Starbucks is just not good Coffee. IMHO

[Ravenonrock]

One of our local Starbucks outlets was using the “Clover” brew system. A machine to craft an individual coffee, with your choice of beans freshly ground. It certainly took more time, but better than their regular fair. Sadly, they stopped using it after a year. Thankfully there is no shortage of independent coffee shops that make really good consistent coffee in my area.

 

[gpjoe]

I drink my coffee with half & half and very light sugar. It amazes me to see people put 3-4 packets of sugar into a cup...makes my teeth hurt.

Regarding flavored, heavily-diluted "coffee", my wife occasionally buys an Oreo iced-capp from Tim Hortons, and it tastes pretty good, but is basically a chocolate milkshake...and who hates that?

Starbucks?

Yuck...but I'll drink a blonde in a pinch.

 

[Omega48]

Their beans are over-roasted, but that is because that works well for their terrible milk drinks. For just expresso, they are simply unbearable . For regular coffee, their mild blend is usually ok, drinkable.

However one good think at least, I believe, is that if so many people are now making expresso at home, and if we have access to excellent coffee, roasted by several small companies around the country, is mostly thanks to Starbuck.

 

[JohnG]

one wonders why their not all obese by now with walrus bellies.

Getting there...

There was a local cafe I used to go to regularly, but it closed shortly after the pandemic. Since then I bought a Chemex and started making my own coffee at home which, frankly, is better than my usual latte drink, and better than anything at Starbucks.

If I get a gift card for Starbucks now, I just use it to buy mugs and such.

Maybe they should change the name to Ocho-bucks.

 

[Whisky]

I love this scene.

 

[DesertIguana]

Being fair to Starbucks they are making money off of their brand.

They have so man stores, in market locations, and keep building more locations.

We have local place Bakini Bean, they have staff wearing Bakinis.

 

[gpjoe]

I love this scene.

Love a good educational video.

 

[Quaznoid]

Starbucks is burnt coffee. Tried it a few times; never went back

I like good diner coffee out of a Bun-a-Matic, preferably an old natural gas model.

 

[Lightcs1776]

I'm not a fan of Starbucks, but to each their own for those that like them. I drink my coffee black, whether from the drip machine or the espresso maker. I've cut out just about all added sugar, though I will still have a small piece of desert if it is something I really like, but that is rare, as in once a year or less. I stick with two cups of coffee in the morning unless I am really dragging and then it will max out at three. I will enjoy a cup of tea in the afternoon once in a while. There is a local coffee place that has cheaper prices than Starbucks and makes excellent coffee. I'll get a cup from there a couple times a year, primarily out of convenience and to see how my home roasts compare to a professional roast.

 

[TOVT]

I use Starbucks pre-ground Sumatra and Italian for my daily pour-over, and enjoy it.

Last time I set foot in an actual Starbucks was a couple of years ago, when someone gave the gift card that someone gave to them.

Bought Hannaford Natures Place organic sumatra last week because it used to be good during pre-plandemic times, what a disappointment. Will stick with Starbucks.

 

[CzechCzar]

Amazes me people are still doing start buck a 5-8 bucks a drink. Say drink as it is not real coffee, it is coffee bace with flavoring and additives. Friend had Coffee Gift Shop he could duplicate the Bucks drink for 1/2 the price, and still make a profit.

One think her did not do is duplicate their black coffee, that is alway over roasted, and bitter from burning. I love just BLACK Coffee, then goodness I have few place I can sniff for BEST PRICE FREE.

Who else loves just good black coffee?

you mean bean juice?

 

[Eben Stone]

I don't want "coffee" that tastes like hot water with a brown crayon dipped in it.

This.

I like Starbucks "blonde" espresso roast. It's not burnt.

IMO, Starbucks is for people that like espresso based coffee drinks, like mocha, latte, cappuccino, etc. If you're going there for black coffee you are in the 0.1%.

Their instant coffee isn't too terrible. I prefer it to the coffee that comes out of the percolator machine at my work.

 

[DesertIguana]

you mean bean juice?

We can laugh at Starbucks, but I would like to have 10 CENTS for each cup of Coffee, or Coffee Drinks they sold on their busiest day Worldwide in 2023.

 

[mcee_sharp]

I only drink their Americanos (black), typically if I'm passing through an airport and find it good compared to other "boutique" coffee places.

