created the best latte of my life.

Hmmm...despite 4 or 5 people here who don't like it, Starbucks is HIGHLY successful as a company, so they must be giving people something that they want.

I'm not a coffee drinker. I go into Starbucks maybe twice a year. One of the things that always impresses me about Starbucks is their high standards for cleanliness. Around here, the Starbucks stores are always clean and well cared for. I'm a real freak about cleanliness in restaurants, and I feel like I could almost eat off of the floor at the local Starbucks--which is more than I can say for most other restaurants around here. That, at least, impresses me. Maybe it impresses others as well.

Qoose said:

Not to mention if you get gas before you step in the store, you get a coffee discount.

Click to expand...

... and if you get gas after you step in the store, you get thrown out.

.....

Hmm... two Portlanders have posted in this thread, and haven't mentioned the great coffee their city has to offer.

Maybe I'm thinking about the beer?

When touring the Kauai Coffee Plantation, their favorite saying was that they sold their rejects to Starbucks.

RBR said:

I like Starbucks because it´s a bit like with BK or McD.

They might not be the best around but you know you will get a sufferable coffee for your money rather than the dishwater many others call a coffee, especially in Germany, the USofA, Canada, UK, Ireland...

Exclusions are Portugal, Spain, France and Italy where it is, in contrast to the ones above, exactly the other way round.

Cheers

RBR

Click to expand...

I think the coffee "culture" is a bit different here than in US. Drip coffee in any kind of shop is uheard of here. Coffee is synonymous of spresso in cafes or bars and, if the one you make is average, you will lose lots of clients to the competition (and we have cafes/bars almost everywhere).

It's stronger too. It's not rare to see tourists asking for water to mix with a "normal" cafe. Portuguese is even stronger (and great, if not better, too).

Most of the people who are Starbucks clients in the few places you can find them are the kind of people who buy an iPhone just for the sake it is an iPhone (they want to look "cool" to others). Sad but true

I'm originally from Portland, too, and while I conceed there are many better independant coffee places to go to, my experience with Starbucks has been mostly positive. I never buy their beans to take home so I can't comment on the quality, but the drip coffee I've ordered in the Starbucks in the Nortwest has been consistently above average.
Obviously, its a matter of preference, and Starbucks tends to offer quite strong coffee compared to some places.

Having traveled quite extensively in Asia where instant coffee is often prevalent, I have found Starbucks to be a reliable place for a good cup of coffee, even away from its homeground in the US. My only notably bad experience was at a Starbucks in NYC of all places, and the drip coffee I ordered was horribly burnt...I guess it served me right for not taking the time to locate a good independant shop in a city with so many other options...

Starbucks success relies on flooding local markets with their stores. Where I work, I have six Starbucks in approx. one sq. mile., not to mention the Starbucks that are in every Safeway grocery store and Target stores.

In the Bay Area, we have a small chain called Philz, which i like alot.

Personally i buy Bustelo coffee at home. beats any other coffee I've ever had. Including the coffee in Italy, but maybe not Paris.

Another vote for Pilot truckstop coffee. They have plenty of choices and I can get the right mix of caf and decaf for my taste.

Starbucks is a coffee of last resort for me. It tastes burnt and actually a little 'dirty' to me, and there's something in there that really upsets my stomach. Yech!