Good. Who wants to drink burnt coffee from a megacorp when I can drink coffee that’s actually good from a local business?
Do it like me and make awful coffee right at home 🚀
How are you making it? It could be good coffee. I use an Aeropress occasionally and it’s a decent sub for espresso.
It could be good coffee. I use an Aeropress occasionally
Ah! Found the problem!
You’re making coffee? It’s going to be awful. Drink tea like a real human.
I also drink tea! My wife is Indian and introduced me to the joy of afternoon tea.
I don’t drink coffee, but I hear you can make it yourself.
People can cook for themselves, too, but sometimes they like to go out for food. Same with coffee. It can be nice to get out of the house and go for a cup of coffee, or grab a cup when you happen to be out. Ever tried making a cup of coffee on a road trip? Not impossible, but not super practical for most people. If you want a latte but you don’t own an espresso machine you’re kind of out of luck (unless you want to get an Aeropress). Anyway, there’s lots of reasons why you’d go to a coffee shop.
Shit, I’m a four star chef, and most of what I eat is Taco Bell. Why? Because cooking for one person is a damn PITA, and I like Taco Bell.
I don’t drink the zombie bean though. I will say that Starbucks smells slightly burnt, compared to the local coffee shops.
I’m a four star chef
Doing your job at home too can be a big annoyance. That I certainly get. I’m a programmer, and damn do I not have any desire to program at home.
Because cooking for one person is a damn PITA
The secret is to cook for 6, then put 5 portions in the fridge for later.
Former coder here, and yes, absolutely no desire to code in my spare time.
I am not a four star chef. And I would never eat at taco bell.
Yuck.
Of all the fast food, as a chef you know everything they make can be made at home in 10 minutes and with real ingredients.
And then you have to do the dishes too, of which you would need multiple if you are adding in all the same ingredients as taco bell menu items and getting it done in 10 minutes.
a can o’ re-fried beans, shredded cheese in a bag, brown some meat? all goes in the dishwasher…
I just made quesadillas tonight, one pan to wipe out and that was about it.
Taco bell is pretty low effort.
If you want better, sure: cook your own beans, shred your own cheese, make some real salsa. but Taco bell level? just slop on a tortilla.
Edit: I gotta edit this, as in the end, I can’t take it that seriously. If you are a chef, its like being a mechanic or a landscaper. My car works, but its a beater, or my yard is full of weeds.
When you work in a field, doing that outside of work is just more steps.
Do what you like, of course.
But he’s been cooking all day. I know several cooks and chefs, and the last thing any of them want to do after a day of constant cooking is to go home and cook some more, even if it takes 10 min. Now are there better (healthier) options than Taco Bell? Sure, but maybe they just enjoy Taco Bell, and maybe it’s an occasional treat.
If I’ve done the hours of prep, pre-cooking, par-cooking, and cleanup that’s required to have those ingredients ready to go, yes everything at Taco Bell takes less than 5 minutes to get ready. If I’m hosting or catering a party that effort is worth it. If I’m the only one eating it, it isn’t as all I’m tasting are the mistakes I may have made.
Edit: also having worked at every major fast food chain, I also know that Taco Bell is the least likely to have a food safety issue, such as E. Coli, or listeria.
I usually do, but I forget my thermos at work sometimes, or my partner wants to go for a walk, or I wanna look at a pretty naked lady on the way to work.
Yeah. Cause Starbucks over roasts their coffee to ensure consistency across the brand. It tastes like shit. Gas station coffee is better. You go to Starbucks for the milk shakes made in a coffee shop. You get coffee somewhere else.
Dunkin is literally better, unless things have changed, their policy was to always have a < 15 minute pot of coffee ready. Any longer and it starts to spoil. Freshly grinded beans and a freshly brewed is probably the single most important part of coffee, inexpensive beans can taste good.
I prefer Dunkin by a long ways.
This is true at Starbucks too, the freshness of the brew is not why their coffee is bad. This is the company that sold charcoal as French roast for years before anyone noticed it was so overroasted it tasted like bad fish and ash. (I’ve never had a more difficult roast to find a pairing for - Smore’s is the answer, if anyone cares, to make starbucks french roast not taste awful)
Americans are pretty fucking disgusted that the CEO of Starbucks takes a private jet to work in Seattle from his home in California. Eat the rich.
Anti-union strike-breakers are losing business? Say it ain’t so.
As someone from the PNW, I’ve ever understood why there were lines at Starbucks here. We have great local coffee stands on basically every block, and they’re typically way better and much cheaper.
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People like being part of trends
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People like milkshakes they can deny are milkshakes
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Right? Even the hit-or-miss family friendly drive thru coffee stands are better most of the time. Hell, if you’re like me and only want a mug of tar, the stripper coffee stands are still better than Starbucks.
Starbucks coffee tastes burned, not worth their price.
Starbucks has moderately tasty food, and disgustingly bad coffee. If they put enough sugar into it, it’s fine… But going elsewhere yields better results.
I haven’t had a single good Starbucks experience. The biggest thing for me is that they aren’t even cheaper than a local shop. I’m sacrificing quality for what, the “convenience” of using an app to order?
