Well, the people won and our Starbucks closed down due lack of business. I’m not happy of lost enterprise but for the 4 indo cafees which survived. Michelin-starred tiny bistro didn’t . Those were the news from Ranelagh, Dublin, Ireland.

Good news!

I rejoice when any Starbucks closes down. My local supermarket used to have a great little cafe attached. They refurbished and replaced it with a Starbucks. So now, if I go there, instead of being able to have a hot meal I can have a cup of tasteless coffee and a shitty little cookie.

I like their coffee but there just isnt anything to their stores, it would be nice if they designed them more as a cafe.

startbucks makes some of the worst coffee in my oponion. It’s got a hint of flavour. Of course my favorite is the localt roasted Jamacia Blue. That is some good shit.

Ahh Jamacan blue that is good coffee!

Starbucks sells more than overpriced coffee, customers are drawn in by the upper middle class atmosphere within every one of their cafe.

Hate to see the loss of jobs, but ever since Starbucks went beyond a NW USA regional chain they went straight down hill. Overpriced and over rated. The few in my neck o’ the woods still do a thriving business, don’t know how though because there are many independents that do equally well for traffic and have far superior coffee.

Instant coffee Maxwell House is probably the best ‘coffee’ I’ve sampled in the USA, and that’s awful. The foul grey ersatz coffee or the syrup goo dished out at McStarbucks is simply dreadful. I’m amazed Starbucks coffee is so popular in America and elsewhere.

I hardly ever get coffee anywhere but at home. I buy whole bean coffee, grind it myself, and then make it in a french press. Everything else sort of pales in comparison. But, I don’t understand the overhead mark-up. Even though I splurge on good beans, I pay a fraction of the price than if I buy it elsewhere.

I find american coffee in general to be inferior to european blends. having been a barrista myself, though, I know that it all really depends on formula and how you make the coffee. MJB, an obscure and hard to find blend(in certain states) is an example of an excellent american coffee in the french press method. i’m not much for drip coffee. lol starbux is only an example of the typical american monster corporation - starting out with a good product and then declining into shite, like mcdonald’s, to meet the demands of the mindless mob. i always grimace when someone mentions their love of starbux.

In the movie “Idiocracy”, set in a dystopian future Starbucks sells “adult” coffee.

One down, another 999,999 to go.

I’m with snuffegnugen and Alexander; whole beans/burr grinder/French press. Consumer Reports recently did a study on 100% Columbian coffee; and who took the tops? Why, Eight O’Clock 100% Columbian Whole Bean, of course! The only high-priced snob chain to come close was Caribou, at twice the per-pound price. Starbucks, I might add, came in around 10 or 11. HA!!!

I have to admit I went Starbucks one time to try a cup to see if there was anything to it. I asked for a cup of plain black and they tried to make me say “venti” or ‘grande’ . I wouldn’t say the atmosphere was something that would make me want to hang around for any amount of time there. The best cup of coffee I remember was at a deli shop down town Cincinnati about 4 am when I used to drive a truck. It came out of a massive, antique perculator about 4 feet tall, a wonderful dark, steaming liquid, served with a slab of cherry pie, and finished off with a Lucky Strike. I asked the lady what was in the coffee. She said the coffee was pretty well just a regular bean, freshly ground.She said they never scrub the inside of the perculator, just gently rub it, leaving the flavor intact,Haha! My kind of place, there… Hell, I don’t know…it sure was good, though!

I was curious how Starbucks does in Italy, I checked their site and they don’t have any! Kind of says a lot about the quality of Starbucks. I can only assume they haven’t bothered to open any as they know they will probably be laughed out of the country.

Just to make things clear, I don’t have anything against franchised corporate brands per pe, just in this case Starbucks was in totally wrong place at wrong time. And the thing is in Ireland, or at least in Dublin, you get a good cup of coffee in the local pub as well for a good price as well and it is now socially accepted! Progress has really progressed during the last 10 or so years.

Yeah, Down with that emperialistic starbucks!

