Well then, that just shows my ignorance!

[Edited on July 25, 2009 at 9:13 PM. Reason : 2]

7/25/2009 9:13:13 PM

What's wrong with a black coffee?

7/25/2009 9:16:53 PM

black coffee is the only way to go

7/25/2009 9:17:41 PM

^^it needs something to cover up the taste of the coffee

[Edited on July 25, 2009 at 9:18 PM. Reason : ^]

7/25/2009 9:17:58 PM

you just need to try harder.

7/25/2009 9:19:09 PM

If you don't like coffee, there's always tea.

7/25/2009 9:19:44 PM

irish breakfast tea is ftw

7/25/2009 9:21:12 PM

If you don't like tea, there's always coffee.

7/25/2009 9:24:06 PM

coffee sucks...i'd kill for an argo tea around here (but it's a chicago/evanston thing)

http://www.argotea.com/

[Edited on July 25, 2009 at 9:29 PM. Reason : .]

7/25/2009 9:28:29 PM

Quote :

"^ when your body doesn't have drinks like that for a while, shit happens. "

LIT RALLY

7/25/2009 9:36:40 PM

i don't like starbux cuz their coffee is too bitter.

open eye ftw

but my favorite by far are larry's beans

7/25/2009 9:43:32 PM

Quote :

"irish breakfast tea is ftw"

yes!

i've actually gotten to whenever people ask me to go for coffee i just get tea b/c i prefer it to regular coffee and lattes are 3x the price.

7/25/2009 9:50:15 PM

i just buy tea and make it at home and then take it in a mug to school

but i get what you're saying. if someone asked me to go to coffee (HINT HINT...jk haha) i'd prob get tea.

7/25/2009 9:51:11 PM

i'll probably start bringing my own tea, but during the summer i sit in an office on campus all day, so it's nice to actually go for a coffee... or tea.

7/25/2009 9:52:27 PM

that is def true

we have a coffee shop at school and i a) realized i was addicted and b) was spending $$$ a day on coffee

so i switched to tea and just brought it from home or tea bags (HAR HAR) in my backpack and used the microwave to make my own.

7/25/2009 9:53:26 PM

Quote :

"(By the way, I'm dissatisfied with my current satellite radio service, but that's okay right?...I can always choose some other different satellite radio service providing company, right? I mean, our government wouldn't allow a monopoly, would it?"

I think we already established that there can be only one, at least for right now. The fact that satellite radio is a monopoly isn't because they're taking advantage of anyone--it's because they couldn't survive otherwise. Furthermore, there's nothing wrong with being a monopoly--it's just when you're a monopoly and you unethically take advantage of the situation to the detriment of the consumer and/or your business competition that the government sometimes steps in.

Quote :

"hate is a strong word. i dont truly hate them. but i lament the homogenizing of America into one large suburban mall of corporate hegemony. Starbucks is just the symptom. the American mindset and culture is the cause. we get what we ask for.""

I like Starbucks just fine. Wal-Mart, too, for that matter. I'm with you on what you're saying here, though. Pop music, rock and country radio, food and drink establishments, cars, real estate, you name it...it all suffers from this same affliction due to a bunch of boring, lame-ass vanilla douchebag sheep.




By the way, I want someone to open up a chain of coffee shops that puts lots of other people out of business with their wickedly efficient business model and stellar product, serving free-trade coffee. I don't know what it is about the coffee business that attracts such a bunch of douchebags and pussies.

7/25/2009 10:24:28 PM

RAWR RAWR RAWR STARBUCKS IS EVIL

I think if anything, Starbucks causes the local coffee shops to step up their shit or get left behind. I'm not going to buy a latte at a local shop if it's shit and I can get a better tasting one at Starbucks. In Raleigh at least, I noticed that the coffee shops near Pleasant Valley either shut down or stepped up their quality after they opened the Starbucks over there.

7/25/2009 10:28:30 PM

i think a lot of local shops have better coffee it is just even MORE expensive. or inconvenient.

starbucks is paying for convenience. theres one on EVERY corner. like mcdonalds. you don't REALLY want to eat it but it is right there.

7/25/2009 10:30:32 PM

there's a little town in WA called Anacortes. It would probably be comparable to, say, Rolesville or Wendell. There's a stretch there with THREE Starbucks in about a quarter-mile (maybe half-mile, tops) stretch...not to mention several other coffee huts in parking lots (they're on every corner in that part of WA).

