Well beyond undrinkable

Systemic

Got a couple of hours to kill while my car gets a new set of shoes so I’m wandering around to kill time. Spot a Starbucks and as I haven’t had the mis-pleasure of going into one since Adam was a lad, venture in; big mistake. Espresso machine has been dispensed with in favour of some push button misbegotten piece of junk. Against my better judgment and probably because I want to see how bad it is, order a single espresso. Comes minus anything you could call a crema. One sip and I’m done - tastes of nothing related to coffee but bitterness on steroids. Truly awful experience yet the place is packed.

Elcarajillo

With a man of your experience and knowledge, you should know better than to succumb to these follies🤩

Systemic

Elcarajillo With a man of your experience and knowledge, you should know better than to succumb to these follies🤩

Yeah, I should have known better but there was a vicarious urge to see how bad it might be and I wasn’t disappointed.

Dusk

It’s because you’re meant to drink it with a pint of burning hot milk to partially counteract the bitterness

Systemic

Have all Starbucks dispensed with traditional espresso machines in favour of some sort of pod gizmo. Didn’t take much notice of the kit but it definitely wasn’t a traditional one.

MWJB

Systemic Think you’d have to make some effort to ensure a pod shot tasted that bad.

Starbucks switched to super autos some years back.

DavecUK

Starbucks is shamefully bad, I am mystified as to why people go there…it can’t be for the coffee.

drdre89

DavecUK Starbucks is shamefully bad, I am mystified as to why people go there…it can’t be for the coffee.

People are used to crap. They go to Starbucks for the social experience to get out of the house to avoid their family for an hour or so.

JonWoo187

Charbux here in the U.S. is for those that are too lazy to create their own concoctions or simply don’t know FAR better can be had much easier/quicker/cheaper. Definitely more of a social media/fad type thing based on the customer base I’ve seen when driving past. For yrs I’ve said Charbux is like Apple in that you’re paying for the claimed experience as the products are barely tolerable and overpriced jokes IMBHO.

MacPhisto

Starbucks went to super autos only in the US in the late 90’s early 00’s. I have one of their cast off Mazzer Majors from that transition. They now use an in house proprietary machine “Mastrena” which is not only super auto, and auto foaming, it will queue shots.

MASTRENA PREMIER FULLY AUTOMATIC COFFEE MACHINE

Mattybar7

Terrible coffee but they created a brand that people will always pay for. Seemingly they now also hold more money than most banks because you can pre load a card with cash. Genius.

gordy53

their toasted luxury fruit loaf is lovely, no need for butter it is lovely and moist because of the amount of fruit in it, I stopped in one near Stirling in Scotland in early January and it was freezing inside the girl working there was sat wrapped in a blanket as we walked in, we sat in my car to have something to eat as it was too cold to sit inside the building itself, felt sorry for her as she had another 8 hours to go and she said they were never busy, it would be a long miserable shift I reckon

HarveyMushman

Few years ago we set off in the early hours on a 300 mile motorbike trip from East London to Cornwall.

As usual I was woefully underdressed and in an open faced helmet. By the time we reached the first motorway services the Starbucks was just opening and I was so cold my jaw was almost struggling to open wide enough to drink a much needed coffee.

It tasted so vile that I genuinely weighed up whether finishing the coffee was worse than being cold.

SpacemanSpiff

My brother gifted my wife and I some Starbucks whole beans from their fancy locations (I can’t be bothered to look up the actual name) and I actually ground it in my max 2 and pulled a couple shots on my vostok. No matter what I did, it tasted like burnt toilet water. The worst part is that my father in law said he liked it more than the Wendelboe shot i gave him immediately before.

John_Yossarian

SpacemanSpiff The “worst part” definitely is the worst part 😀

Elcarajillo

The expectation is in the name ! You obviously have far better taste than your F I L🤣

SpacemanSpiff

Elcarajillo I guess I just didn’t realize that bitter charcoal was a desirable flavor to anyone.

chlorox

SpacemanSpiff
Many non coffee enthusiasts have learned to associate coffee with bitterness as the coffee they have always drunk had always been made from beans that were burnt to a cinder.

Raziel

It’s the milk that gets me.

As horrible as the coffee is, they seem to keep some local fusion machine to heat it to the same temperature as the surface of the sun.

I remember ten years ago some of the Costa coffees used to keep baristas for a few years. Now they seem to last weeks. The person at the one by a client I worked for actually did a very nice coffee every morning after my commute.

Pompeyexile

I think Starbux are quite clever in ensuring the future of the brand in millenia to come. Think about it. Obviously their aim is to produce a coffee that would be drunk in 300 years time, when the earth’s eco system has been destroyed and the last real coffee beans grown were 200 years before. They will have outlets on the moon or mars and in every space station or human exploritory spaceship going where no man has gone before, and the resulting drink is some A.I’s idea of what real coffee would have tasted like. In doing so, they are in effect conditioning humans so their idea of ‘real coffee’ is imprinted in our DNA….Job Done!

Thank gawd my 65 years on this planet (so far) have been between 1959 and now. Real coffee, real meat, and the ability to still take a walk in lush green countryside and pine scented woods. Just a shame the rivers and seas are so full of s***e!

chlorox

Pompeyexile
Perhaps their coffee beans are so burnt that it will still produce a brew in 300 years time? 🤔