96 replies to this topic

[Julius]

I've never been comfortable/happy in a Starbucks. Other coffee houses also bother me with the pretentious aura they seem to add to getting a simple cup of coffee.

I'm lucky to have the choice of both a pretentious coffee house and a simple convenience store with good pour-it-yourself coffee where I can fix it the way I want it, not have to interact with 3 people and just grunt and nod when I hand over the $2 for a large. Of course, there is no $5 double latte with soymilk and some liquid sweetener made from rose petals option though.

So what is the attraction exactly? Is it a social thing?Is it wanting to see some pretty barista in the morning? Is it wanting to have to talk to multiple people before you're awake? Or do you just have no choice or other place to get your coffee fix?

[In A Silent Way]

I make my coffee at home and use K-cups at work. I don't like the mystery sludge at convenience stores. The only time I go to Charbucks/Fourbucks is to get a mocha latte when I'm craving a chocolate and coffee drink for the ride home from fuckingDanbury.

[tyedyedee]

starbux only wants your money
SOME employees care about your experience but most just want a good tip or just to get the eff outta there
most of the employees make fun of the people who spend hours there and mock them and how they must have no life or hate going home
i mean, if you are lucky and have a SB who calibrates their machines/grinders regularly, and/or a barista or two who can actually make a decent latte, then you can get a yummy yet expensive beverage
and trust me, most dont do it often enough!
i was a supervisor there for 7 years, worked in many stores as support, so i know...
they suck on so many levels but sometimes stopping there is a necessary evil

support your locally roasted mom n pop coffee shop before SB puts them all out of business!

[Ravn]

I only go to fancy shmancy coffee places when someone else (my Dad usually) is paying, LOL!

[Julius]

At the risk of sounding cheap, the expected tip thing bothers me too. Not so much on the $5 fancy concoction that takes actually takes some effort to prepare but on pouring some liquid into a cup that I'd rather do myself anyway.

[tyedyedee]

and i have seen bad repercussions on the customers who regularly dont tip, too (you dont want to know)
i never allowed it but heard about incidents after the fact
i, too, would rather pour my own but have never had yummy coffee from a convenience store
i now prepare my own at home and save a ton and it always comes out good!
you want coffee house culture? bake something and invite a friend over

[Jambear]

The starbucks in my town is cool.
I only get one thing 4 shots of espresso over ice in a large cup top the ice.

I walk in and they make it.

They remember my order and my name and i only go in maybe 1 or 2 times a week max.
It is always yummy and the baristas are far from pretty.........unless pretty homely or hairy count.

They have seen me in uniform and i have taken care of a couple of their family members in my hospital so i am sure that helps.

I also tip $1 on a $3 ice coffee....but i figure since the job sucks and they share tips and are nice to me it's worth it.

[Raynequeen]

id probably dig starbucks if they didnt have awful tasting coffee.
last week i went in and said "regular coffee".... um, deer in headlights. finally a guy behind counter who looked like he was one expresso away from jumping off a bridge said told girl something that would resemble the most 'regular' thing i believed they had. and it was awful. it lasted me 4 hours because i just needed to not be parched during a class but i'd rather have hot beer. ha

but in terms of coffee shops, i dig them on a whole. i tend to find a lot of literary types locally in them... and i like talking books.

[Jambear]

Like Dee said if the espresso machine is taken care of right and the barista cares they make a good coffee.

If its some kid just slamming them out you might as well light your money on fire.

I tend to hate the customers in there myself.......does coffee really need to be a language unto itself?

Just give me a small medium or large whatever and stop making it sound like your saving the world when your raping my wallet and making homeless Guatemalan children work out in the sun.

[moed_over]

I really like their Chai syrup for a latte. The cracked pepper gives it more bite, and I like a little bit of carmel syrup in it. I would go to the mom and pops instead, but it doesn't have the same flavor or bite.

