Why frappuccino? Why Starbucks frappuccino?
Curiosity. Frappuccino a disgusting drink, and no it is not Greek. Starbucks serve crap coffee. Combine the two.
I have had vile coffee, for example Nespresso. Starbucks frappuccino in a league of its own. Disgusting. A faint hint of coffee, then it hits the stomach.
Do yourself a favour, do not touch this disgusting drink.
Note: Frappuccino not to be confused with frappé.
Podback, the latest Big Business greenwash, all the usual suspects, Nestle, Starbucks, Jacobs Dowe Egberts, purveyors of disgusting undrinkable coffee.
Kerbside collection of coffee capsules is not the answer, it is a solution to a non-existent problem.
A couple of councils out of how many local councils? This is pissing in the wind. It is to add yet another layer of complexity to household waste collection and recycling. Households already cannot cope and are poor at recycling.
A similar scheme in New York has poor recycling success.
A work around by coffee companies to look green was to send a courier to collect or ask to visit a coffee shop to drop them off. Better than nothing, maybe, but not exactly a green solution or reducing carbon footprint.
An example of the stomach-churning marketing bullshit:
Podback is the new coffee pod recycling service. Created by the two biggest names in the UK coffee industry, Nestlé & Jacobs Douwe Egberts UK, the companies behind Britain’s favourite coffee brands, Nespresso, NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto and Tassimo, Podback is the first of its kind.
Joint has worked alongside the founding members (Nespresso, NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto and Tassimo) as well as all partner agencies to develop the brand strategy, logo, brand identity and brand led communications, as well as, in collaboration with BIG DB, a consumer facing website.
Launched this month, Podback provides simple and easy ways for people to recycle their coffee pods.
Podback’s mission is for every coffee pod enjoyed to be recycled.
The scheme will initially cover brands representing over three quarters of the UK market, including Nespresso, NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto, Tassimo, L’OR, Starbucks by Nespresso and Starbucks by NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto. The ambition is for all brands that use aluminium or plastic pods to join Podback.
The suite of brand work developed for Podback includes brand strategy, logo and brand identity, recycling bag designs, announcement video assets for corporate social channels (LinkedIn+ Twitter), Podback Members Guide for new members to the scheme, social media consumer launch assets. It also includes a consumer facing website, in collaboration with digital partners BIG DB.
Damon Collins, founder: ”Developing such an innovative brand with such a strong mission and purpose alongside two of the biggest names in the coffee industry has been an amazing journey. With Podback being the first of its kind in the UK, we know the importance every aspect of the brand plays in the real world which is why we sweated every tiny detail. We’re proud that Joint is part of a team in helping making recycling simpler and easier and helping the environment in such an important way.’’
These ‘solutions’ are for a problem that should not exist, coffee capsules that cannot be easily recycled (for example Nestle) or composted.
Nespresso machines are capable of brewing excellent coffee so long as do not use coffee from Nespresso or Starbucks.
Internally all Nespresso machines are the same, the only difference external appearance and attachment of various gadgets and gizmos.
Buy the cheapest machine. Better still, buy an Opal One, roughly double the price of the cheapest Nespresso machine.
Buy coffee from a reputable coffee roastery.
Compostable capsules can be dropped on the garden compost heap or food waste bin or garden waste bin.
Gadgets exist to extract spent coffee grounds from aluminium capsules. Spent coffee grounds go on the compost heap or scattered on the garden. Rinse the aluminium capsules and drop in the recycling bin.
I do wish lazy journalists would do their homework, not regurgitate Big Business greenwash.
What is it with tax-dodging Starbucks, incapable of serving a decent coffee, but still managing to overcharge? Greed.
Starbucks Farnborough, very noisy, has about as much character and ambience as a railway station waiting room.
The only good point staff are pleasant.
Sunday evening before they closed, to my surprise, music by Kronos Quartet. My curiosity piqued, I asked. Tita – Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet. Starbucks is full of surprises. A pity about the coffee.
A cappuccino, looks disgusting, tastes disgusting.
Every mistake. too hot, bitter, all foam and froth.
How can anyone make coffee this bad?