If anyone is interested in the history of coffee and the current industry here in the US, you can check out this PBS special (three episodes) Black Coffee. One can easily find a torrent for it on google.

well my roommate worked in starbucks up intill 2 weeks ago … you get a free lb every week if you work there so it was kinda nice to have a a diffrent type of free coffee everyweek . get to try all the new food and drinks before they sell it in the shops to give your opinion … 97 times outta 100 i do give my business to family owned shops . worked in a small coffee place for a few years myself

I like Starbucks coffee. Lest ye forget, before the arrival of the corporate coffee chains it was pretty difficult to get a decent coffee in the U.K. A cup of coffee in a cafeteria would in most cases be made from of a spoonful of instant Nescafe from a catering tin. In many greasy spoons, this is still what you get served. Also, unlike their competitors such as Caffe Nero, Costa and Coffee Republic, Starbucks serve brewed coffee. The others only have espresso based drinks. The situation is of course different in the States where brewed coffee is sold in even the most downmarket of establishments (and on the continent where espresso machines are much more common). But in the southern States where there is a tendency to brew weak insipid coffee, I’ll still take Starbucks over most restaurant coffee. A common complaint is that Starbucks coffee beans are roasted too highly which gives a bitter taste but I kinda like it like that !

Starbuck’s coffee is awful, even nonwithstanding the excessive price. I have spent a lifetime drinking strong coffees, and even purchase the premium Italian blends to use in my high pressure espresso maker at home. I am used to strong, possibly bitter coffee. But it’s one thing to have a strong, invigorating coffee that carries an inviting, if a bit overpowering bouquet, and another just to make it strong for strong’s sake. Starbuck’s to me tastes like the latter: basically as if it were over-roasted, charred Dunkin Donuts coffee with twice the ground beans and half the water. The idea of a national coffee chain is nice. I’m not one of those haters or jealous people who hate corporate America (thought I have my concerns) or is jealous of a young kid making big bucks. It grates me the wrong way they got rich basically repackaging crappy coffee though, but as is often said “YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME, AND ALL OF THE PEOPLE SOME OF THE TIME, BUT YOU CAN NOT FOOL ALL THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME”. And now that people don’t have 5 dollars a day to throw away any more, they find the 95 cent Dunkin Donuts is just as good, if not better!

Starbucks coffee is okay. I prefer the Cafe Verona, Kenya, and Organic Yukon Blend. I do not purchase the sweet drinks, just coffee. I do prefer Port City Java to Starbucks, but there is not one around here.

I used to jerk coffee for Peet’s, in Berkeley. Suppsedly the arch rival of Starbuck’s. Who isn’t? I delivered their beans to local stores too. Way better coffee. Good tea too. I remember how they would tell us how they would never go public and never sell syrups to go in the coffee; that coffee was supposed to be roasted dark and drank black. I think the owners saw how much money they could make and changed their tune. I’m not sure who wouldn’t do the same. Alas, capitalism. Lately I’ve been really getting a kick out of how well snuff goes with tea and coffee. A fat pinch of #22 and a double esspreso Italian Roast. Seems like a match made in heaven.

Around me we have a starbucks down the street from a coffee shop called Kaldi’s and since Kaldi’s opened starbucks has been dead. I go to Kaldi’s every weekend to get oatmeal and bottomless cup of coffee for 8 bucks total, what a concept…breakfast with your coffee…

We have a few good coffee shops around here. Only a few star bucks which seem to do best with the out of towners actualy and mostly new students.

From the standpoint of this American, being a fan of Starbucks is like being a fan of Exxon/Mobil.

Yea! And pro sports and hollywood too. What a load of crap!

Anyone interested in the PBS special about coffee can download the series from MVGroup. Login is required to download the torrent file, but registration is free. The site has no viruses, malware, or adware. It mainly provides educational and interesting documentaries for people to download. CLICK ME!!

My favorite coffee is Ruta Maya. This is an excellent, high quality organic bean grown by local farmers (as opposed to a corporate plantation) in Chiapas, Mexico. It is a Fair Trade product, with the farmers getting the vast majority of the profits. You can buy it direct from Ruta Maya out of Austin, Texas, or you can even get it at some Costco stores. Don’t let the low price mislead you. This is a top quality coffee, on par with the best European blends, and the people who grow and cultivate it actually get the money for their labor. To hell with Starbucks, their horrid coffee and their disgusting labor practices. http://rutamaya.net/store/

