Starbucks -the coffee for people who hate coffee

[haha]

Starbucks tests coffee with beer taste

Starbucks tests a stout and caramel flavored coffee drink.

Ha

 

[gcgang]

I just tried a beer with coffee taste.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[braumeister]

Believe it or not, there is a separate category at the Great American Beer Festival for Coffee Beers.

Last year's winners were:

• Gold: Panama Joe’s Coffee Stout, Il Vicino Brewing Co., Albuquerque, NM
• Silver: Barrel-Aged Sump Coffee Stout, Perennial Artisan Ales, St. Louis, MO
• Bronze: System of a Stout, Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, Long Beach, CA

 

[ls99]

Eh. If I want beer taste I'll drink beer. Hate caramel.

 

[audreyh1]

I've enjoyed a few coffee stouts. It works.

 

[bld999]

Any thing for a bucks...er, buck.

On capitol hill they could try pbr + anything shade grown.

 

[nash031]

I'm a Starbucks rewards member because their products are above average and ubiquitous... but they don't hold a candle to a local roaster in Bird Rock. I just don't get there enough, and Starbucks is convenient, especially when their whole bean bags are on sale for $5.99 at the grocery store!

 

[ERD50]

I just tried a beer with coffee taste. ...

I've enjoyed a few coffee stouts. It works.

Oh yes - coffee flavors in stouts works very well. Sometimes the coffee flavors come from the grains (the first coffee substitutes were made from roasted grain), sometimes from added coffee, sometimes a bit of both.

Believe it or not, there is a separate category at the Great American Beer Festival for Coffee Beers.

Last year's winners were:

• Gold: Panama Joe’s Coffee Stout, Il Vicino Brewing Co., Albuquerque, NM
• Silver: Barrel-Aged Sump Coffee Stout, Perennial Artisan Ales, St. Louis, MO
• Bronze: System of a Stout, Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, Long Beach, CA

mmmmmm, beer.

Eh. If I want beer taste I'll drink beer. Hate caramel.

But some very fine beers have a caramel taste, so that makes it a 'beer taste' too. I just finished the last of a keg of my home-brewed Scottish Ale (strong, almost a 'wee heavy') with company, and it had some caramel tastes to it.

-ERD50

 

[brewer12345]

Ick, Starbucks. Dreadful regardless of the variety.

 

[FIREd]

I like to drink stouts and porters in the winter and last year I tried and enjoyed a few coffee-flavored ones: Lagunitas' Capuccino Stout, Speakeasy's Payback, Palo Alto Brewing's Cool Beanz (all 3 from the Bay Area), and Peak Organic's Oak Aged Mocha (from Maine).

 

[ERD50]

Ick, Starbucks. Dreadful regardless of the variety.

Yes, building on the thread title, "Starbucks -the coffee for people who hate coffee", I sometimes tell guests that we have a variety of craft beers and homebrew, and some Miller and Miller-Lite for people who don't like beer.

I think this was discussed a few years back, but apparently Starbucks is brewed to blend with all those flavorings and creams and sugars. For people like me, who actually like the taste of coffee and drink it black-no-sugar, it is really awful.

-ERD50

 

[Meadbh]

I think this was discussed a few years back, but apparently Starbucks is brewed to blend with all those flavorings and creams and sugars. For people like me, who actually like the taste of coffee and drink it black-no-sugar, it is really awful.

+1

 

[audreyh1]

But some very fine beers have a caramel taste, so that makes it a 'beer taste' too. I just finished the last of a keg of my home-brewed Scottish Ale (strong, almost a 'wee heavy') with company, and it had some caramel tastes to it.

-ERD50

That's true. I really enjoy a strong malt taste taste in the beer that is "caramelized" - i.e. the sugars are almost a little burned.

But one of my major beefs with Starbucks was that they overheat their steamed milk, which besides making the coffee drink too hot to drink, changed the flavor of the milk because it was caramelized. Something I didn't care for. I would on occasion tell them exactly what temp to take the milk to, and they'd do it. Better, but eventually I had my own barista at home who made things just like I liked them.

Way back in the 90s Starbucks didn't hold a candle to the coffee I'd had in the Seattle area or in Italy, so I knew something was wrong.

 

[nash031]

I think this was discussed a few years back, but apparently Starbucks is brewed to blend with all those flavorings and creams and sugars. For people like me, who actually like the taste of coffee and drink it black-no-sugar, it is really awful.

You do realize that there are about fifteen different varieties of Starbucks coffee, yes? The Espresso Roast is what they use in their sugary drinks, and it is essentially just burnt. That's why they don't use it for their straight black coffees. Caffe Verona, for example, is actually one of my favorite "blends" to buy in store, regardless of sales or not. It's actually quite good. Many of their dark roasts are not very good, nor do I particularly care for their Pike's Place roast, but the Breakfast Blend is a pretty good milder cup and the Caffe Verona as I mentioned.

So, I love coffee, probably as much or more than anyone on here, and I wouldn't group Starbucks in with Miller Lite unless I was just being contrarian.

