What is so great about Starbucks?

[Shelby]

I've never been to or had one.

[Tropicalsenior]

4 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I've never been to or had one.

You're not missing anything and you're not missing the big bucks that they charge you.

[cdh]

Not a fan myself... but people I know who were regulars cited the caffeine kick as superior to other coffee joints.  Maybe they char robusta beans to hide the burning tire flavor and retain the caf-kick... and some people appreciate them for it.

[cdh]

And @Tropicalsenior, tell us about the coffee scene in Costa Rica.  I'd heard that most coffee exporting countries tend to consume Nescafe, as drinking the good stuff is like lighting money on fire... 

[gfweb]

8 hours ago, Shelby said:

I've never been to or had one.

You stand in a line while every dope in front of you orders a double frappe vente ×5 and wants separate checks. 

[TicTac]

8 minutes ago, gfweb said:

You stand in a line while every dope in front of you orders a double frappe vente ×5 and wants separate checks. 

How to generalize and stereotype - 101.

 

Tough crowd.

 

 

[Tropicalsenior]

2 hours ago, cdh said:

tell us about the coffee scene in Costa Rica. 

Well, you are partly right. I have been in some coffee producing countries and they do drink instant coffee predominantly. Not Nescafe but instant coffee produced in their own country. Nicaragua makes a killer instant coffee. If you ever see it it is called Presto. It is what most of the people there drink. I always have a jar on hand for baking even though I don't drink it myself.

Costa Rica is different. They are very proud of their coffee and their coffee heritage and everybody drinks the real stuff.

I don't know about most companies but some years ago we did a tour of a small coffee plantation and the owner took us on the tour. When we got to the coffee sorting machine he explained that the larger coffee beans go to the US and the European prefer the smaller coffee beans. These are shipped green and whole. The broken coffee beans were the ones that they kept for local consumption and those they roasted and packaged for sale. He said that he preferred the broken beans because they presented more surface area for roasting and never got bitter.

Our major coffee producer here is Cafe Britt. It's gone kind of along the lines of Starbucks and at times it gets a little bitter. I think I've tried just about every brand that they have here and I keep going back to one favorite, Montaña. When my grandson comes down, he always takes about 30 lb of coffee back with him. He goes to the Central Market and buys one of the brands that is probably the oldest in the country, Volio. He watches them roast it, grind it, and pack it in paper bags. He takes some back as gifts and keeps the rest in the refrigerator for himself and when it is gone, it is time to come back down.

I just wanted to say that picking coffee is one of the hardest jobs in the whole country. When my grandson was down here as a student, he had some time off and decided to try coffee picking. He lasted only 2 days and wound up making a total of about $2. He says it makes him appreciate his coffee even more.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[haresfur]

I haven't tried Starbucks' instant coffee but the roaster that supplies my coffee joints makes a surprisingly decent instant called Magic Bogan* Dust.

 

*Bogan: an insulting word for a person whose way of dressing, speaking, and behaving is thought to show their lack of education and low social class**

 

**social class, not economic class. Probably even more derogatory is "Cashed-up Bogan"

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

You stand in a line while every dope in front of you orders a double frappe vente ×5 and wants separate checks. 

I don't even know what a frappe is.   I am feeling lucky that I don't lol.

[heidih]

15 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I don't even know what a frappe is.   I am feeling lucky that I don't lol.

Think of it as coffee icecream whipped up with a bit of ice and maybe an espresso shot. Leans dessert/treat.  Long work time in your hot garden in need  of   treat - you'd be there  My sister amd niece went a bit ago to the one I linked with the ocean view befoe a cliff walk. Known quantity and in this part of town we don't have coffee places like they do in Sydney.

Edited July 22, 2023 by heidih (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

13 minutes ago, haresfur said:

Magic Bogan* Dust

Instant coffee has always been considered a quick cheap way of getting your coffee fix. People that actually liked instant coffee were considered to be not refined enough to appreciate the real thing. There are very few brands of good instant coffee.

I believe that one of the reasons that a lot of Latin American countries drink instant coffee is because of primitive cooking situations. They may not always have a means to make coffee but they always have a way to make hot water.

