Does all Starbucks coffee taste/smell burnt?
6One family member (Mr Frequent Flyer) claims it does, and tries to avoid it.
I think I’ve read of others saying it does, and claiming Starbucks does it deliberately, to create a signature taste and smell.
I mostly drink either Starbucks or free swill from various places, so I don’t have a point of comparison.
So. Do y’all think so?
- 22 comments, 24 replies
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¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ve never drunk coffee.
@PlacidPenguin
That’s very healthful of you? I guess?
Or do you have other compensating vices?
@f00l
None of which are necessarily “dangerous”. Or at least, I don’t believe so.
I won’t say all, but I do consider their medium roast to be dark.
(It’s like vanity sizing for coffee roasts.)
what i have heard about it, is that they started roasting all their beans to a uniform darkness because people complained about natural inconsistencies in the taste of lighter roasted coffees. so they slightly over roast them all to uniformity. not sure if its true.
i think their brewed coffee is fine. i live in the seattle area, work in downtown, and for the most part, all the ‘local’ coffee joints are either the same or taste like a crap IMO.
@meh
When I hit Starbucks i usually get a trente iced coffee, black, almost no ice,and sip it for hours. Surely made from brewed.
Their cold brew is good, but too expensive - more than I wanna spend anyway.
On days I feel like crap I let self order a latte or espresso. I don’t do the fancy stuff.
Either is way better than the freebie swill.
@f00l yup, beats the pants out of the office swill. and with their fairly regular load $10/get an extra $10 deal, it just makes sense.
@meh
have you heard that some of the “local” coffee joints are starbucks in disguise?
http://www.citymetric.com/business/your-local-indie-coffee-shop-may-be-stealth-starbucks-637
@communist yup, tons of the ‘local’ shops are owned either by starbucks or another big chain. but the actually small ones are also terrible. one just closed in the first floor of my building…really nice ladies, we gave them jobs at my company…HORRIBLE coffee.
not that i can tell. i like their dark roasts in particular made in a french press. their medium roasts are ok, but not my go to coffee.
@carl669 your mom’s good in a french press.
@meh are we doing yo mama jokes? because i recently re-discovered this song.
@carl669 well now how am i supposed to compete with that
Yes. I have always said this. I will buy a latte there, but never a regular coffee.
No. If you want to try something from Starbucks, get something from the Reserve board- they have some fine coffees there.
I’ve always thought it had a burnt taste but I prefer a lighter roast
Starbucks roasts beans until they’re dead, yes. I prefer a very light roast, but then, I prefer single source, and if I want a blend, I’ll do it myself. My favorites are the Ethiopians (esp Harrar, which is hard to find), Jamaican Blue Mountain and Kona Peaberry (both those have been counterfeited, especially the JBM, due to their high cost).
Lately I’ve been drinking a nice Guatemalan.
Coffee. It’s what’s for breakfast. :-}
@Shrdlu
I used to do all that with a Chemex when I could get the coffee from Zabar’s by going to Zabar’s. That way I could presume the JBM and Kona and Kalossi were genuine.
Then I wasn’t in NY. Then Starbucks came along with drive-thru. So I could treat coffee as though it were a Big Gulp. So I fell from grace.
In the AM I usually have some in the fridge from yesterday. Most of the hot coffee I drink is espresso. Unless I’m at somebody’s work site and there’s no getting any. Then what I get tastes like crap and it gets cold cause I can barely get it down.
@Shrdlu
PS when I lived in Little Italy there were like 10-12 espresso bars within 3 blocks, all owned and run by local families. They all had those big brass machines like you can find in Rome or Naples. You could smell it all the time, they roasted on site.
That was good.
@Shrdlu <img src=“
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@Shrdlu I love my guatemalan coffee. It doesn’t hurt that i was just there and brought back a few pounds of fresh coffee. Even at a lighter roast (i prefer dark), it tastes excellent.
@Shrdlu
I drink gallons of coffee per week. I’d have more caffeine in my vains than red blood cells if it were light roast. Gotta bake out some of that caffeine!
Yes, they roast darker than many other places, and it is on purpose. I think it’s for 3 reasons:
Yes! Also some prepackaged premium ground coffee brands to me smell like a dock or fishing boat. Not Starbucks, that smells and tastes burnt, and I think takes some doing to get used to.
I texted my relative, Mr Frequent Flyer, to ask how he deals w it. He’s on perhaps 20-40 planes a year, depending. He says in airports there’s nothing else unless you just get lucky.
In hotels he just gets what they offer. Since Starbucks has good wifi he just puts up w Starbucks a lot. And orders water to wash down the coffee.
They make it how he likes it at home to compensate.
Yes. It is also an effective laxative for many people.
Yes - or at least it used to be. When Starbucks was in its infancy, all of the coffee was burnt to give it some flavor through all of the junk people added. Since I’ve spent the years since avoiding Starbucks, I don’t know what they have now. But I normally only drink organic coffee, made with nothing but ground coffee beans and water, so I’m finicky.
