Starbucks - New focus on Coffee ! New drip roast

I'm not a real coffee guy, I like it when the temps outside are single digit. I'm not real shy either, but I HATE ordering at starbucks ( or fourbuck's as I've heard others call it) It makes me feel like an idiot, I really just want a regular large coffee, but they make you say words like "venti" and "grande" .

http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/pressdesc.asp?id=855

Down here Starbuck's distributed a "Brewed Coffee Card" in the newspaper that entitles the bearer to free Tall cups of the new Pike Place Roast every Wednesday until 5/28. Seeing as how there is a Starbuck's about every 500 yards along US-1, I think I'll manage to actually try it.

The trouble with Starbucks is if you get just a regular coffee without any bells and whistles it tastes like it was brewed using someone's old gym socks instead of a filter in the machine. Their actual coffee is awful unless you load it full of whipped cream, chocolate, flavouring, and whatever else they can cram in there.

quote:

Originally posted by MiamiDon

Down here Starbuck's distributed a "Brewed Coffee Card" in the newspaper that entitles the bearer to free Tall cups of the new Pike Place Roast every Wednesday until 5/28. Seeing as how there is a Starbuck's about every 500 yards along US-1, I think I'll manage to actually try it.

I got the same card in our local paper and gave it a try this morning. Quite good. Not as burned tasting as other regular coffees I have had there.

I'll be back next Wednesday!

My local, non-corporate doughnut shop brews up a damn good cuppa coffee for a buck seventy five, and I can call it "extra large" when I order it instead of venti or grande or spumoni.

I'm not a fan of Starbucks, but I'll have to admit, my only complaint is that the coffee doesn't taste as fresh as it used to before they became the whore of coffee houses. I don't think it tastes burnt, nor do I think it's too strong, however I will take starbucks coffee over most other establishments including convenience stores, diners, donut shops or any other place that serves coffee for that matter, where the coffee tends to taste like hot water. The only time I've had the pleasure of going into a non coffee house establishment and getting a good cupa joe is in the Pacific Northwest

I'm looking right now at my Starbucks receipt from noon today. A venti (that's the largest size) coffee was $1.95. Is that really so outrageously priced? It was a great cuppa Joe too.

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce Bilmes & Sue Boyle

I'm looking right now at my Starbucks receipt from noon today. A venti (that's the largest size) coffee was $1.95. Is that really so outrageously priced? It was a great cuppa Joe too.

Not having a clue how many ounces a "venti" is, but judging by the fact that I pay $1.50 for a 24-oz. cup at any of the four local independent coffee bars downtown, I'd say yes.

The Starbucks venti cup says 20.5 ounces. I don't know if that means filled to the brim or filled normally. Anyway, that price seems to be in the right ballpark, especially considering it's the Northeast.

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce Bilmes & Sue Boyle

Anyway, that price seems to be in the right ballpark, especially considering it's the Northeast.

Same price everywhere from what I can tell in our travels and I think not unreasonable for a decent cup. When on the road with no access to my home coffee I'd pay twice the price if necessary but we do look for a local place on the garmin before hitting the starbucks.

IMO they should be focusing on revamping the prices on their $5-$7 foo-foo drink menu. That's high for any drink that doesn't include a jigger or two of your favorite adult liquor.

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce Bilmes & Sue Boyle

I'm looking right now at my Starbucks receipt from noon today. A venti (that's the largest size) coffee was $1.95. Is that really so outrageously priced? It was a great cuppa Joe too.

I agree..a couple buck for a great cuppa is not outrageous. I think the perception that Starbucks is fancy and expensive will die hard though, and sometimes perception is reality.

quote:

Originally posted by bigcab

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce Bilmes & Sue Boyle

I'm looking right now at my Starbucks receipt from noon today. A venti (that's the largest size) coffee was $1.95. Is that really so outrageously priced? It was a great cuppa Joe too.

I agree..a couple buck for a great cuppa is not outrageous. I think the perception that Starbucks is fancy and expensive will die hard though, and sometimes perception is reality.

The problem is how hard they promote their concoctions, which ARE fancy and way too freaken expensive.

Thats the way they have positioned themselves..Top Shelf. You can't blame them for trying to up-sell, but it seems as though they're trying to identify with and cater to the " every-man" now. I'm not sure you can do both ?

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce Bilmes & Sue Boyle

I'm looking right now at my Starbucks receipt from noon today. A venti (that's the largest size) coffee was $1.95. Is that really so outrageously priced? It was a great cuppa Joe too.

I guess it depends on how you look at it. When I first started drinking coffee the cost was a nickel for a bottomless cup in a real ceramic mug.

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce Bilmes & Sue Boyle

The Starbucks venti cup says 20.5 ounces. I don't know if that means filled to the brim or filled normally. Anyway, that price seems to be in the right ballpark, especially considering it's the Northeast.

