That’s wrong. I have it on good authority* that “Instant Coffee” is freeze dried and compacted mouse turd that’s seasoned with oak leaves, dryer lint, and rancid orange juice. Then it’s run through a really dirty cheesecloth and dried on a specially made bed of sawdust and roaches, then packaged and sold.
*Dad
Of course, *Dad also told me that McDonalds manufactures all of their pickles and tomatoes in factories somewhere in Middle Georgia, so he’s basically right on the money all the time.
As someone who spent almost two grand to be able to make better coffee at home, I’ll still get starbucks from time to time because it’s better than roadside drive-thru coffee places or many others. It’s not better than the hipster artesinal coffee joints, but even in the Seattle area there are less of those than you’d think and it’s not always convenient.
I find it hilarious that Mercury Coffee is way too sweet for me for any of their sugared beverages, even compared to Starbucks.
We chug it by the gallon at my house, so massive quantities are required here. This one cup at a time shit is not gonna work.
I only like coffee flavor so I’ve never noticed since I’m drinking 5000 calorie sugar bombs and not actually coffee. Their tea is always burnt and bitter, though. I honestly don’t know how you fuck up tea that bad.
I really liked the Tazo teas they used to stock – and the house-made teas they sold Back In The Day. Not a fan of the new Teavana teas.
See, I had the same problem with the Tazo. It was always just horrible and I gave up ever ordering it. Which is a little annoying, because I prefer tea so it’d be nice if I could get it from one of the 12 million Starbucks around here.
Because many people still think any tea should be steeped in water right off the boil. The blendmaster of Tazo knows this, which is why he’s well paid to curate and procure the right lots of tea every year for not only consistency and but also endurance when steeped at high temperatures for several minutes. Their Chinese Green Tips is a particularly notable achievement, as Chinese green tea is notorious for yielding a bitter cup if not steeped correctly.
Practical advice: if you buy a cup of black tea at Starbucks, get that bag the hell out of there after 3-4 minutes.
You can do manual drip in quantities bigger than one cup! (Though to brew a gallon at once you’d need two of the largest Chemex coffee pots.)
Are they doing a brand transition from Tazo to Teavana? I recall reading a story about a test-market Tazo tea place but they shuttered it after poor sales, after which they made it a Teavana store (as if we need more of those).
[Edit: On second thought, if Teavana really is a force—albeit an overpriced one— for progressing Americans’ taste in tea, then I wish them all the best. Just wish they’d bring their prices down and introduce more, ya know, teas rather than flavored variations of what they already have.]
Due to market dominance, with Starbuck’s, the whole “vote with your wallet” thing is not sufficient. Never set foot in the place, but I have to have a long conversation every time I order a macchiato elsewhere to make sure I don’t want something with caramel in it. Now, when I want room for cream because I like a strong americano. NOPE, gonna fill that cup to the tippy-top for full value, just like the Starbucks customers expect.
I don’t know where you’re ordering your coffee, but I can’t imagine any coffeeshop putting flavorings in someone’s drink that they didn’t order, whether caramel, chocolate, or raspberry, unless it’s a vending machine.
I have found their customer service people the best in the business. I called after being overcharged for a drink and the person on the other end offered a free drink (I declined) and she told me that she will suggest that the store go through retraining once I mentioned that it was the store manager who was making the error. (Having worked in the business, I think the manager knew exactly what she was doing.)
Teavana used to have more actual tea, and fewer “flavored variations”. So as Teavana gets stronger as a force, it’s “progressing” less and less.
When I traveled to Oman, there was mostly no coffee (in spite of the ‘Arabica’ descriptor). What they did have was Nescafe, and that’s what one would ask for (e.g. in an office). There were Starbucks stores in the malls, and a small coffee was something like 1.89 – the number looked right, at first, until I did the math and remembered that 1.89 is about US$5.00.
I figured that’s what cellular telephones were for.
Similarly, the point of yoga is so that people using their cellular phones can say “gotta go, I’m late for yoga.”
Yep. I recommend that anyone with doubts about Starbucks service to stick around a while after they’ve received their drink and just people watch. Whatever reservations you may have about their coffee, I think you’ll see that the people they hire really are up to the job.
Hiring for in-person customer service jobs is somewhat of an intuitive process. Their corporate culture seems to understand this and makes sure that the right people are in place to make those decisions.
Reminds me, we had a Pier 1 nearby, it closed and was replaced with a Dollar Tree.
Yes, Starbucks bought the entire Teavana chain and brand a few years back; I very much agree that Teavana relies way too much on flavored teas rather than varieties.
Seconded. Last place I lived had only one coffee place nearby (Starbucks), so I spent a lot of time in there. The staff was always friendly and welcoming despite some of their customers being jackholes.
