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Post by Afgncaap5 on Jan 25, 2018 14:29:27 GMT -5
Starbucks has existed as a well-tapped mine of hilarious "Golly, there's franchises everywhere!" and "Boy oh boy isn't coffee overpriced these days?!" jokes, and that's where I've liked it; I don't like coffee, and I don't like paying too much for things, so apart from a super rare hot chocolate I never had anything from one. Unfortunately, people offered to buy me some drinks and dangit I think I really like these.
It's some sort of iced drink, and it's basically a virgin mojito? I don't like alcohol either despite trying to acquire the taste for years, but I've always enjoyed the non-alcohol flavors of mojitos. This is basically that, as if someone said "What if we take away the burning sensation of alcohol and replace it with something cold and refreshing to really help that mint flavor along?"
Ultimately, it's not a bad thing... I mean, it'd be weird if I said "I found a drink I like and that's awful!"... but at the same time, I don't like going from "Why would I want to go to Starbucks?" to "Yeah, okay, put me down for an order."
The *good* news, though, is that I always like having alternatives to coffee to get when coffee-drinking friends want to get something as a group. This is a nice summer beverage, so I won't get as many weird looks from people when I commit the atrocity of ordering hot chocolate when it's summer. (It's apparently more sensible to drink something hot and bitter than something hot and sweet during the summer months.)
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Post by mylungswereaching on Jan 26, 2018 14:19:34 GMT -5
I've found the history of coffee interesting. From what I've read, coffee was popular in the U.S. since the founding of our country. The demand for coffee increased throughout the 20th century. After WWII most coffee made at home was in convenient electric percolator. Percolator's are probably the worst way to make coffee but it was the easiest and cheapest way. The first commercial coffee's sold in large quantities were a mixture of the Arabica and Robusta beans. Arabica beans are more flavorful and less bitter but much more expensive. Robusta beans are much more bitter but cheaper and have a higher caffeine content. Most coffee brands were a mixture in the 40's and 50's. But coffee distributors slowly changed their mixtures to include more and more of the more bitter but cheaper Robusta beans. By the 70's, coffee had become a drink for old people and sales were slumping. Older people had gotten used to the more bitter taste over time but younger people in general didn't like it.
Starbucks was founded in 1971. They used the more expensive but more flavorful beans like Arabica and others. They also used better brewing styles which eliminated the burnt taste that percolators could have. Creating specialty coffee's, using a better grade of coffee, and using better brewing methods were much more appealing to younger, affluent people who could afford the higher priced coffees.
Starbucks became popular and spread widely over the next 30 years. When they first opened, they were a specialty shop that was quite rare. Now you have gas stations that can offer coffee that is almost as good. But Starbucks has the name and reputation. It's got an every man snob appeal.
Now me personally. When I first drank coffee, I drank it with lots of sugar and milk. Then pretty much overnight, I switched to drinking my coffee black. I didn't realize until then how difficult to order black coffee could be.
"How do you want your coffee?" "Black." "Do you want sugar in it?" "Black." "Do you want cream in it?" "Black." "Do you want milk in it?" "Black." "Are you sure you want it black?" "Black."
I honeymooned in Hawaii and loved the coffee sold there so I started mail ordering American coffee. It was expensive, about $10 a pound, when I bought 4 pounds at a time. But four pounds would last me 6 months so I didn't mind. But then about 10 years ago, I started having bad reactions to caffeine. I ended up cutting caffeine out of my diet and I have rarely drank anything with caffeine for more than 5 years.
Starbucks only came into my area around 10 years ago. I never really considered buying anything there since it didn't make any sense to me to spend a lot of money for something that was going to cause me considerable pain a few hours after drinking it. But then my daughter became a teenager. We had to go their once and a while because Starbucks was a status symbol among her peers. I sometimes had a little, when my wife bought it. It was good but not worth the pain. On the good side, my daughter preferred Duncan Donuts coffee, which was half the cost. She's off to college now, so I don't know what coffee, she's drinking.
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Feb 5, 2018 14:11:56 GMT -5
If you have to head there again, I recommend these refresher things. Not coffee at all, and I don't *think* there's caffeine (but I've not exactly checked, so don't hold me to that.) But yeah, it's amazing what better ingredients, better techniques, and better (or at least more) recipes will do for you.
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