7/25/2009 10:32:23 PM

in my experience/opinion most local coffee shops have equal or worse coffee than big brands. i like starbucks, dunkin donuts and einstein bros bagels coffees. mcdonalds has disgusting coffee (in particular their iced coffees i'll never again get one of those).

though i can't say i've ever had a coffee where i was like holy shit this coffee is outstanding. it's either this crap sucks or ok i can drink this.

[Edited on July 25, 2009 at 10:35 PM. Reason : .]

7/25/2009 10:34:05 PM

harder better faster stronger.

^ i dunno. i like coffee i get from small places just fine. but i don't order like whatever mochalatteomgwtfbbq with whipped cream. i just want plain coffee. black is fine if it is good coffee. and i agree with the crap this sucks or hey i can drink this. if i want coffee i want coffee and it has to be like black water if i'm like "ew i cannot take this"

[Edited on July 25, 2009 at 10:36 PM. Reason : .]

7/25/2009 10:34:43 PM

i usually get just a plain coffee too. when i first started drinking coffee i felt obligated to learn about all the different kinds and combinations, but i always felt like a noob and eventually gave up. i know what an espresso is, a plain coffee and i know i don't like mochas. i couldn't tell you how a frappacinno or a latte is made. or the names of anything else starbucks serves. in fact, amna just told me today i could ask them to put syrup in my coffee. i was like, do i want syrup? is that better than just putting sugar in it like i normally do

7/25/2009 10:43:43 PM

i think i'm just for fair trade coffee and i like the biodegradable cups. so if i buy coffee i'm apt to go to a place that offers those.

but i just avoid coffee places in general (chains or mom and pop) because i realized how much i could save by just making tea or coffee at home and bringing it with me instead of spending $3 a day on coffee (well sometimes more because at school i'd drink coffee in the morning AND the afternoon - sometimes more). plus i felt totally addicted like i'd get a headache if i didn't drink it.

[Edited on July 25, 2009 at 10:46 PM. Reason : .]

7/25/2009 10:46:17 PM

DAMMIT PEOPLE! THEY SERVE BEER THERE NOW TOO!!!

7/26/2009 2:23:57 AM

I make my own coffee at home but if I get it out I go to Starbucks because I don't want to take a chance and get shitty coffee at some mom and pop place.
Also Starbucks does fair trade/ direct buy of the beans, and has great benefits for the employees so i dont feel that
bad for going there.

7/26/2009 3:28:32 AM

Quote :

" I like their coffee more than any one else. To be honest."

Yeah, that's how I started out. It's because they put fewer shots of espresso per ounce of drink than a lot of the local places. Since coffee is, like beer, often an aquired taste - it is much easier to start liking coffee drinks that taste like caramel or white chocolate than it is straight black coffee. It's just like how I started drinking and, more importantly, liking beer when I started drinking Heineken and Killian's Irish red. Now my palette has moved on to Fuller's, Flying Dog, Big Boss and other smaller scale and more flavor oriented brewers.

I think that it's quite possible that Starbucks has been a good thing for the surviving smaller coffee vendors for this very reason. They can probably be credited for creating more coffee drinkers, many of whom will develop a taste for the actual coffee and not the various flavorings they use. Maybe Starbucks could be seen as the gateway joe leading people towards more hardcore distillations of that devil bean.

7/26/2009 4:16:35 AM

Quote :

"there's a little town in WA called Anacortes. It would probably be comparable to, say, Rolesville or Wendell. There's a stretch there with THREE Starbucks in about a quarter-mile (maybe half-mile, tops) stretch...not to mention several other coffee huts in parking lots (they're on every corner in that part of WA)."

hahaha yeah I loved seeing places like this in middle of nowhere Washington.



YAY I CAN GET WORMS AND ESPRESSO IN THE SAME BUILDING!

7/26/2009 4:48:36 AM

in Granite Falls, WA, they got one better than that... a store that advertises: "Ammunition, Adult Videos, & Espresso"

i've gone through that town on the way to the Cascade Mountains to go hiking. It's a pretty sketch town. think Spring Lake, NC, without Fayetteville or Ft. Bragg. It's supposedly the meth capital of Western Washington.

7/26/2009 5:55:40 AM

i have one better than those...hang on, uploading pictures





[Edited on July 26, 2009 at 8:58 AM. Reason : ]

7/26/2009 8:49:57 AM

LOL at a monopoly on fucking coffee. Who gives a shit?

