Starbucks - yes or no?

Last time I was at a Starbucks it was $1.55 for a large which I feel is a fair price; but it is my opinion that they over roast their coffee.I roast my own coffee and personally, I like dark roast coffee, just not over roasted.

Their beans are roasted too hot and way too dark and way too fast; good atmosphere; friendly but poorly trained employees; good baked goods; excellent coffee brewing equipment; good "chick coffee drinks;" bad regular coffee, truly horrible espresso. 

Contrary to what you might have gathered from so-called "espresso roast" sold in supermarkets, coffee beans roasted for espresso are usually roasted to one of the degrees of medium (C+, FC, FC+) and almost never to any of the darks (Vienna Roast, French Roast, etc.); while Starbucks roasts their espresso extremely dark.  So dark, their new, lighter "Blonde" roast is un peu darker than French roast.  Rule of thumb:  You (almost) never want to see oil on beans used for espresso.  When you have a chance to go Starbucks, take a look at the coffee and you'll see it really needs to powder its nose. 

Their ultra dark roasting kills the subtleties of the coffee and brings out the flavors of the roast.  Starbucks espresso is very caramelly and bitter.  It has a pronounced "coffee taste," rather than allowing you to taste any of the beans' subtleties.  It does an okay job of piercing the milk and syrups which is why their flavored "coffee drinks" (with whipped cream and caramel sauce) are not too awful -- if you can stand that sort of thing at all, which I can't. 

Peet's does a similar thing with their beans, but does it a bit better IMO.

BDL

I do not like any of Starbucks coffee's . I believe they are all over cooked, ranked and priced       .I am more into Dunkin (which I buy home)   and yes believe it or not on the road Mc Donalds which I think also very good.

       As BDL kinda says starbucks makes good drinks because it is so strong that ice does not delute it, and it makes good liquid desserts.

For expresso I use Bustello or D'Oro  or some other kind of strong blends.

I don't like their coffee, either.  It always tastes over-roasted to my taste buds. I'd much rather go to a local, Italian-owned coffee shop and buy really GOOD coffees!  I also hate the syrups etc..  I like coffee to taste of exactly that..!

I've never understood the facination with Starbucks.

IMO, their coffee generally sucks. It's overpriced and underqualitied. Plus I've always felt that all those foamy, creamy, flavored drinks were designed for people who didn't really like the taste of coffee.

And, miracle of miracles, I actually agree with Ed: For on-the-road coffee it's hard to beat McDonalds---especially since they changed beans awhile ago.

So, let's change the angle slightly, as it seems most of us do not care for Starbucks. What do you drink at home?

I go back and forth between Kona and Jamaican Blue Mountain, and use a French Press to prepare it. I do grind it slightly finer than recommended for a press, and steep it longer. But that produces the cuppa I like.

To answer that KKG,

No, I don't like their coffee  , it tastes burnt. I ran into a shop in Lake George not that long ago and I could not believe how the store looked. There must have been 20 people scattered everywhere with their laptops, their entourage of books and friends , cell phones, luggage, portable sleeping equipment..............

When you walk in just to order a quick coffee – black – that's it, and the lady in front who has been staring at the board for 5 minutes suddenly decides to place her order :

(off net)

Umm…. Yeah… I’d like to have a Venti, sugar-free, non-fat, vanilla soy, double shot, decaf, no foam, extra hot, Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha with light whip and extra syrup…oh what the heck, maybe a few drizzles of caramel and chocolate on top, no one will know..... .”

convenience......for several years when I left the house at 5am to setup a farmer's market, it was a half block away....Venti latte 2% 140* please....actually, it was amazing how the staff would remember MY drink, even after not going during the 6 mos interim winter months.  Wanna say it was about $3ish could be wrong & it may have been closer to $4....but it was open at 6am and had a clean bathroom! Super bonus. 

My nieces and nephews love the hot chocolate/vanilla milk with whipped cream.....nice treat out. 

Now there's a local roaster/coffee shop in walking distance that makes a great latte....

all about convenience, timing, bathrooms....not so much quality.

It's not the pricing, I don't mind paying for good coffee, but as others have said, the coffee sucks, the living cra*p roasted out of it would be more accurate.

I also have pet peeves with sizes and names.  I speak english pretty good, and "Venti" sounds to me more like an Italian fart than a cup size.

In all honesly, Mc D's sells pretty good coffee, as does Wendy's

P.S. I drink my coffee black 

P.S. I drink my coffee black 

Which is, apparently, the key, FoodPump. Those of us who drink it that way do so because we appreciate what good coffee tastes like, and don't need it hidden by all those syrups, and creams, and foams.

Cup sizes is another thing that gets my goat. I doesn't even have to be the Starbucks secret code. Went into a place recently and asked for a small softdrink with my meal. "We don't have small," the clerk told me, "we have medium, large, and jumbo."