Sadly the norm for tax-dodging Starbucks.
Offered three cups sizes, normal, too big and far too big.
Put off my coffee even before it was served by the girl who served constantly scratting at her hair.
A bunch of out of control kids, no parents, shouting as though in a playground. No one deals with the problem, either shut them up or kick them out.
Also very very hot inside.
The only reason I am here with reluctance, to use the wifi.
Whenever pass by, Starbucks Protaras always empty.
Now signs of desperation, Sunday illegally touting for business, handing out free drinks Fig Tree Bay.
It is easy to see why always empty. Two places to drink coffee in Protaras, Café Amárena and Miyu Coffee. Unlike Starbucks or any of the other corporate chains serving undrinkable coffee, these two indie coffee shops serve drinkable coffee.
Starbucks Protaras opened end of season last year. On the corner of the road leading down to Fig Tree Bay. Always empty.
Not somewhere I would be seen dead, but out of curiosity I walked in.
Staff with glum faces. No one spoke. No, hello, how are you, may we help you, would you like a coffee.
I walked back out, still glum faces.
One minute down the road on the left overlooking Fig Tree Bay, Miyu Coffee serving excellent coffee supplied by Taf.
What was I doing in Starbucks, a place I would not normally wish to be seen dead in?
Curiosity, just how bad is coffee in Starbucks? Maybe I would be pleasantly surprised? Though I doubted.
I ordered a cappuccino.
I was offered a choice of three different sizes, normal, large and extra large, what Starbucks calls grande.
No, a cappuccino is not made this large.
I was told to go to the end of the counter to wait for my coffee.
I watched as my cappuccino was made. The girl was completely clueless on how to make a cappuccino.
It was made in a glass. The contents of the glass dumped in a large cup, more like a mug. Spilt on the side, no attempt to clean the cup, or better still, start again,
The coffee was not brewed direct into the cup, nor swilled around the cup in a circular motion to coat the sides.
The steamed milk was dumped out of the side of the jug into my cup. No attempt made to pour into the cup.
Watching my coffee prepared the attitude was one of, don’t care, don’t give a shit.
The coffee looked disgusting, tasted disgusting, brewed too hot.
The only positive I could say, no chocolate dumped on top.
It was then find somewhere to sit in amongst the rubbish, tables not cleared, dirty coffee cups, half empty cans.
Several minutes later, the girl who took my order cleared the tables.
She brought me iced water when asked. Brought in a plastic cup.
I noticed around half the customers were drinking out of plastic-lined paper takeaway cups or plastic cups.
So much for the bullshit from Starbucks caring about the environment.
The coffee was not as bad as I expected, it was far, far worse. But then what to expect from over-roasted burnt commodity coffee?
How do people drink this rubbish?
The simple answer is they don’t. What they do is add sugar add syrups in an attempt to make the coffee palatable. Hence the row of syrups prominently displayed.
The reason I asked for water was to take away the unpleasant taste of the coffee. I had to ask as no water available or brought to the table.
Beneath my table, 13-amp sockets to act as footrests.
The ambience of the coffee shop that of a station waiting room. Awful music playing in the background.
When this coffee shop opened, the then imbecile leader of the local council bragged Starbucks had made Farnborough its home. No, a tax-dodging corporate chain had opened a coffee shop to drain money out of the local economy. Home, if by home imply a company head office, is for Starbucks in Netherlands to avoid UK tax.
Outside three shed selling tat and a third shed selling disgusting German sausages. This is what in Farnborough constitutes a Christmas market.
Farnborough a run down dying town centre destroyed by decades of poor town centre planning, a council in bed with greedy developers. A council with no idea what constitutes good town centre planning or how local economies function.
Those who have the means or the time go elsewhere. And most certainly go elsewhere if they wish for a decent cup of coffee or somewhere decent to eat.
In May, I met with a friend in a coffee shop in Cyprus.
Where we met in Cyprus, Robustos in Paralimini is a rarity, a speciality coffee shop that serves decent coffee.
Cyprus has more coffee chains than can shake a stick at. Chains you may have heard of, chains you will never have heard of, Costa (now owned by Coca-Cola), tax-dodging Caffe Nero, tax-dodging Starbucks, Coffee Island and Coffee Berry, the Greek versions of Starbucks, Second Cup, the Canadian version of Starbucks.