Haven't gone in months though, because I'm dieting and can't afford the 200 calories that a tall size with skim milk still carries....

[Julius]

Yeah the language bugs me, and I was raised European. It KILLS my ears when I hear someone pronounce "Croissant" pronouncing the "r" and the "t" but I can't get down with "tall" = small and "grande" = medium. Plus I always want a large anyway.

[gregoir]

I don't drink coffee

[tyedyedee]

SB chai syrup is LOADED with sugar, fyi
most people dont realize that
i am not a chai drinker but every winter, i looked forward to having short CHEGs (chai with a splash of eggnog )
if you order the xmas specialty CHEG, its all milk and sugar
i recommend chai with water then just a splash of steamed/frothed egg nog on top
its delicious but rich, a demitasse sized cup is sufficient

as soon as i have money again, i am seriously going to look into a real espresso machine
i have a keurig steamer/frother right now, but its not the same...

so yeah...support your local independent shops
i dont want to live in a world where every damn coffee shop is a dunkies or bux

[PeaceFrog]

I don't drink coffee

Is there a special room at Starbucks for boofing?

[Julius]

Chai. BLECHHH!!!!

I keep trying it, usually because some woman tells me how great it is and it will change my life. So I take a sip and am psyched I don't have to find a plant to dump the whole cup into. That is truly the nastiest invention ever. If I want spicy tea I'll brew a good tea and add my own spices, but a good tea all by itself is just fine.

[Java Time]

I like trying coffees from different regions.SB gives me the opportunity to do so without having to spend $$$ on a pound of coffe that I find wasn't worth it.

it's only 30 cents more than convenient store crap....

why folks live the SB's lifestyle I would imagine it's to seem higher on the food chain then they really are.

[Julius]

And a good tea can easily have enough caffeine in it to do the job too. . . you just have to look past the shitty Liptons, Bigelow and Twinings brands and buy something real (English!) like PG Tips or Tetley.

[In A Silent Way]

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when Charbucks had The Ramones as one of their featured CDs the other day.

[moed_over]

And a good tea can easily have enough caffeine in it to do the job too. . . you just have to look past the shitty Liptons, Bigelow and Twinings brands and buy something real (English!) like PG Tips or Tetley.

Actually, I like the Twinings Lady Grey. We used to get the Trader Joe's version, but they quit making it.

I do agree on tea being generally superior to the 'bucks chai latte, but sometimes I just like it because it is different. But, like Dee said, it is loaded with sugar....

[Tabbooma]

This has been troubling people for centuries

[KrisNYG]

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when Charbucks had The Ramones as one of their featured CDs the other day.

They hate me when I go in (to the local SB).

Me: "I would like a large of the darkest coffee you have"
Them: "A grande?"
Me: "LARGE, so yes a lolgrande. Do you really not know what I meant? Really?"

I think I heard one of the baristas call me mean. But really? How do you not know what a LARGE is? Idiots! They prolly peed in my coffee... prolly.

THE BEST coffee EVAH is here!!!...

http://www.community...offeeHouse.aspx

Would walk from the Hotel Provincial in the am (after raging the late night shows) and get a "black eye". It's like seven shots of espresso mixed with their darkest blend. No creamer or sugar allowed!

[In A Silent Way]

Would walk from the Hotel Provincial in the am (after raging the late night shows) and get a "black eye". It's like seven shots of espresso mixed with their darkest blend. No creamer or sugar allowed!

Our late, lamented Last Drop Coffee Shop called that the 747.

They folded and a lolDD went in, because my town has to have them every half mile on the Post Road.

[KrisNYG]

Our late, lamented Last Drop Coffee Shop called that the 747.

They folded and a lolDD went in, because my town has to have them every half mile on the Post Road.

Good stuff! I was zinging when I got back to the hotel. Got yelled at for jumping on the beds.

Sorry for your loss, D. DD SUCKS!

[TheDHJ]

I just go to Vietnamese cafes for coffee.

