$3.25 for a luxury item?

[Deja Q]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/22/holidays/main3533384.shtml

That $3.20 latte at Starbucks or the $300 handbag at Coach may no longer be affordable luxuries.

A $300 bag is one thing; but a cup of coffee that customers like you and I paid for to help make them big?

[MADem]

1. Three bucks for a cuppa coffee is NUTS. IMO.

And that Starbucks coffee tastes like shit to me.

I buy nice Eye-talian coffee and make a caffe at home. Costs me, what? Ten, twenty cents?

Folks who like that bitter, calorie laden junk with crap dusted all over it, more power to them. I'll keep the three bucks, though, and put it towards some coffee that will last me all week!

[Atman]

3. NEWS FLASH: Starbucks sells plain old coffee! And it costs $1.80 for a large.

And you don't have to wait ten minutes for some snot-nosed kid to "create" it. A cup of black coffee has zero calories.

The beverages you're talking about aren't "coffee." They're specialty drinks, practically desserts, and they charge much more for them than they do regular coffee. One could still argue that $1.80 is high for a cup of coffee, but that's for a large. You can order a normal diner-sized cup for a little over a buck. BFD...Starbucks haters are as ill-informed as Mac haters. In fact, they're usually the same people!

[MADem]

5. I've had it. I know others may differ, but it tastes like bitter crap to me.

The plain stuff, I mean--no sugars, no fluff, no BS.

The snot-nosed kid looked at me a bit cross-eyed when I asked for it (actually, he was not snot-nosed, he was a laid-off middle-aged bastard from the tech sector, who looked kinda bummed at his lot, and who could blame him?), but I did get it. It was VERY hot, and VERY bitter.

It's not worth that price.

I spent too many years in places where the coffee was simple and good. I'm spoiled, I fear.

I don't have any crusade against people who like the place. More power.

I'll go buy water if I need to use a laptop in there, what the hell.

But my opinion, and it is strongly held, is that their coffee justs tastes lousy.

[SpiralHawk]

8. Starbucks coffee is bitter crap

I am a coffee lover, but I have never understood the Starbucks "thing" since their baisc cup of coffee is vomitous...

[tridim]

25. Agree, their base coffee is awful

I always brew my own, but in a pinch most gas station coffee is better than Starbucks.

IMO Starbucks commits the cardinal sin in coffee-making, they don't use enough raw product and they brew it too long. It probably saves them millions a year, but it makes their coffee bitter.

[spooky3]

31. I like Dunkin Donuts coffee--wish it were fair trade

I've read online that the espresso is, but wish they would extend it to the full line.

[Atman]

9. What is "it?"

Any Starbucks I've been to has three different blends brewed at any given time, usually including a very dark roast, which is indeed very strong and not for everyone. You don't even seem to know what you ordered. They always have their regular "Breakfast blend" or something like it, which is quite smooth. Sometimes I have 'em cut the dark roast with the light to mellow it out.

My point is, I don't think you're "spoiled" at all. Starbucks makes some excellent coffees, you just apparently blindly ordered something one day, not even knowing what it was, and it turned out not to be to your taste (some of the dark roasts ARE too bitter and/or strong even for me, and I like dark roasts, black). But they sell and make so many different blends and varieties that saying "Starbuck's coffee is too bitter" is like saying "cars go too fast."

At least there is one thing upon which I'd bet we both agree...No one on earth beats Dunkin' Donuts for the "Worst Excuse For Coffee" award!

.

[MADem]

16. I rest my case! I ordered "A cuppa coffee."

You don't even seem to know what you ordered. They always have their regular "Breakfast blend" or something like it, which is quite smooth. Sometimes I have 'em cut the dark roast with the light to mellow it out.

See, that's different than just getting a regular cuppa coffee--to have to fiddle with what "kind" when all you want is a lousy cuppa coffee (and you GET a lousy cuppa coffee!!). And that insane system that they use for sizes--that is NOT 'Italian' though some might think it is. You go to Italy with that 'Vente' nonsense and they'll think you are trying, in mangled fashion, to order twenty cups of caffe.

I don't have a problem with strong, dark roasts. In fact, they're my preference. But when they strip the lining off of your stomach, they're just not 'good.' And they aren't worth a buck eighty, plus tax...sorry.

Dunkins' coffee sucks, too. I do agree with you there.

Ironically, the one thing I'll buy at Mickey D's, if I am on the road, is their coffee. They serve the Paul Newman stuff, or they used to--it's overpriced, as anything made outside the home is, but it tastes OK if you get it when they've just made it. When I think ahead and I'm travelling, I either go to a grocer to purchase, or bring my own coffee and small filters, and jury-rig the hotel coffee makers to make the stuff that I like (those weakshit little things they give you in the hotel rooms don't cut it, either!!).

[notadmblnd]

20. you're right. Starbucks coffee sucks so does Caribou,

both taste like a blend of battery acid and cardboard charred from sitting on the burner keeping warm too long. I did have my first cup of MacDonolds coffee the other day and it wasn't' bad but the cups were too flimsy and not hot enough (good thing that turned out to be) as I spilled half of it all over me when I picked up the cup and the lid popped off.

[Dorian Gray]

26. Who cares whether people like it or not...

it's coffee.

I drink Starbucks once a month. Love their Pumpkin Latte, but not enough to care whether other people like it.

[Buns_of_Fire]

33. I just saw an ad on TV that Dunkin' Donuts is now selling bags of their coffee in grocery stores.

Munchkins extra, of course. They're in Aisle "D".