My friend Georgia does not like coffee. I explained why she found coffee to be unpleasant and bitter, poor quality coffee, bad machine, brewed by someone who not a skilled barista, too hot. Yes, she had found coffee to be served scalding hot, and yes, it was unpleasant and bitter.
Owner George joined us for a chat and I asked him to make Georgia a cappuccino. To Georgia, I said please try, if you do not like it, you are not obliged to drink it.
Georgia took a tentative sip, found it to be OK. Only when her cup was empty and she had said she enjoyed it, did I point out that that she had not had to add sugar.
The only reason chocolate is dumped on a cappuccino, sugar and syrups added, is to mask the taste of bad coffee.
Visit a speciality coffee shop, they will source their beans from a quality coffee roastery, who sources quality beans from a farm. The roast will be light to medium roast to bring out the characteristics of the beans. The roast varies with each batch of beans. It then takes a skilled barista to bring out the best from the beans, and the skilled barista needs a quality grinder and quality espresso machine. Any error en route from farm to cup will ruin the beans and produce a poor cup of coffee.
The coffee chains buy cheap low quality beans. These are over roasted to hide any defects in the beans. This though is not the only reason for the dark roast, it gives uniformity of the beans, a burnt coffee bean is a burnt coffee bean, it requires no skill of the barista, a robot could do the job, the only reason McWorkers are employed they are cheaper than robots.
An analogy would be McDonald’s. All their burgers are identical, maybe 200 cows in one burger. No skill required to cook the burger.
Brian Stoffel from the viewpoint of a coffee farmer in Puerto Rico explains in an excellent article The Bitter Truth About Starbucks Coffee why cheap coffee is dark roast and preferred by the global coffee chains and speciality coffee a lighter roast.
In a dark roast, bitter is the predominant flavor. That’s because bitter is the flavor you get when things get burned.
At El Toledo, he demonstrates to tourists how the beans change over the course of just a few minutes of roasting, and what those few minutes means for the taste that ends up in the cup. Beans sampled at one-minute intervals, beginning 15 minutes into the roasting process.
The main difference between the three different roasts (courtesy Brian Stoffel):
Two speciality coffee shops to try light roasted beans, Base Camp on Steep Hill in Lincoln and Outpost Coffee in the Lace Market area of Nottingham.
Dark roasted coffee can be tried in any coffee chain, and sadly too many indie coffee shops that buy cheap rubbish catering supply coffee. One of the worst I have tried, Jacobs coffee served in an indie coffee shop in Cyprus, the coffee undrinkable, the beans, black, over roasted and the disgusting smell of the beans turned the stomach.
To buy quality coffee beans, from most speciality coffee shops or direct from the roastery.
Last week, The Mail on Sunday had an article Barista bandits on how the coffee chains are ripping off their customers.
Caffe Nero and Starbucks dodge tax, Costa owned by Coca-Cola, Pret a manger by Vulture Capitalists, all serve disgusting cheap undrinkable coffee, but as the MoS points out, we are paying a high price for this undrinkable coffee, at least those with no taste for coffee are, those of us who appreciate coffee, seek out the nearest local speciality coffee shop. To this list of reasons to avoid the chains could also add poor working conditions, soul destroying low paid McShit jobs, drain money out of the local economy.
MoS describe how the wholesale price of coffee has fallen, in the meantime the price charged by the chains has risen. By wholesale price, it is assumed they are referring to the coffee exchange price for commodity coffee in London and New York.
According to MoS, price of beans on the international markets has dropped 67% since 2011, from £2.23 per pound to a low of 74p last month. In the same period, a ‘tall’ cappuccino in Starbucks that cost £2.15 in 2011 now costs £2.60 in most outlets – a 20% increase.
It is not only Starbucks ripping off their customers, other chains are also ripping off their customers too:
The usual excuses, we have heard them all before with ratchet pricing from energy companies, cost of Brent Crude goes up, electricity prices rise, cost of oil drops, electricity price stays the same.