Gimme a friggin break!!!

I don't like starbuck's coffee, probably because of the roast - I like light american roast for american coffee.  Their espresso is gross, but like all american espresso i've ever had, they run too much water through it and the coffee ends up burning.  It would be like taking a pot of coffee and boiling it ten minutes on the stove.

I do like their mocha frappuccino, i must say, but that is a sort of caffelatte granita with a little chocolate and a lot more fine texture. 

I was very annoyed by the sizes of the cups and the meaninglessness of the names - venti means 20 in italian (an italian fart is a scoreggia, foodpump), "grande" means large (but if i remember, grande in starbuckspeak means small).  I don't remember the other size. 

Has anyone ever tasted starbuck's ice cream - sold in supermarkets?  all of it is coffee, my favorite is coffee with chocolate covered almonds.  The ice cream is rich and creamy and the coffee flavor is nice american coffee flavor.  They probably have someone else make it.  It's actually my favorite ice cream - well, since they opened a new gelateria near me in rome, Riva Reno, that is actually my favorite, but not their coffee.  Starbucks remains my favorite coffee ice cream.  I don;t think it;s sold in their stores.

I drink coffee from one of those electric filter coffee makers.  I know it's not "done" to have that, because the continuous heat ruins the flavor, but i tell you, you can;t imagine how nice it feels, after a lifetime in italy, to be able, at breakfast, to go and get a second cup of hot coffee, and then take a third one to my desk.  It's a true luxury.  And i drink it before it tastes bad anyway - i'm a quick drinker. 

I drink it with milk and a little sugar.  I LOVE the taste of coffee, but only with milk.  You will no doubt say that i know nothing of coffee, but de gustibus non est definitely disputandum. 

Not only do I think their coffee is over rated and over priced, I think it is inferior to most other premium brands.   It is too deeply roasted (for their purposes, not taste).  Plus It is bitter.  

OK, I am not a big fan of coffee.  But the reason I dislike it is the bitterness.  And bitterness comes from several paths, 1. brewing too long, leaving coffee in contact with the water for too long a time; 2. the original beans - no matter how carefully selected some of 'em just aren't very good, too ripe, too full of caffeine; and 3 over roasting them.   I know why they do it - to have a longer shelf life.  But it makes a different (and in my mind more objectionable) type of bitterness than caffeine does.  

I had a good laugh at the person who was behind the counter one day when my friends insisted upon going there.  I declined their offer to buy me coffee and when the clerk asked why, I told him I thought their coffee was bitter.  "No, it is robust", he said.   

"No it is bitter with burnt overtones" I said.  and again he said "No, it is robust".

"So you've been instructed to use euphanisms?" I said.   And he merely nodded - affirmatively.

DD

Went imto Weny's asked for a Choco Shake  ""we don't have shakes only Frosty's ? Went into local chain Bar B Q place asked for a pulled pork sandwich, hold the bun. Waitress or kid came back and said  ''They said they ar not allowed to hold anything in the kitchen because they handle food"'>>?  Only in America  What are we breeding ?? This is one of the reasons I quit teachiing.

For anyone that would like to try a wood roasted coffee,  check out mrespresso,  I bought from Carlo when I worked in the Bay area in the early 80's, when he was just starting out.

He sold coffee & espresso machines from the back of his station wagon. They roast the coffee over oak. I still order on occassion form them, I like the Viennese roast.

I like coffee drinks from a good barista, however I am not a big fan of Starbucks.  I agree with other posts here that they over-roast their beans, and they are overpriced.  I find I can get the same quality (or better in some cases) from other local cafes at a much better price.  I also tend to make my own drinks at home, although I'm in need of a new machine at the moment...

Give me a good cup of any coffee and I will use Carnation or Bailey coffee creamers to flavor my own way. Hot or cold

I should also add:  having been told that the owners of Starbucks stated that their ambition was to stand on the doorstep of one branch and be able to see another......  Naaaaah - globalisation gone MAD!

I was in Cleveland for a week this Spring, and Starbucks was pretty much it.  I found one independent coffee shop and went in for a latte and they looked at me sadly and said they no longer made espresso.  Starbucks is mediocre but at least it's consistently mediocre -- the harsh roast means they can get similar results from different beans.

Even here in Seattle, I can think of only a handful of coffee bars that are consistently excellent.  You need baristas dedicated to the craft plus a discerning clientele, and outside maybe Italy, those conditions seem confined to a few urban pockets.

At home I roast with a Behmor roaster, supplied by Sweet Maria's, which rocks.

Come on over to Scotland!  We have a LOT of independent coffee shops, mostly owned by Italian Scots, who brew wonderful coffee - a world away from the over-roasted, bitter stuff from chains like Starbucks or even our own Costa or Cafe Nero (although they are streets ahead of the stuff from Starbucks!)