7/26/2009 8:54:13 AM

^^wow, what a world

7/26/2009 9:08:13 AM

haha, dude, you HAVE to drive across the country from coast to coast at LEAST once.

7/26/2009 9:09:40 AM

^ yes.

7/26/2009 9:14:40 AM

been wanting to do this for years, but never had the time. I haven't gone west since I was born.

(not counting the midwest)

[Edited on July 26, 2009 at 10:03 AM. Reason : asdfasdf]

7/26/2009 10:03:43 AM

lol i heard another bit yesterday about this. my favorite part was the commentator saying "they don't know whether they want to BE the man or FIGHT the man".

[Edited on July 26, 2009 at 11:43 AM. Reason : ]

7/26/2009 11:42:38 AM

aha... that's like that commercial (i forget which one) where the young dude is called in to the obscenely-wealthy CEO's corner office, and it ends with the CEO referring to his use of <product> and saying "yes, this my way of 'sticking it to the man'"

7/26/2009 1:15:28 PM

hey, where were those pics taken, Duke? looks like some places ive seen in Eastern Washington or Montana.

7/26/2009 1:17:22 PM

Quote :

"aha... that's like that commercial (i forget which one) where the young dude is called in to the obscenely-wealthy CEO's corner office, and it ends with the CEO referring to his use of <product> and saying "yes, this my way of 'sticking it to the man""

7/26/2009 1:31:42 PM

^^ It was somewhere along my first drive across the country, so I don't remember for sure, but I'm about 95% sure that it was somewhere in Oregon, because I'm pretty sure I remember it being next to a full-service gas station.

7/26/2009 3:34:16 PM

what? coffee can't be black?

7/26/2009 3:35:09 PM

Quote :

"this is a great idea on starbucks' part"

its a genius plan on their part

7/27/2009 10:42:24 AM

10/10 coffee cake

7/27/2009 2:01:58 PM

Quote :

"open eye ftw"

Open Eye's drinks are awesome, but good lord--talk about art/hipster/scene/hippie clientele. Still, I went there quite often when my gf lived in Carrboro.

I certainly don't think Starbucks is evil, and I go there frequently, but I like to support local places (or even sometimes other chains, OH NO) when I get the chance because I think competition keeps the market healthy, and more importantly, I like the different experiences and ambience. I wouldn't necessarily say one is better than the other, they all tend to have things they do well. And, regrettably, they're all rather expensive.

7/27/2009 2:36:18 PM

Speaking of scene/hipster coffee shops, Fareako and I went to the Coffee and Cake or w/e place is right next to the Mission Valley movie theater just to check it out. We ordered, and when I went to pay for my stuff, the cashier automatically assumed we were 'together' and I ended up paying for both of our stuff >_>.

7/27/2009 2:39:15 PM

you do exude a certain ~ness

7/27/2009 2:46:40 PM

I want to take this opportunity to alert you to some of Cup a Joe's weekly coffee specials.

On Wired Wednesday, iced or hot lattes/mochas are just $2.75 for a sixteen ounce (with a triple shot of espresso as standard) and $3.25 for a twenty-two ounce "king" (that comes with four shots).

For Thursday Mocha Madness all iced lattes/mocha are on special for the prices listed above and come with free whipped cream. The hot voltaires are also included in the special.

Our everday low prices include drip coffee at $1.50, $1.70, and $1.90 for 12/16/22 ounces.

But I'm biased.

[Edited on July 27, 2009 at 4:19 PM. Reason : I also hate that fucker Larry and his beans.]

[Edited on July 27, 2009 at 4:21 PM. Reason : Also, Cup a Joe recycles their foam cups and offers ceramic mugs and glasses for in-store drinkers]

7/27/2009 4:17:24 PM

if Cup a Joe's didn't make every fabric of my clothing reek of cigarettes, I might go there more than once.

7/27/2009 4:26:27 PM

There's another, smoke-free location at Mission Valley. I don't go to the Hillsborough Street store either.

But be careful; if you come in with another good-looking dude and order together they might think you're an item.

7/27/2009 4:29:11 PM

oh shit, well ill visit that one. The old one is disgusting. I loved the drink I got, but its not worth the smell

7/27/2009 4:30:02 PM

The Mission Valley location will only make you smell strongly of coffee. But is that really a bad thing?

7/27/2009 4:39:49 PM