I love coffee. I drink at least a cup a day. I visit the local coffee shops many times each week. Coffee has become an important part of my life, one of my bigger hobbies in my free time. All this means that I owe coffee some respect. In other words, I don't go to Starbucks, and here's why:
1. Its entire menu is overpriced.
Most independent coffee shops are significantly below the costly extortion that is Starbucks. Do your wallet a favor, and drink something that probably tastes better anyway.
2. Starbucks keeps its beans on the shelf for months.
This is not how coffee is meant to be consumed. There is a noted decrease in the quality of the bean only two to four weeks after the bean is roasted. The Starbucks coffee you buy is almost certainly far past its prime.
3. Starbucks roasts its poor beans into virtual charcoal.
In an effort to maximize the aforementioned shelf life, Starbucks burns out all of the lighter flavors. Its blond roast, by the standards of the rest of the coffee industry, is a medium roast at best.
4. Starbucks confuses the industry with its arbitrary naming system.
For example, let's take the macchiato. For Starbucks, this is just a glorified latte blasted with caramel sauce. For independent shops, a macchiato means something completely different. It is a strong drink composed of a double shot with a dollop of froth on top.
5. Starbucks has pulled coffee milk drinks away from their traditional identity.
Every milk drink on the menu in its true form is never over 8-ounce. in size, yet Starbucks has placed the baseline far above that at 12-ounce. What should be a beautiful synergy of espresso and milk has turned into simply drowning out all flavor in a lake of milk. That's even before taking into account all the strange flavors and modifications they encourage in their drinks.
6. Overall, the root problem of Starbucks is its focus.
Instead of having coffee be the priority, Starbucks's main strengths are marketing and merchandise. A good coffee company should be about coffee, and everything else should come second.
