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Starbucks Isn't Evil, Their Coffee's Just Crummy
May 25, 2004
Nothing gets my day off to a crappy start like a crappy cuppa Joe. In a moment of weakness at Target not long ago, I bought a bag of Starbucks French Roast. I was out of coffee, it was there, it was easy. Too easy. I noticed an immediate drop in quality compared to the stuff we usually bring home form the local coffeehouse down the street, but decided to tuff it out. I spent the money, I'm Jewish, case closed. Then vacationing neighbors gifted us with some Nickybeans Kona from Maui Coffee Roasters. Shazzam! Mild yet rich, smooth, succulent, cerebral and scintillating. I'd paste this stuff all over a T-bone steak and grill it, I would! Perversely reverting to thrift this morning, I decided to make a dent in the rest of the Starbucks. Oy! After getting acclimated to the Nickybeans Kona, the taste wavered between fish entrails and burnt plastic. And yes, Starbucks PR people, I recently DID have a free sample of your new Hawaiian product, foisted on me by some smarmy manager with a ceaseless spiel. Best I can say: less burnt than your other varieties. My perspective on coffee is consumer-driven, and fiercely apolitical. Just because Starbucks java is crud; just because their outsourced food leaves me cold; just because they've got incredibly lame signs boasting their food is "oven-warmed" (as opposed to what, microwaved?); NONE OF THAT means for one tiny second that I support the anti-globalization and anti-corporate protests directed against the company. I don't. It's true that accretion of capital, expansionism, mass production and marketing can vault second-rate products to the top of the heap. But it's we the hornswoggled consumers who make the choices. Thanks for the reminder, guys. Posted by Matt Rosenberg at May 25, 2004 09:38 AM Trackback Pings TrackBack URL for this entry: Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Starbucks Isn't Evil, Their Coffee's Just Crummy:
» Cuppa Joke from The Smoking Room Tracked on May 25, 2004 03:43 PM Comments:
Yes! Exactly! I hate Starbucks because they burn their coffee beans--imparting a nasty, bitter taste to the stuff. I will say that the funky little toffee bars that they have are pretty yummy, though... Posted by: zombyboy at May 25, 2004 02:08 PMI actually like Starbucks' roasting style, though I readily admit there are better beans out there. However, I think Starbucks played a key role in setting the bar waaaay higher for coffee. Their stuff is so far above what retail and restaurant grinds were 10 years ago it isn't even funny. Now they are seen as sort of the cheap, basic beans you get when you're out of the good stuff. That's a pretty good base to be working off of, sort of like having to resort to your 29" TV because your 36" widescreen HDTV is broken. Posted by: Scott at May 25, 2004 06:26 PMMy 8yr old granddaughter introduced me to Starbuck's Strawberry Cream soda drink and it was soooo good I HAD to get another. And now when I take some papers to the dr's office I will deliberately go near Stevens Horspiddle just so I can stop in at the kawfee stand and get another one! These are waaaaaaaaay too good ! Posted by: Lorna at May 25, 2004 07:21 PMYou want some good beans? Try the roast over at Diva's on 80th (or is it 85th?) and Greenwood. And if you think Starbucks is a corporate monster now, try working there. Some stores in NY tried to unionize and Howard shut 'em down flat. And Kona, $19.99 for half a pound? Gimmie' a break (and I get 30% off...) Posted by: Seth at May 25, 2004 08:44 PMI may be mistaken, but I was under the impression that Starbucks actually paid a pretty decent hourly wage, definitely above the legal minimum offered by most McJobs. However, it would seem natural that the place would get more corporate and impersonal in the expansion from several hundred stores to several thousand. Posted by: Scott at May 26, 2004 12:39 AMStarbuck's drip coffee is nasty, no question. Most of their other stuff is good, and for solid food, you can't beat the espresso brownies which should be classified as a drug. If you want good coffee and can wait a few days, try getting some from Batdorf and Bronson (www.batdorf.com). They are down in Olympia and they know how to roast coffee. There are some coffee shops around that use their stuff, but I don't know of any that sell it since Zio Rico closed downtown a few years ago. Posted by: Carol at May 26, 2004 04:14 AM
If you think $24 for a pound of coffee is ridiculous, I'd say you haven't tried it. We are sooo in financial dire straits at the moment, but we are ordering our coffee... and doing without something else. They have a special [OFTEN] on the site we get it from. If you buy 4 pounds or more, you get free shipping. THAT is awesome, as the shipping from Hawaii is not cheap! And they have reduced the coffee during sales as well. We get ours from superbeans.com... and the guy that owns that company is a NUT; he sends out a newsletter every few weeks. Hysterical to read... but mainly I find out when the specials are. I know you can't know... if you have never tasted it. But my husband and I now know that even if you have to make the coffee a special treat... to be enjoyed 2 or 3 times a week rather than a couple of times every day... it is WORTH it. OMG!!! Ang Posted by: Angie at December 11, 2004 03:17 PMPost a comment
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