I *Do* Love Starbucks

So I really hear a lot of people bad mouthing Starbucks, and for the life of me, it seems only to be because they are a large (=bad) corporation.

I don’t consider myself a coffee connisseur, but I’ve been a frequent coffee drinker for a good long time and I think that Starbucks brews some consistantly good coffees. Ever try Komodo Dragon? Other than simply liking to say, “Komodo Dragon,” it’s a beautiful coffee. Casi Cielo is another good one. I don’t particularly like Pike’s (their daily brew), but they do have a bold brew alternate before noon.

Starbucks supports some great causes as well…sure they are a big (but not necessarily bad) corporation, it’s good to see that they let some of this trickle down to needy causes.

I live in Los Angeles and have always had a particular fondness for Coffee Bean, but recently their prices seem to have shot up. Their coffee is now .30 more than Starbucks for the middle sized cup (grande/regular – however you want to call it) and in my opinion the coffee is inferior…not to mention that I seem to get baristas who really don’t pay attention when I say, “no room.”

I lived in San Francisco for 10 years so I also have a place in my heart for Peet’s. I worked at Pixar for a bit and they served Peet’s exclusively. Free Peet’s coffee all day long? That may have been my favorite Pixar perk of them all. Unfortunately, Peet’s are few and far between in LA.

I’m all for supporting the mom & pop shop, whatever the business, but when it comes to coffee, consistency is important. I’ve had great coffee at small one-off cafes, I’ve also had terrible coffee…and sometimes both from the same place.

I think what I’m trying to say is that I’m a bit frustrated with the attitude of disliking a business simply because they are part of a chain or a large corporation. It seems like people are taking the Walmart hate-train and including other big companies just because of the fact that they are big, but when a company provides a good product, at a good price, and have a decent set of morals, whether they are a big company or not shouldn’t really be the reason for such hate.

I like to rant and I seem to look for reasons to complain about something. Not sure if I’m just becoming a grumpy old man or if it’s just my Ling blood.

I write this as I sit in a Coffee Bean…the barista poured my coffee over an inch below the top of the cup – after I had asked for no room twice,  he even repeated back to me. You can thank that guy for this post and the reason I’m fired up right now.