On my last visit to Canada back in October of `24 during the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I was invited to stay with a friend who had introduced me to SW about a year ago. While in Detroit Michigan on a business trip after flying there from Sweden, I crossed the Canada/US border and stayed with her and her parents on their tobacco farm over the Thanksgiving weekend. 🇸🇪 🇨🇦
First time in my life I've ever witnessed a 'live' turkey chase in someone's backyard! My girl friend in Canada is Scandinavian like myself but Canadian-born and is very athletic, very tall, extremely toned, exceptionally thin and lean... and the funniest part of all is that she can outrun a 25 pound turkey and catch it with her bare hands as a dozen friends and relatives look on! 😳 🦃
While I was in Canada, my girl friend who is also one of my business clients, introduced me to a new female friend of her's who is a Coffee Buyer for Starbucks in the USA, an American business woman who joined us for Thanksgiving weekend who's it is to go to coffee auctions in the USA and bid on coffee beans by the ton or truckload.
Sitting around having some very high quality, non-Starbucks Columbian coffee imported to Canada (with no tariffs!), the three of us talked coffee-talk as we chatted in private about all the men in our lives! Yes, it was a 'hen party' for sure, but any guys who got mentioned in conversation definitely came out the winners in our secret discussion about them in their absence!
What I learned from my new American friend who's a Buyer for Starbucks, is that Starbucks only uses the LOWEST quality of coffee beans money can buy. The reason being, that in those wholesale coffee bean auctions, all coffee buyers want ONLY the very best coffee beans available, which means all the poor beans never get sold and usually get dumped into a compost pile that's as big as your house!
The problem is, if those poor quality beans don't get sold, the coffee bean farmers in South America don't get paid either. If they're allowed to fail in business, the whole coffee industry shuts down.
It's not that coffee plantations consistently produce poor coffee that makes a crop of beans poor, it's that coffee beans are temperamental to grow and any shift in weather or temperature can easily ruin an entire crop.
Who then buys those poor-quality beans for no other reason than to keep the coffee farmers in business, is Starbucks.
Basically what Starbucks pays at a coffee auction for very poor beans is the farmer's gross cost to produce his crop, plus about a 5% profit margin, all of which goes straight back to the farmer with no middle-man in-between to take what little profit there was.
The way that Starbucks then markets those poor quality coffee beans, some of which are still green even after they've been roasted, is to mix flavored cream with each cup of coffee they sell in coffee shops which makes the coffee more palatable to the taste, otherwise you wouldn't be able to drink the stuff if it was served black for sure. But this also requires that you mix at least a half a cup of milk with black coffee if you wanted 'coffee Americano', otherwise the taste is horrible.
Always remember, Starbucks are not coffee aficionados, they are wholesale buyers of coffee beans which otherwise are destined to the compost heap.
@SandWitch While I agree that Starbucks coffee is horrible and I would never frequent their stores personally,you can make an argument that they are doing at least some food by keeping the coffee farmers afloat.
I used to frequent them both before I had an Iced Turtle from a locally owned shop. It became my go-to and when I tried to sway back to Starbucks or Dunkin I found them both undrinkable. Have to say my favorite cup these days is the one I brew at home. I make my own creamer flavored with almond extract and it’s a little slice of heaven in the morning.
I guess you could say I am. I have a mom/pop shop within walking distance of my home that has the cutest little outdoor patio/garden seating area. Love being able to support the locally owned shops in my area.
I am not a "coffee snob" but neither do I want to be short-changed by paying a lot of money for a load of froth, choolate powder and opaque porcelain hiding the cup being barely half full of the beverage.
Nor am I taken in by pseudo-Italian names and the general "It is American so must be sophisticated or fashionable" argument. Note the "or": the two adjectives are not synonyms!
Plain coffee is not even "American", "~o" or not. Coffee drinking predates the USA by centuries.
So chains like the Mactuckycostalottabucks shower, do not attract me. I use independent cafes instead and have about four favourites in my nearest town - though probably drink more tea than coffee.
("Costa", or "Costalotta" as I call it from motorway services experience, was originally British. It started in London but when it expanded, Macdonalds bought it. Its products are probably no worse than any other major chain's, but no better either.)