In perhaps undue fairness to Starbucks:
There was a point in time where their breakfast egg muffin sandwich type things were imo, pretty darn tasty, and reasonably priced.
… That was around a decade ago, iirc.
I’ve not been to an SBUX in a long time, but that decade ago, they were actually making them or at least heating them in a toaster oven, not microwave, at least when I was physically inside the store.
The only food item I moderately liked there was the sous vide egg bites, and even those have gone through enshittification now, costing more and tasting worse.
Dude I live in an armpit of a city and even I can find a small mom and pop shop that sells better food than Starbucks, prepackaged microwaved slopass shit. You gotta have been stuck in the woods chewing on bark to think that shit is tasty.
The food is gross
Starbucks was an amusing rise and fall.
- Put one on every street-corner, possibly across the street from each other.
- Run all the other coffee shops out of business
- Let your stores fail because they can’t sustain themselves
- Competitors notice this, and move in with drive-through-only stores
Of course the competitors are small chains and the original shops were indie, but that’s just the free hand of the market fisting some folks without lube
Wait, you’re telling me that when the economy basically collapses, people can’t afford their regular coffee flavored morning milkshake?
Considering I have several actual gold roasteries in town and pay the same price? Yeah, fuck the mermaid.
I haven’t even stepped foot in a Starbucks - ever - but then again, I’m not American either.
In my experience, coffee you make at home is practically always better than what you get from a coffee shop. Even if you’re just using a basic drip machine and decent pre-ground beans.
I’ve only twice ever gotten actually good coffee from a shop. One was a pour-over from beans I watched the barista grind fresh, and the other they made with an Aeropress.
That being said. Even the worst coffee is better than no coffee.
I’m not paying $5 for black coffee
What’s wrong with you? The CEO needs that money to fly on the company’s private jet! /s
Of course the company claims it’s for security reasons. I think the $90 million per year compensation must also be for security concerns following that logic.
Not to be the Debby downer. My city hundreds of local coffee shops, and they all charge $4 for black coffee. The price isn’t the issue.
It’s what they do with it. Like as the other comments say… Private jets and union busting.
Guess I’m the lone wolf here who likes Starbucks coffee. Of course, I like a lot of other coffee better. I make a mean cup of coffee myself. It’s not fancy and many people who stick their nose up at “corporate” coffee would probably say a lot of mean things about my coffee, too, but it’s good to me and I like it. You’ll never please anybody.
One thing about Starbucks: you’re generally going to get the same thing wherever you go. If you find something you like, it’s consistent. Also, some of their coffee is good to make at home.
That said, my favourite coffee shop is a local cafe. It’s not a chain, there’s only one of them, and it’s the same nice lady making the coffee every day. I think she and her wife own the place? It’s a bit expensive, but I don’t mind because it’s good, and it’s espresso. I’ve talked to the barista about it, like I can make good coffee at home, but I come for the espresso, the unique drinks, and the atmosphere. It’s a nice place to break out a laptop and chill, and they play nice music.
I actually very rarely go to Starbucks. But when I do, I know exactly what I want, and what I’m going to get. I don’t think they’re better than anyone, and I’ll always prefer independent cafes. But I don’t hate Starbucks, either. And I am glad to hear Starbucks being taken down a peg. We don’t need them on every corner.
I favor independent coffee shops too, and I agree with everything you said. Starbucks is useful for when you’re on-the-go or traveling, for when you need a reliable 3rd space with seating, bathroom, and wifi.
Another thing I give Starbucks points for is high customization. I can do an online order as detailed as I want and know exactly what’s in it. Oh and the drive-thrus and early/late opening hours are convenient. Very helpful for shift workers.
That’s the thing. Most of what’s drank at these shops it’s not black coffee. It’s coffee mixes that we won’t make at home.
Correct. Won’t, or can’t. I have some flavours, but not only do I not have an espresso machine, I don’t have some of the more exotic stuff on hand. It’s fine for a shop that will use a few containers of the stuff in a day, but for just me (and my wife), the container is likely to expire before we finish it. So we brew the basics at home, and treat ourselves when we can.
I like it too. Honestly I only order espressos and it’s consistent. I’ll gladly support local coffee shops, but the espressos are always bitter.
This is very interesting to me, because the reason I don’t like Starbucks is because their coffee is SO much more bitter. I obviously don’t know what your local coffee shops are like for comparison though
Espresso is meant to be bitter, and not in the “coffee is meant to be bitter” sense. With coffee, you take it with cream and sugar, it mitigates most of that. Espresso though? If it’s made right, it’s always gonna be bitter. So you put some flavours in it to give it other tastes but it’s still bitter. Does its job though, wakes your ass straight up. And that’s why we like it.
Is it? I’ve had espressos where you taste the créme and it’s very smooth. I never add cream or sugar.
Where I am, there’s more artisan cafes than 'Bucks. However I find it cheaper to just have instant coffee from Indonesia.
They didn’t revolutionize coffee culture, they just capitalized on it.
Growing up I could get good inexpensive coffee at any gas station across the prairies. Thanks Marketing!!
When was that?
I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s and coffee at gas stations was shit.
I guess we had different standards? Maybe my gas stations made more fresh coffee than yours? I have come across shitty gas station coffee but that was the exception, not the rule.