Yes. But they generally have solid wifi and our library’s hours suck. Also, we have a fancy one nearby - entertaining to watch the primmed foofy class whilst sharing conversation with a buddy and enjoying free refills.
(Being the cheapass I am, I figure my effective cost per vente Pike, clean, in my Bubba is about a buck or a bit more. Starbucks $15 for $10 promos, others $20 for $10, survey promos, car test drives, Gold refills, free star items, etc… Starbucks would be out of business in a couple months if all its customers were like us.)
Confession: one of my friends CCW’s in Starbucks and Panera. I feel safer.
@RedOak
I just assume concealed carry folks are everywhere.
A while back someone gifted us a couple bags of (Bob) Marley Coffee. That stuff was smoked and roasted till it looked like charcoal. I was the only one who could drink it. Too cheap to throw it away. Felt happy tho.
Santa and some others just handed me a buncha Starbucks gift cards. Nice ones.
Guess I’ll be drinking some more burnt iced coffee, black, no ice, shaken, not stirred.
@f00l Seriously, if your Starbucks offers it, try something from their Reserve series- they have fancier/better coffees there.
@f00l @dashcloud their reserve coffees are good, the Clover machines are really pretty excellent (and interesting!)
Yes, Yes it does.
Primarily because it is.
Yes. For a while they were basically the McDonald’s of coffee. Then they saw local shops selling better coffee for less so they introduced “better” coffees. If you have to drown it in flavor(s), it’s bad coffee.
@marvelljones But, but, but, those shots and flavors are the profit margin, aren’t they?
(The raw coffee foundation might pay for the store rent, if that.)
Starbucks from your neighborhood *$ is like a burger from McD’s. Roasted so that you can’t tell the difference from one location to another. Yes, it is technically over-roasted and burnt. Even the blonde (which might not be burnt, but is very over-roasted and is like a dark roast to anyone else.)
To prove they knew what they were doing, they opened a ‘special’ location in Seattle. Their reserve roastery. All reserve roasted beans are done there, and yes, if you get the ones you can sometimes get somewhere else they are lighter roasted than your neighborhood *$.
On the other hand, if you get what they only sell there (roasted there as well), it proves they have people who know how to do it right. You talk to them they are true barista’s and understand the business, not like the coffee maker at the local place (i refuse to call them baristas).
Most of what the local places sell are coffee flavored drinks with lots of milk and sugar. Drink the junque if you like, but it’s not crossing this coffee geek’s lips. (now that single origin Ethiopian Sidama I drank at the reserve roastery in Seattle, that’s another story.)
Caribou Coffee used to have napkins that said something like, “Our coffee is smooth and delicious because burnt and bitter was already taken.”
Starbucks coffee is pretty good. Not great. The Pike roast is lighter if you like it that way.
I roast my own coffee (using organic small-farm green beans) & I’ll vary the roast usually, but I rarely roast it as dark as Starbucks does.
Lighter roast coffee has more caffeine.
@daveinwarsh
Do you have some sorta special roasting contraption? What kind/brand of grinder and what grind?
And, assuming that you are not doing cowboy campfire boiled coffee, how do you brew?
Just in case I’m ever ambitious and persnickety about quality again .,.
@f00l I converted a vintage air-popcorn popper into a coffee roaster.
I use a 1400w Popcorn Pumper. I removed the overheat sensor, wired in a speed control to the fan & a heat control.
I use a lantern chimney on top so the beans don’t blow out. It takes maybe 6-8 min per batch (2/3 cup green beans that plump up during roasting). 4 batches are good for a week of coffee drinking.
I get the green beans from ‘Sweet Maria’s’ online.
For a grinder, I like our little burr grinder, medium grind usually, Bodum brand.
For everyday coffee, just a good drip coffee. The drip machine has to either use a thermal pot or a warming tray that you can crank the heat down. I hate coffee that sits there & cooks. Maybe on weekends, our french press…
@f00l ps… Found a pic of one of my first roasters I made. This one didn’t have heat control, just fan speed control added.
Green beans:
Roasted & cooling down:
@daveinwarsh
I had heard of people using popcorn poppers are roasters. Do you have to stir the whole time? Is there a good home coffee roaster that lets you kinda set and forget?
Do you put roasted beans in the freezer after they cool, or no? do you grind after roasting or just before you brew?
I prefer air-roasted coffee.
I stir it with an oak dowel for the first minute or so, then sit back & watch it.
I never freeze coffee beans, green or roasted. I put them in a cool dark jar with the lid loose so they can vent.
I grind what I need every morning.
Sweet Maria’s web site has other roaster options. There’s some nice ones. I just like modding the old poppers. Most of the home roasters require it to cool down between batches. I just keep going with mine…
The secret: Cool the beans quickly after roasting. We use two metal strainers & pour the hot beans from one to the other one.
@daveinwarsh
Thx thx thx.
Perhaps I’ll use all my Starbucks gift cards to buy a decent grinder from them.