Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google

Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by arjunnarayan on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @02:01PM (#6135629)

Starbucks coffee is actually pretty darn good. Sure, if you live in SF, Seattle, Portland, or New York City, you have access to niche coffee shops that can really do better. But objectively speaking, Starbucks coffee is really about 90% as good. And for the rest of the country it _really_ raised the quality of coffee. 20 years ago you got bitter swill anywhere except the above trailblazing cities. Today you can get a properly pulled espresso with perfectly microfrothed whole milk anywhere in the country, which is a pretty mean feat. In a decade or two we've hit Italian levels of coffee quality.

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Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by dragonwriter on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @02:03PM (#6135646)

> But objectively speaking, Starbucks coffee is really about 90% as good.

"Objectively speaking" about a matter of taste is always improper.

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Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by pbreit on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @03:20PM (#6136195)

But coffee quality is not strictly a matter of taste.

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Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by dragonwriter on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @06:13PM (#6137164)

"good/bad" quality is completely subjective.

There may be objective qualities that have statistical correlations to people's "good/bad" assessments, but that doesn't stop "good" and "bad" from being subjective.

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Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by pbreit on Saturday August 03, 2013 @03:02AM (#6151389)

quality is not completely subjective...sorry.

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Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by Groxx on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @07:13PM (#6137455)

Ehh, nearly every city I've been to with a population over ~20k has had noticeably better coffee in at least one local spot. It's not just the major cities. But yes, comparing the average cup of coffee before/after Starbucks got big is a night-and-day comparison.

I just wish everyone wouldn't try to taste like Starbucks, now. They can't do it half as well as Starbucks does, so you just get worse everything.

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Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by enjo on Thursday August 01, 2013 @12:11AM (#6138585)

Perhaps. But with Starbucks I know exactly what I'm going to get. I know I'll have decent wifi. I know I can sit there and use it all day long.

When I travel, I look for Starbucks. It's just the safest bet to know I'm going to get work done that day.

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Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by volaski on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @02:42PM (#6135948)

I agree. My favorite is Philz, but even compared to that I would say Starbucks is at least 90% good. I would even go further to say that their Americano is sometimes better than a lot of what those hipster-famous coffee shops serve (but it's subjective because i don't like tangy flavor)

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Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by stusmall on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @04:34PM (#6136650)

I don't think I've ever lived in a city that doesn't offer at least one better option. To me Starbucks is just a safe bet. If I'm in a new town and in a rush its a guaranteed commodity. Their mixed drinks are pretty good, but that's because they are so loaded down with sugar and syrups you can't taste the coffee. I usually avoid them since I'm not one for sweets. Their straight black drip is below bar. It used to be laughably bad but a couple years ago they made a serious effort to improve it.

To me they are like Wendy's. Yeah, not the best, but not bad. I can do better at home or if I know the area... but that's not always the case.

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Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by ratsimihah on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @08:30PM (#6137829)

I usually avoid being subjective, but Starbucks coffee is pretty bad, and most of their barista are hardly knowledgeable about coffee. Once, I asked for an espresso to stay, and it took them 5 long minutes to find an espresso cup. (I can't handle drinking espresso in an americano cup to go.) And talk about grinding.

Anyway, I live in NYC and as you said, there are plenty of local coffee shops with awesome coffee (Gregory's, Kaffee 1668, grounded), so I can't complain. But it'd be terrific if Google could support these better coffee shops instead of just following the masses, because they provide a much better experience.

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Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by ambler0 on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @03:00PM (#6136064)

FWIW, every hip college town I have been to had multiple coffee shops that were better than Starbucks. You don't have to live in a large metropolis.

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Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google by davidw on Thursday August 01, 2013 @05:25AM (#6139337)

> Italian levels of coffee quality.

Interestingly, Italians, from what I can tell, are not "coffee snobs" at all. They drink espresso, cappuccino, macchiato, etc... and just expect it to be pretty good, but I've never seen people discuss it much, like you might with wine.

I don't drink the stuff at all, so have no opinion on the quality anywhere.

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