I've never enjoyed their regular coffee, and have no interest in pumpkin outside of a pie, or cream soup :\

 

[Old Hippie]

Starbucks? You're paying for an experience that just happens to come with coffee.

And the experience is an over-marketed homage to old European coffee houses, dumbed down for a demographic that would probably complain bitterly at not being able to find any old European coffee houses with wi-fi. Plus they'd have to actually go to Europe, which is so 20th Century.

I'm getting old. This allows me to honestly say things starting with, "Fifty years ago I..."

...was often sitting in a little roaster/coffee shop run by hippies, where one could get really good coffee. This was a revelation in those days, when things like "bread," "beer," and "coffee" were just starting to emerge from the Dark Industrial Ages.

About time for another food revolution, I think.

And for @luvmysuper -- I like Sumatra, too. Except I always thought SB over-roasted it. I'm usually good with a Full City roast, just into the second crack and then air-quench. There is an evanescent beauty to Sumatra.

O.H.

 

[psfred]

Grossly over-roasted, usually done to disguise the poor quality of the beans. I prefer mine a minute or so after first crack, nice balance of roast flavors and the origin flavors in the coffee.

Starbucks always tastes burned to me. Not a fan, and I surely do not and never did need a 250 calorie (and up) sugar and fat loaded "coffee" to start the day.

 

[Mike M]

I'm with @Old Hippie on this, being from England before Starbucks hit I remember going to coffee shops that roasted their own good coffee. Though my favourite wasn't a cafe (it sold coffee and tobacco from a shop that had been in the town for 200 years). They roasted coffee twice a week and I would often go for the roast on Friday and pick up a bag of still warm beans. It closed when Costa coffee finally hit town tragically.
My daughter likes Starbucks coffee, without the coffee, which about sums it up. I prefer a small local cafe that gives me a proper cup and coffee that looks like coffee instead of a wannabe ice-cream. Coffee is a hot drink, not an ice-cream cocktail, I don't need drama or trendy surroundings the European coffee house experience depends on quality ingredients and a good roast which is easy to discern when it's just coffee and water and maybe a little milk. When you fill it with froth, cream, sugar, syrup, chocolate and some kind of debris floating on top it's hard to know what you're drinking.

 

[alishock]

Starbucks isn't coffee. Coffee is nice. Starbucks drinks are minging. Sadly in the UK our addiction to chain places means we also have Costa which is equally as bad.

 

[Herrenberg]

Starbucks drinks are mostly sugar with a little coffee. Their “light roast” Blonde isn’t too bad.

I think when you roast as much coffee as they do it’s hard to get a good consistent medium roasting profile so they roast very dark, think almost burnt, for espresso and their light roast, which is more of a medium roast, and that’s it.

No, they could get a good consistent medium roasting profile easily, with the equipment they have. They probably do. It is very capable and consistent high-volume equipment. But they are using cheap beans, and you definitely do not get to taste that coffee during the three week window after roasting, when it would actually taste good.

No, it's all roasted in Roasting Central, on huge fluid bed roasters, sealed up in vacuum bags, and when you buy a coffee or a bag, it's probably at least a half-year later. I have tried sealing the coffee I roast in vacuum bags, but it does not help much to increase longevity.

Good coffee conflicts with their business model, their rice bowl. Over-roasted coffee, which tastes the same for years in a vacuum bag, tarted up with caramel and syrup, that is what Starbucks does. It's not a place to go if you want something other than a candy drink or a grim relief for your caffeine addiction.

 

[c__port]

Arabica beans roasted to first crack = Starbucks Blonde Roast. I like it, not enough to buy it, but I'll drink it when given to me.

Every European coffeehouse I've been to has served me the equivalent of Starbucks espresso along with two sugar sticks and 3.3 ounces of steamed whole milk. I assume this is how it should be consumed, so if someone wants to meet me at Starbucks, this is what I have. It isn't bad. I don't go there on my own because I think my MoccaMaster does a better job with freshly ground medium roast beans, which I drink black (or crayon brown, by some estimations).

I think the smell of brewing just-ground coffee (especially if it was roasted that morning) is one of the most heavenly aromas to be found on earth. I usually get this aroma in ANY good coffeehouse, including Starbucks.