I’m a simple guy. I make my coffee at home for the cost factor of it alone. That being said I did go to great lengths to get a really nice machine in the house to brew the stuff. I do enjoy a cup of Starbucks every now and again. I also prefer Dunkin’ Donuts coffee to Starbucks (I know almost nobody will agree with that). Onto the thread topic. I feel weird when I go into a Starbucks. I don’t feel like I “belong” there. Snooty is the word that comes to mind. Everyone is pleasant and all, but it’s so plastic IMO. I think it’s the corporate way, just like DD and most other large corporations for that matter. The coffee…there’s better out there but it blows the doors off of my usual Maxwell House though that brewed through a good machine will make you think it’s a gourmet coffee. That being said I have only once ordered something other than a LAHHGE COFFEE (venti…please…) and it was a caramel machiato. It was a good beverage, but I don’t like all that hoopla. Just a large coffee please.

The Romeo y Julieta 1875 Coffee from Mars Pipes and Cigars has taken over my world. Started out as a novelty in my kitchen, 'tis now a staple. Starbucks isn’t fit to caffeine off a hangover. God awful sludge, I’d rather drink overcooked truck stop fare

I love some truck stop coffee. The robusto bean is madly underrated in my opnion. Sure it doesn’t have the flavoursome nuances of arabica, it does get the job done. I’ve often said I either want really delecious coffee or extremely strong coffee, starbucks is neither. So you definatly recomend the romeo y julieta coffee I take it.

I’ve never been to a Starbucks, ever (not exactly intentional, just have never been, never been interested) My impression of them (without ever having been in one but just second-hand watching other people’s responses about them over time) is they must be like some sort of “Hollywood Video of coffee” (I find places like “holllywood video” and "blockbuster, etc, to be exceptionally annoying not much of a TV watcher, barely enough to have cable and the required DVD/VCR devices to run a few I own on), the rest of it is just… excess Likewise I guess am ‘old school’ about my coffee. also EDITED in (I really should read a thread before posting maybe heh) When I said donut shop I personally didn’t mean Dunkin donuts ("hollywood video of donut shops? At least I have been in them, but rarely and years and years ago. Ours kept dying off, being resurrected, dying off, etc… no fights like this starbucks stuff, just nobody went to dunkin donuts enough… we have a locally owned ‘small franchise’ I guess. since there are three of them in all, donut shop, kinda like the non alcoholic rendition of “Cheers” with regulars and characters that just keeps running Dunkin Donuts off. If you are lucky enough to have a real donut shop in your town, go there instead. You might have to look for it, might be easily overlooked but it might be there) (now back to what I said to start with) I don’t need fifty million flavors of it or coffee-flavored syrups or coffee-flavored ice cream or malts (or whatever half that crap is), just a cup of coffee will do, and it hardly needs a whole building dedicated to and wrapped around it (with the exception of a donut and coffee shop, that at least makes more sense and the focus is on the donuts) It needs to just be a good strong and normal cup of coffee not coffee flavored water and not “Seattle’s Best” or the bizarre crap some places like “Steak N Shake” bring to it lately… might be “Seattles Best” but man it was *this* city’s *worst*) Come to think of it, Steak n Shake is kind of annoying too, like the "hollywood video’ of restaurants (that’s probably the other reason I don’t go there anymore) Just a plain normal cup of coffee that’s at least strong enough its not see through but yet not some ‘special’ grow-hair-on-your-chest type that makes you feel like you just chewed the beans up either, just nothing weird about it… Coffee should also should not have foam on it. I have been to places where I’ve ordered just a cup of coffee and when it was delivered it, had a head on it. (I wasn’t even going to ask how that came to be I don’t think I even want to know, I just know I sure wasn’t going to drink it) EDIT – a friend of mine and I have had minor arguments about this, him saying “oh c’mon its just a few bubbles” (and some crazy ‘explanation’ that they either ‘carried it too fast’ or ‘musta just poured it too fast’ or even that its ‘bubbles from the dishwaster’ etc) to my insisting “but coffee does not have, is *not supposed* to have, *bubbles*!”

Nothing tastier then dish soap in your coffee. Either that or they poured it through some quantum system that acclerates pours to faster then sound travel. Now thats some good coffee dishwater quantum java. Oh yeah.

Bob, if you don’t end up ruling the world it will be a travesty.

Sure…even if sound travels quite slowly compared to light.

@ snuffster I already do I just have a very hand off approach.