My Nicaraguan housemate says that his grandmother used to make coffee in a big open pot on her wood fire. She used to put river rocks in the bottom of the pot and two or three eggshells in with the coffee grounds and then boil the heck out of it. The coffee grounds settled into the rocks and the eggshells kept it from getting bitter. I'm rather thankful that she's no longer around to invite me to coffee.

[heidih]

I have Nescafe in the pantry.  I've posted this before @Shelby  https://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/greek-frappe-coffee-recipe-iced-coffee/

Edited July 22, 2023 by heidih (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

In case anyone is interested, here is the original Thread about olive oil in Starbucks coffee

Edited July 22, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

36 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I don't even know what a frappe is.   I am feeling lucky that I don't lol.

If you are really curious about the Starbucks drinks, you can find recipes for every one of them on the Internet and you can whip them up in your own kitchen for less than a tenth of what you would pay for them at Starbucks.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I've dined at Starbucks only once.  It was after a concert and the only thing open.  In retrospect I'd rather go hungry.

 

[liuzhou]

A small but growing amount of coffee is grown in China's Yunnan province (云南省 -

yún nán shěng) which borders Guangxi and also Vietnam (which has excellent coffee). Much of the Yunnan coffee is snapped up by Starbucks, a lot goes to making instant coffee and only a little reaches the market as beans. A little of that little gets to the international market. It is usually labelled as Blue Mountain.

 

Yunnan "Blue Mountain" Coffee - Image from listing on www.taobao.com, China's leading online shopping portal

 

But Nescafé is what people mostly drink. It is predominantly sold as 3-in-1 (instant coffe premixed with sugar and whitener). There are local clones, too.

 

Whether Nestlé uses Yunnan beans, I don't know.

 

 

 

[ElsieD]

12 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Well, you are partly right. I have been in some coffee producing countries and they do drink instant coffee predominantly. Not Nescafe but instant coffee produced in their own country. Nicaragua makes a killer instant coffee. If you ever see it it is called Presto. It is what most of the people there drink. I always have a jar on hand for baking even though I don't drink it myself.

 

Amazon sells Presto.  It is produced by Nestlé.

[Tropicalsenior]

37 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Amazon sells Presto.  It is produced by Nestlé.

Yes, that is the one that I buy. If you go to Presto by Nestle you will see that it is from Nicaragua. I don't care for instant coffee as a beverage, but this one is excellent for baked goods and as a flavoring agent. I have found out that I need to use it up quickly or keep it in the refrigerator because it will clump and go hard.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[Madon2234]

Being an Indian, Starbucks is way too pricey for us. We've got better coffee shops, and here it's seen as a symbol of affluence. Anyway, I just can't stand it! 🙅‍♂️☕ #Overpriced #NotMyCupOfTea

[Tropicalsenior]

@Madon2234 

Welcome to eGullet. Thank you for sharing your opinion and I'm looking forward to seeing your posts on food from India. In what part of India do you live?

Edited July 22, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[TdeV]

Hello there @Madon2234. Looking forward to your posts. Welcome to eG.

[mgaretz]

I prefer Peet's (what I drink at home - Major Dickason's Blend), but Starbucks will do in a pinch if that's all that's around. One of my favorite quotes was from a friend of mine who said, "I am just waiting for Starbucks to open in my living room because eventually they will."

[heidih]

To gve them credit, every event I put on at the local Botanic Garden - they gladly donated the portable coffee things, plus cups , cream & sugar + stirrers. Peets did once.

[gulfporter]

On 7/20/2023 at 8:50 AM, liuzhou said:

As far as I can make out, the main reason people here use the SB stores is to access the free wi-fi. People sit there nursing a cold coffee all day while tapping away on their laptops.

 

 

That might have been true a decade ago.  Now almost all eateries, cafes, in US offer free wi-fi, open wi-fi that doesn't require a password or purchase. 

 

We had not lived in US since 2019 but recently bought a (part-time) home in AZ and everywhere we eat, shop and get services (dental, medical) have free open wi-fi.  Additionally the city and county offer 100+free wi-fi spots in libraries, in parks, along hiking trails. 

 

 

 

Edited July 23, 2023 by gulfporter (log)

[liuzhou]

7 minutes ago, gulfporter said:

That might have been true a decade ago.  Now almost all eateries, cafes, in US offer free wi-fi

 

But I wasn't talking about the US. As I said, people here use Starbucks for the wi-fi.