@BrandNewMan That is debatable. Cheap Canadian resources have been fueling the very strong American economy for years. Trade is good for everyone, it's been working well since NAFTA in the 80's both countries are benefiting. There is not great imbalance like Trump says. He just thinks tariffs will make the US rich. I understand the point of bringing manufacturing back to the US, that makes sense, but can the US make it cheap enough for Americans? And that of course will take time to readjust, maybe the US government can subsidize the industries in the meantime?
Anyway as an advocate of a free market economy, I see tariffs as a bad thing that causes markets to be inefficient.
I think Trump, not Americans, like to blame the rest of the world for any trouble.
@JimboSaturn I would generally like to see no tariffs, or reciprocal where they exist on US goods, though some tariffs are needed when labor costs vary greatly between the countries. Anyone at issue w reasonable balance is trying to take unfair advantage .. period.
That's exactly how I learned about good coffee...I did the same thing and hated Starbucks coffee. So in my travels around the area for work I started stopping at all of the privately owned coffee shops on a regular basic and got to know all of the kinds that I liked...which country had the best tasting coffee and all about the roasting process. My fav is coffee beans from Brazil, Italy and Nicaragua
Probably. Though I don't really frequent coffee shops. Much of my upbringing is French Acadians and as a kid enjoyed Au Lait. Milk simmered in a sausepan then. a little coffee and sugar added. A thin layer of cream would float to the top. Not too much sugar, A very soothing blend with a touch of sweetness.
I'm not. I prefer a basic coffee which I make at home with a regular coffee maker. I brew up some for work every morning and bring it in a large mug. I will grab a cup every now and then from a shop right across the street from my job.
Probably, in the fact I'm not sure I personally see much of that stuff as "coffee". Yeah there is some coffee in there, but there's a lot of other stuff (often sweets) in there. I still enjoy just the simple black coffee from the drip coffee maker on my counter.
Friend's local shop preferences when out w them, but a good coffee at home guy otherwise.
I look for a Wawa, Sheetz, Tim Horton's, Panera or couple other places w consistently decent coffee for the price if my mug/thermos run out before my need for coffee does out and about or on a road trip.
I love a hot Mocha. But I do realize it is a sweet treat. Our local coffee shop roasts their own coffee beans and sells it. Oh so good. Love real fresh coffee. Can never go back to store bought coffee. Folgers is undrinkable now.
I like a good cup of coffee, and can be fussy about what I drink. I make most of my coffee at home and grind my own beans with an Oxo Conical Burr Coffee Grinder. I drink my coffee black. I like a medium roast coffee. Sometimes I may have a flavored coffee, like hazelnut or french vanilla, and the beans are roasted with the flavor, no syrups.
Yes there are many good local roasters. I found that I like Stumptown Coffee and Intelligentsia coffee. I also like the Eight O'Clock Coffee Colombian Peaks.
I have been to Starbucks once in my lifetime and all I can say is never again.
I don't like this brown dish liquid like beverage that they, together with a bunch of other fast food companies offer. I could no swallow that stuff and I think my plants refuse to have me pour it in their pot.
I go to real coffee shops with real Arabica coffee that is percolated by portion directly from the bean container sitting atop of the real Italian coffee machine. I add a tad of coffee cream (not milk or creamer) or then a real espresso with sugar but no cream.
I didn't and couldn't drink it before. But the more I worked, the more I feel I crave it haha. I still don't drink it plain though. Always with milk and sugar, or some other things with flavor and syrup when ordered from store.
i usually make my coffee at home. if i am out and about, i will pick up a coffee occasionally. i try to do patronize local coffee shops when i can find one, if i cant, then usually Dunkin. Starbucks is a last resort.
I love my morning coffee and I am not going to drive out somewhere to get it. Coffee at home is always best for me. I used to visit an old coffee shop in town that had sacks of coffee and you could always smell the coffee beans.
I guess I'm a bit of a snob in the sense that I think most people don't really like coffee when they add 5 sugars, low fat, soy milk, pumpkin spice, whipped cream with chocolate sprinkles
@JimboSaturn I think it is because most people don't get coffee beans freshly roasted and freshly ground, which already IS sweet and not like the battery acid crap you typically get as "coffee"...
@JimboSaturn A good point but I doubt many people regularly go out merely for a coffee. Instead it's more likely part of some shopping or tourist trip, or to meet friends; rather than being cooped up at home all day.