[Deja Q]

7. Mac... macaroni and cheese? What relevance is that to a thread about specialty coffee?

Threadjack this.

[Atman]

10. Threadjack?

If you can't understand the very basic comparison I was making, my apologies. But it was NOT an attempting thread-jacking (hint: YOU are the only one zeroing in on the Mac comment).

.

[Buns_of_Fire]

32. You mean you haven't tried a dark-roasted macaroni and cheese macchiado venti yet?

Hmmmph. Peasant.

:beer: :-)

[Deja Q]

34. LOL - quite.

I also saw a sign at a gas station; talking about expensive $3 coffee.

(Obviously, I don't suffer pedantics gladly... :D )

[slackmaster]

15. NO, NO, NO!

Strarbucks does not sell "large" coffees.

VENTI!

(BTW I don't like theirs anyway. It's all over-roasted IMO.)

[Nomad559]

27. Starbucks haters are as ill-informed as Mac haters

So when people have an opinion that differs from your own, they must be haters.

The Cult Of Apple
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F9gdx_LIAc

:)

[lame54]

28. and it still taste like shit so you are not missing out on anything

[lame54]

29. and it still taste like shit so you are not missing out on anything

[madokie]

4. I just drink it hot and black, any brand will do, preferably South American

why ruin the flavor with additives is my thinking.

I read a while back that people who drink alcohol and who drink lots of coffee very seldom have cirrhosis ;-) so if you're an alcohol drinker drink up on the coffee too. When I first started seeing a doc I told him about my years of pretty heavy drinking and such, he was dumbfounded that I even had a liver left but to his and my surprise I have a very healthy liver, his question was how much did you say you drank again, I told you doc was my reply, he just shook his head I don't think he believed me. then I read the story about the coffee connection. so drink up, coffee that is

[lonestarnot]

12. liquid shit, isn't that referred to as bitter "fluidity of fecal evacuations"

di·ar·rhe·a

[pansypoo53219]

21. damn straight. and

i am pissed too many roasters have jumped on the bandwagon of fucking BURNING the beans! can't find a light roast ever!
8 o'clock columbian is just fine thank you.
but if you can find Torke, highly recommend.

[Toots]

2. There used to be a saying about military medals and their worth

With that medal and a nickel you can get a cup of coffee. That was when coffee cost a nickel and was in my life time..

[MADem]

6. They'd say the same thing about an opinion!!

That (meaning the opinion) and a nickel/dime/quarter will getcha a cuppa coffee!!!

[SidDithers]

11. Tim Horton's Coffee...

the lifeblood of Canadians. $1.49 for large double-double.


Timmy's stores are everywhere in Canada. I just did a postal code search on the Tim's website, and I've got 10 store within 3km (2 miles).

Saturday morning hockey practices, every parent, and I mean every single one has a cup of Tim's coffee at the arena.

Tim's is the reason Krispy Kreme went bankrupt in Canada.

Sid

[Deja Q]

13. Timmy?

[SidDithers]

17. No, that's Timmeh!...

This was Tim Horton



:)

Sid

[MADem]

18. They're in Northern ME and other northeastern US areas as well.

345 in the US, and one near Kandahar, Afghanistan!!! And they're INCORPORATED in, of all places.....DELAWARE!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Hortons

Their coffee IS OK, actually. I've not had their donuts. I did have a breakfast sandwich there once and I gotta say, I was less than impressed. Of course, most places that have those breakfast san's are serving you a massive chunk of fat and cholesterol between either a biscuit or a flaky, fat laden flaky croissant-ish thingy.

[SidDithers]

19. Yeah, I've seen them in Buffalo too...

the Kandahar branch is there because of the Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan.

And the incorporation in Delaware is because of a merger with Wendy's a few years ago. But the chain was started in Hamilton by Tim Horton and Ron Joyce. Horton used to get other NHL players to do commercials for his coffee shop, and then pay them with boxes of donuts.

Sid

[slackmaster]

14. Get yourself a little espresso maker

My little $50 Krups machine has paid for itself dozens of times over.

[Deja Q]

37. A $12 coffee pot and $19 glass/metal blender is all I needed...

With whip cream, low sugar chocolate protein powder, and coffee...

:beer:

"Cheappuccino"

[THUNDER HANDS]

22. that's why I drink tea

I don't think tea ever goes up.

Of course, I guess that depends on the price of tea in China.

;)

[Sal Minella]

23. My previously-owned stove-top Bialetti Crusinallo (6-cup) moka expresso coffeepot was $6 on e-Bay.

[goddess40]

24. If you buy one or two a day it's a luxury item

$1068 - $2136 a year on coffee is a lot of money for most people. It's cheaper than a pack of cigarettes but no one would call those a luxury item.

[UncleSepp]

30. Whatever happened to "I don't care for x..."

When did that become "X sucks"? Doesn't anyone have opinions any more? Is every taste, like, dislike, or random thought now objective fact?

[Deja Q]

35. It takes less time to say "sucks" than "I don't care for".

Besides, "sucks" lends itself to so many juicy double entendres that "I don't care for" can't even begin to accomplish...

[Sparkly]

36. I thought you were talking about a gallon of gas.

:shrug:

[Initech]

38. Read the headline - "But some may be tighening their belts."

You know what would be great? If I could tighten my belt around Dick Cheney's fat neck. I'd feel much better about making that sacrifice right now.

[porphyrian]

39. Time to grow hydroponic coffee at home. -n/t