[Julius]

DD sucks until you don't have any of them around and then you miss it. Trust me on this!

[PeaceFrog]

I have a hard time believing there's a mile of road in this country without a DD

[Julius]

I have a hard time believing there's a mile of road in this country without a DD

There's only one in the entire state of CA and it's on a military base.
http://articles.lati...dleton-20120229

[moed_over]

I have a hard time believing there's a mile of road in this country without a DD

Believe it or not, there are very few in the southeast. My mother is selling her house in Florida, and I had to drive a bunch of her stuff in a truck from Tallahassee to Louisville. Couldn't find a DD or a Bucks from Tallahassee to Montgomery, AL on the route....It was the longest 6 hour drive ever, since it started at 6 a.m. I was amazed that it was even possible. Ended up giving up and got a coffee at a truck stop.

[Tim the Beek]

There's a reason it picked up the monicker, "Charbucks."

Overroasted coffee is overroasted. No sense, to me, in offering different varieties of coffee if they're all gonna taste like carbon.

And most of 'em brew with water which is way too hot.

IMO, of course.

[tiedyesky]

I like Folgers. I get pretty pissed if I don't get a second cup either

[sums]

french press, organic locally roasted coffee, organic half & half.

[In A Silent Way]

Local roaster, surrender press, tap water, industrially produced half-and-half with white sugar.

[PeaceFrog]

interesting... Dunkin Donuts opened their 10,000th branch in China. But their stronghold, or fortress market is here in the northeast where I live... and it really is. you can't go a mile without seeing one.

[tiedyesky]

I loathe Dunkin Dishwater

[Julius]

It's SO different out here. There are a bunch of Starbucks but almost as many Pete's coffee and still a ton of small independent local places.

But donut shops with coffee, bagels, and breakfast sandwiches are almost non-existent. The closest we get locally is combination donut shop/chinese food spots where you can easily find rats running across the floor if you look hard enough. Makes me wonder where the cops go in the morning!

[Depends]

I don't get the obsession with DD... I guess its because they use cream? I drink mine black, and I can't get a cup of DD down.

I rarely go to Starbucks, maybe in an airport, but I think Ive been to starbux 10 X in my life.
I usually drink Kona Purple Mountain. (http://www.konapurplemountain.com/) 100% organic, American grown. and owned by a friend of 40 years. She holds some peaberry for me... French Press...
At work I drink Cafe du Monde. no biegnets

[KrisNYG]

I like Folgers. I get pretty pissed if I don't get a second cup either

I loathe Dunkin Dishwater

I am having trouble with these two posts, C.

[Ravn]

Dunkin Dishwater sucks

coffee and stale donuts

I'll make my own coffee and buy Krispy Kreme's

[TheDHJ]

Seriously people.

[tiedyesky]

I am having trouble with these two posts, C.

I buy Folger's Colombian, and make it 50% stronger. Don't get me wrong, I will drink good coffee...but I can't afford Jamaican or Kona whenever i want
Wouldn't water my plants with DD though

[KrisNYG]

Seriously people.

Espresso press is the way to go, for sure! I am way too impatient to deal with such matters in the morning.

I buy Folger's Colombian, and make it 50% stronger. Don't get me wrong, I will drink good coffee...but I can't afford Jamaican or Kona whenever i want :shrugs:
Wouldn't water my plants with DD though

I have to admit, I loathe the DD but will go in for a coffee and glazed here and there. I've been known to put down close to a dozen of those tasty doughnuts, I am a cop's kid after all.

[deadheadskier]

I like Folgers. I get pretty pissed if I don't get a second cup either

we drink Folgers too

We both like our coffee with cream and sugar, so all the hettiness of the Small Batch, Free Trade, Late Harvest, Organic, 300 Year Old Kiln Roasted, Cote d'Ivoire Coffee is lost on us.

I completely agree with you Julius. Hearing somebody say "Vente" makes me want to punch them in the face.