 

[brett]

We buy 2.5 lb. bags of Starbucks French Roast at Costco.

We grind the beans each time and use an old fashioned Melitta drip cone. We have made coffee in this fashion for the past 40 years. The drip seems to be coming back into fashion.

 

[nash031]

Not as much a fan of drip. In fact, I no longer own a drip coffee maker. I still take the time to boil water, grind, and press every morning!

 

[ERD50]

Originally Posted by ERD50 View Post
I think this was discussed a few years back, but apparently Starbucks is brewed to blend with all those flavorings and creams and sugars. For people like me, who actually like the taste of coffee and drink it black-no-sugar, it is really awful.

You do realize that there are about fifteen different varieties of Starbucks coffee, yes? The Espresso Roast is what they use in their sugary drinks, and it is essentially just burnt. That's why they don't use it for their straight black coffees. Caffe Verona, for example, is actually one of my favorite "blends" to buy in store, regardless of sales or not. It's actually quite good. Many of their dark roasts are not very good, nor do I particularly care for their Pike's Place roast, but the Breakfast Blend is a pretty good milder cup and the Caffe Verona as I mentioned.

So, I love coffee, probably as much or more than anyone on here, and I wouldn't group Starbucks in with Miller Lite unless I was just being contrarian.

I'll keep that in mind if I ever end up at a Starbucks with a group.

But my previous experience with them is so bad, I tend to just not go there, and will seek out alternatives.

-ERD50

 

[CaliforniaMan]

"Starbucks -the coffee for people who hate coffee"
Once heard a friend of my daughter say, she hated the taste of coffee but loved Starbucks. There you go.

 

[foxfirev5]

Coffee - Duncan Donuts , Beer - Miller Lite - Two different worlds

 

[nash031]

I'll say this: I'd pick a cup of Starbucks standard Pike's Place black or with half and half (no sugar or syrupy crap) over McDonald's or other fast food chain, any gas station or convenience store, any coffee break room... Against other coffeehouse chains (Peet's, for example) or Dunkin' Donuts or Einstein Brothers? It's kind of a push to me.

Like I said, I buy Starbucks beans by the bag when I find them on sale for $5.99/bag. Beats the hell out of Folgers. Also beats buying roasted stuff from the local places at $14/bag. I do that once in a while for a treat, and it's markedly better than S'bux.

It's funny that some are panning Starbucks for being coffee for those who don't like coffee, but Keurigs and other flavored coffees (Millstone at the grocery store) go unmentioned. I'd take a home-ground and pressed cup of Starbucks over any Keurig I've ever had any day, and I use a Keurig occasionally in the office.

 

[ERD50]

....
It's funny that some are panning Starbucks for being coffee for those who don't like coffee, but Keurigs and other flavored coffees ...

Not funny IMO, the topic was Starbucks, not coffee, or flavored coffees in general.

But if it makes you feel better, yes, all 'flavored coffees' make me gag. I hate the concept. Coffee, water. Period.

I'll make one exception - I stopped by our local cheap Mexican restaurant for a breakfast burrito one morning, and their breakfast coffee is flavored with a just a very delicate amount of cinnamon. That was a nice touch - so subtle I had to ask if it was flavored. And not some artificial sweetened cinnamon-spice-like-food-product-derivative. Real tree bark, no sugar.

-ERD50

 

[nash031]

Understood, but the thread is actually titled "Starbucks - the coffee for people who hate coffee", which is precisely what I think "flavored" coffee is, hence I thought the Keurig comment might be germane. Sorry for straying so drastically far off topic.

 

[ChrisC]

I drink a lot of Starbucks coffee, brewed at home or at Starbucks stores. At home, I touch my brew up with tree bark cinnamon I picked up from the Virgin Islands or ground cinnamon. Typically, I'll pick up a 2.5lb bag from Costco's. I agree with Nash031, Starbucks beats any other mass marketed coffee.

I just came back from France and Spain. The Starbuck's product there appears to be even more inferior to the Pike's blend here in the States and was priced fairly high in Paris. Most consumers there were buying the flavored drinks, not plain coffee or expresso.

I love Starbucks, especially since we purchased the stock many years ago and after 4 or 5 stock splits, Starbucks has made us very happy investors. We also have a collection of Starbucks coffee mugs we purchased at clearance for $15 that are worth a lot of dough now. Starbucks collectibles rock in my opinion.

Can't understand all the hating, but I laugh to the bank.

 

[brewer12345]

I used to have a standing monthly order for Green Mountain coffee shipped to my house. Very good coffee, in general. But then I ordered bags of beans. I think the Keurig machines make tasteless, crappy coffee even out of good stuff.

Now I just roast my own.

 

[FUEGO]

I love starbucks because I can rent a seat for a few hours to hang out with somebody or use their internet (if traveling) and it only costs a cup of coffee. I'm still using a free starbucks gift card I got years ago, and I also get free birthday coffee for some reason.

The coffee tastes okay.