☕️

Americans are addicted to caffeine but not to Starbucks, it seems.

When I started going to Starbucks it was novelt, and certainly a better cup of coffee than the mass-brewed Folgers (usually percolated, I suspect), available outside my home. 

I was already grinding my own beans at home, but I still just brew in a Chemex without calling it “pour over coffee.” Starbucks was welcome when I didn’t have coffee brewed; and let’s be honest, it convinced almost every food service operation in the country to up their game.

I’m not a coffee fanatic. My son in law is. He has more equipment just to brew an espresso than I knew existed. It’s his thing, not mine; and his coffees are excellent. I stick with beans from a roaster in Austin I’ve been buying from since I lived there. That’s as fanatical as I get.

But it didn’t take long to realize Starbucks was little better than McDonalds. Remember the “hot coffee” case, where McD was sued over third-degree burns? They were brewing water under pressure to superheat it above 212F in order to extract more coffee from fewer grounds. The result is shit coffee. Starbucks tastes like that to me.

The famous Starbucks roast is, to my palate, grossly over roasted. I like dark roasts (prefer them, really), but I call Starbucks plain black coffee “burnt water.”

This became really clear to me when a coffee shop (another chain) opened in my local grocery (it’s a big store). The coffee was actually mellow, flavorful, and above all not heated to 300F. That’s when I realized how bad Starbucks is, because lattes don’t have to taste like theirs.

Starbucks is a victim of their own success, for me. They raised our expectations of coffee, but against a Folgers/Mr Coffee backdrop. Compared to that, Starbucks was good. Compared to what’s available because of them, Starbucks sux.

I still go to Starbucks, but only when I’m out of town and want to find a familiar cuppa. But I look for local places when I can, and I’m usually much happier. Even small towns in Texas have good coffee available now. Starbucks did that, but it’s leaving them behind.

Ironic. But I’m not crying for ‘em. Mostly I still drink my home brew.