Venti = 20 in Italian, so 20 ounces seems about right!

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd
I guess it depends on how you look at it. When I first started drinking coffee the cost was a nickel for a bottomless cup in a real ceramic mug.

Yeah, but did the cup fit the cupholder on your model T Ford?

I am old enough to remember and own cars without seat belts AND cup holders.

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd

I am old enough to remember and own cars without seat belts AND cup holders.

Me too...it doesn't seem that long ago!

quote:

Originally posted by Tony Bad

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd

I am old enough to remember and own cars without seat belts AND cup holders.

Me too...it doesn't seem that long ago!

Cupholders definetely
Seatbelts, no- I thought cars always had seatbelts

The car my parents had when I was a kid had after-market installed seat belts. My grandma's car only had lap belts. Neither one had cup holders, we had these plastic ones that slid into over the top of the door next to the window.

wanderingjew, I got my driver's license on the very last day of 1959 and started doing the American Graffiti cruising immediately. My first cruising car was a 1952 Chevy and then later a 1958 Pontiac Bonneville. They never had seat belts, not even lap belts. The seats were wide bench seats and the way we traveled with our girl friends a seat belt would have been a severe hindrance.


This is from Wikipedia...

quote:

In 1956 Ford, largely at the insistence of executive Robert McNamara introduced the seat belt for consumer automobiles. [12] The safety device was met with ridicule by others in the industry, but it caught on with the public. [13] By 1964, Most U.S. automobiles were sold with standard front seat belts; rear seat belts were made standard in 1968.

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd

wanderingjew, I got my driver's license on the very last day of 1959 and started doing the American Graffiti cruising immediately. My first cruising car was a 1952 Chevy and then later a 1958 Pontiac Bonneville. They never had seat belts, not even lap belts. The seats were wide bench seats and the way we traveled with our girl friends a seat belt would have been a severe hindrance.


This is from Wikipedia...

quote:

In 1956 Ford, largely at the insistence of executive Robert McNamara introduced the seat belt for consumer automobiles. [12] The safety device was met with ridicule by others in the industry, but it caught on with the public. [13] By 1964, Most U.S. automobiles were sold with standard front seat belts; rear seat belts were made standard in 1968.

Ya see, and I was born in 1965....which shows why I don't remember cars without seatbelts- Actually I do remember lap belts only my mothers first car- a 1969 olds delta 88 had them

single digit temperatures?
MOVE!!!
SK BOB, Daytona Beach,Florida

quote:

Originally posted by sk bob

single digit temperatures?
MOVE!!!
SK BOB, Daytona Beach,Florida

OK, I'll bite. What does this post have to do with a thread about Starbucks coffee that segued into a discussion about cars without seatbelts?

I think it started with gym socks and the price of coffee reminding about one's high school days.

Which is obviously a reference to my first post, but still does not explain the relevance of the temperature outside or a suggestion to move (presumably to Florida, since SK BOB made a huge point of saying he lives there).

I like to drink my coffee black.
So I get the real taste of coffee and not something jacked up on sugar and dairy fat.
Starbucks has to be amongst the worst coffee, high priced, gut wrenching brew.
Not a lover of Tim Horton's either. Even McDonalds does it better.

quote:

Originally posted by felix4067

Which is obviously a reference to my first post, but still does not explain the relevance of the temperature outside or a suggestion to move (presumably to Florida, since SK BOB made a huge point of saying he lives there).

All in fun Felix. SK BOB was pointing to the OP's first post about single digit temperatures. Why is this thread off kilter? Simple the title never matched the subject about a new Starbucks coffee (BTW, which has been opened in other threads already) but was a complaint about "venti" and "grande" sizes.

But if you would like, I do have a story about the coffee sizes. Instead of asking for one of the three weird named sizes I did ask for a small cup of coffee thinking I would get the smallest of the three, the 12 oz. cup. What I got was an 8 oz. cup and was charged $1.00. It was not on the menu board. I was kind of surprised but since it was in the afternoon it was really exactly what I wanted. That was in a shopping center in Federal Way, WA. I've tried that elsewhere but always got the 12 oz. cup.

FWIW, I just tried the new Starbucks Pike's Place brewed coffee, and I liked it a whole lot, and it was only about $1.65. It's much smoother than the wretched burned grounds they used to serve, but a lot bolder and tastier than Dunkin Donuts. Imagine that, the world's largest purveyor of coffee finally can actually make a decent brew.

First of all I do not like starbucks coffee...its highly over-rated not to mention it costs almost $4-$5 for one of there specialty coffees.
I can make a Mocca Carmel Latte at my house that tastes great and costs me so very little to make. Oh and did I mention that is has less filling too!