You know what pisses me off even more though? The only time I buy coffee outside of the home is an occasional ice coffee from McDonalds. I actually think the Newman's own is better than the DD and for whatever reason they don't seem to fuck it up nearly as often at McDs as they do at DD. Whelp, they only offer "Medium" and "Large". NO YOU DON'T ASSHOLES. Medium means, in the middle. If you only have two sizes, one is small and one is large. What kind of idiots do you think people are to try and pass off of your small size offering as "medium" to increase the perceived value. Pizza joints pull this crap as well.

[tiedyesky]

In a pinch, I keep Tully's Italian roast K cups in the house...I don't like the waste, but it beats a styro cuppa dishwater

[Goose]

Before Starbucks came to the east coast, a few west coast style coffee houses started popping up in Philly. They were cool places to hang out,
some of them regularly had live music, poetry readings and local art. You could ask the barrista for a backgammon or chess board. Some of them had book shelves for use while you were there. There would be some people reading or using laptops but it wasn't anything like the anti-social / headphones/ single seat situations that you see now. I think the homogenous corporate places ruined that whole thing.

Dunkin Donuts always seemed to me like the crappy fast food version of a coffee house, I don't get why people even sit in those places. I found this out the other day: "They reached an agreement in December 2005 to sell the brand to a consortium of three private-equity firms, Bain Capital Partners, the Carlyle Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners."

[hoagie]

I loathe Dunkin Dishwater

WHY WONT THEY LET ME POUR MY OWN MILK/CREAM/H&H?!?!?!

[hoagie]

At work I drink Cafe du Monde. no biegnets

Chicory coffee def has its place now and then! Id love to try that Kona Purple Mtn peaberry! Wow!


edit: McD's coffee is actually pretty solid, as unbelievable as that might sound.

[Java Time]

a few years back I had a small coffee shop one town over from me that was pretty cool for hanging out...I think they even had poets or acoustic guitar players once in a while...bad area I guess (by babylon train station and @10 bars ) or maybe just too expensive to run vs. the volume of customers

nice place to chill waiting for the train and the coffee wasn't bad and they would have regional coffees from time to time...it was a hippy version of Starbucks. So I'm changing my tune about the food chain thing...

cuz now I'm thinking maybe Starbucks is a place to hang for folks that don't like the bar seen...how many times have we paid too much for alcohol because a place was a cool place to hang out?

[elder]

I am happy to report that there is finally a coffee place nearby, not a coffe house, but a place that sells only fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee. Just a couple of varieties, and its yummy to boot. My favorite is their Smart Mud.

Ironically it is right across the street from Starbucks, in the old Starbucks location. Wonder how thats gonna end up?
Anyway, I plan on supporting the hell out of them.

Morris County, NJ folks, check them out, Smartworld coffee in Denville ... http://www.smartworldcoffee.com/

[jnjn]

i always assumed (in nyc at least) that people spent a lot of time in coffee shops because the shop had more space then their apartments in addition to free wifi.
i don't like starbucks coffee so i avoid it at all costs. when i was living in bk there was this independently owned shop that opened up on our corner. great coffee, very chill, the owners were super sweet & never pretentious. they even had backyard space that they would open up when the weather was nice. free live music sometimes & bunch of other cool things. slowly, but surely though the neighborhood started turning & i noticed more & more superior than thou douche bags frequenting the place which was unfortunate

[In A Silent Way]

From Yelpers on one of my local joints:

I'm a Starbucks regular, but this one definitely didn't light me up.
Staff seem a bit obnoxious, more concerned with flirting with each other than serving you. Great if you lack a social life and need some gossip to fill your day... not so great if you just want to be served your coffee

My daughter works at a nearby Starbucks, yet I prefer this location. What some think as lacking I find refreshing. This is one group that lacks the pretense often found with coffee snobs. It is a low key, relaxed and intimate venue with a central fireplace.