That low price on the international commodity exchange translates as bigger margins for the chains, poverty for the growers, the difference between sending the kids to school or not, a nutritinal meal every day.
The world of the speciality coffee shop is different, they engage in Direct Trade. Yes you are paying a higher price for your cappuccino, usually somewhere between £2-50 and £3-00, though often less than will pay in a chain.
There are though very good reasons for this price, and unlike the chains, it can be more than justified.
Investment by the coffee shop, decor, ambience, employment of skilled baristas, quality espresso machine and grinder, a choice of brew methods, V60 or Chemex pour over filter coffee, cold brew coffee. They are buying quality speciality coffee, not cheap commodity coffee, a far higher price is paid to the growers.
We have a choice, no one is forced to drink coffee from a corporate chain, to pay through the nose for undrinkable cheap coffee. There are speciality coffee shops, where the baristas and owner will be passionate about coffee, where can relax with a quality coffee served in glass or ceramic, where can drink with a clear conscience knowing a higher price is being paid to the coffee grower.
The introduction of a 5p levy by Starbucks on takeaway coffee in a handful of outlets in London is a meaningless gesture.
The variation in the price of coffee from one coffee shop to another exceeds 5p, thus a 5p levy on takeaway coffee is going to make not a jot of difference.
It is quite amusing to see the reaction of Starbucks clientele bleating at having to pay 5p extra for takeaway coffee when they are more than happy to pay for overpriced undrinkable coffee. How they will howl when the proposed 25p latte levy is introduced. Maybe they should take the opportunity to discover the many excellent indie coffee shops that London has to offer. Maybe treat themselves to London Coffee or 111 Coffee Shops in London That You Must Not Miss to open their closed minds that there is another world out there, a world of quality coffee.
A latte levy has to be at least 25p as proposed by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee and introduced across all Starbucks stores, not 35 stores in London.
To be effective, it has to be coupled with other measures, reusable cups on sale, for example KeepCup, a substantial discount if bring a reusable cup for a refill.
Pret a Manger, to preempt the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee proposal on latte levy, introduced at the beginning of the year coffee at 49p, a 50p discount if bring your own cup for a refill. No reusable cups on sale, no information in store. A refusal to provide any statistics. A clever PR stunt, little more.
Starbucks introduced a 50p discount if brought in a refillable cup. Then a few months later, after grabbing the headlines, quietly dropped the discount to 25p.
The big chains are lobbying hard behind the scenes to block the 25p latte levy. The reason why, their business model is built upon grab it and go, takeaway, consumerist culture.
In the UK we are throwing away an estimated 2.5 billion takeaway coffee cups every year. These cups cannot be recycled, these are are plastic lined, and therein lies the problem.
Can introduce a reusable cup for example KeepCup, but expensive, bulky, a pain to carry around. The target demographics is office workers popping out for a coffee. And there is only noticeable take up if coupled with a substantial discount when used.
I have yet to see a KeepCup purchased, let alone used, but that was before the report by House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee proposing a latte levy.
Speaking to indie coffee shops, the proposed latte levy may have focused minds. Where they have recently introduced sale of KeepCup, these are selling.
Compostable cups are better then plastic-lined paper cups, but depend on access to a compost heap on which to deposit.
Plastic is killing the planet, marine life is dying. We have to eliminate plastic. We have to move to sit down and relax in an indie coffee shop with speciality coffee served in ceramic or glass.
Starbucks is a socially irresponsible company, they dodge tax.
To illustrate how much Starbucks cares about the environment, last week they opened a Drive-Thru outside Lincoln serving undrinkable coffee.
Starbucks claim they are the first to introduce a charge on disposable coffee cups. Is this true? I would love to hear from any indie coffee shops who have introduced such a charge.
I am aware of indie coffee shops considering hiking the cost of takeaway coffee by the amount it costs them to buy the cups, then discounting by the same amount if bring in a reusable coffee cup, thus cost neutral.
The media regurgitates a Starbucks press release and calls it news. No critical analysis.
The introduction of a 5p latte levy by Starbucks in a handful of London outlets should be seen for what it is, a PR gimmick, nothing more.
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