I've got bad news for you.  Those conditions don't exist outside a few urban pockets in Italy as well.  Fifteen years ago, typical Italian coffee was very good, but now  "average" espresso in Italy is pretty grim -- or so I'm told by people I trust.  They also say typical espresso in France and Spain is almost undrinkable compared to good American shops (not Starbucks).  Sad. 

Good coffee starts with good beans, good beans are expensive, and European corporate-coffee bean counters insist on using lesser quality.  They can't justify their existence without increasing profits at the cost of your pleasure.  Sadder

Some people can't find good coffee, some people can't afford good coffee, some people have never had good coffee.  Sadder still.

Some people just don't care.  Sadist err... Saddest.  

BDL 

PS.  My previous roaster was a Behmor, now I roast in a HotTop Programmable, most often with beans from Klatch or Sweet Maria's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by IndyGal 

Not only do I think their coffee is over rated and over priced, I think it is inferior to most other premium brands.   It is too deeply roasted (for their purposes, not taste).  Plus It is bitter.  

 

OK, I am not a big fan of coffee.  But the reason I dislike it is the bitterness.  And bitterness comes from several paths, 1. brewing too long, leaving coffee in contact with the water for too long a time; 2. the original beans - no matter how carefully selected some of 'em just aren't very good, too ripe, too full of caffeine; and 3 over roasting them.   I know why they do it - to have a longer shelf life.  But it makes a different (and in my mind more objectionable) type of bitterness than caffeine does.  

 

I had a good laugh at the person who was behind the counter one day when my friends insisted upon going there.  I declined their offer to buy me coffee and when the clerk asked why, I told him I thought their coffee was bitter.  "No, it is robust", he said.   

 

"No it is bitter with burnt overtones" I said.  and again he said "No, it is robust".

 

"So you've been instructed to use euphanisms?" I said.   And he merely nodded - affirmatively.

DD

Actually, my opinion was always that starbucks used "robusto" coffee beans.  Here, arabica is the good stuff, and robusto is the cheap stuff.  Cheap bars use robusto, and it will give you gastritis with a single cup. 

From what i've seen, italian coffee in italy is roasted very dark. 

I think the acidity (you call it bitter, but it's more than bitter, it's acidic) comes from the type of bean. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ishbel 

Come on over to Scotland!  We have a LOT of independent coffee shops, mostly owned by Italian Scots, who brew wonderful coffee - a world away from the over-roasted, bitter stuff from chains like Starbucks or even our own Costa or Cafe Nero (although they are streets ahead of the stuff from Starbucks!)

Unfortunately, the art of filter coffee is very hard to find any more anywhere in the UK.  To my great sadness.  I think (oh heaven forfend!) that espresso is overrated (eek, better run and hide!)

I refuse to buy a cup of black coffee at Starbuck's.  As stated by just about about everyone I think their beans are over roasted, over priced, and in all honesty we make better coffee at home.  I will admit that I occasionally hit our local Starbuck's for a Cappucino and a baked good (although darn expensive) and chill there for awhile and read.  I also have to admit that come Christmas time I am a sucker for their Peppermint Mocha, but usually, since I generally prefer my coffee black and unadorned I just drink the stuff we make at home.

I live near an area in Salt Lake City called "9th and 9th" because it is centered around the intersection of 9th East and 9th South.  It is a quaint, trendy, hip, and other such adjectives neighborhood.  There used to be this little 5 or 6 stool sushi bar that I really liked, gone now.  Too bad, it was within walking distance.

There is a coffee shop, the Coffee Garden, at the intersection.  Some time ago a Starbucks opened on the opposite corner.  In the first few months of Starbucks being there the Coffee Garden saw something like 10 - 20% increases in sales per month.  Locals were making a point of snubbing the chain and sticking with the neighborhood spot.  The Coffee Garden is still there, well, actually across the street since the other building went through a major renovation.  Starbucks in long gone.

Cool.

mjb.

Hello. Great thread. 

I happen to love Starbucks. I don't drink there often any more, mostly only when I know I can get a cup on the cheep. They are considerably expensive. When I could afford it my daily drink was a 50/50 blend of Gold Coast and Yukon Blend. Yum-O. At home I use an old fashioned regular percolator and at work I used to have an old fashioned Mr.Coffee drip machine. I love Starbucks for the same reasons I love a good bar. 

Even here in Seattle, I can think of only a handful of coffee bars that are consistently excellent

Thanks for admitting that, Colin.

Last time I was out that way I spent a week in Seattle and didn't have a decent cup of coffee the whole time. Finally gave up saying that, cuz it only led to attacks by Northwesterners who know all about coffee just because they live there---ya know, in the Pacific Northwest, where there's a crowded Starbucks about every 12 feet .