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Poll: Are You A Starbucks Fan?

by Mike on March 13, 2010 in Polls

This week’s poll is “Are You A Starbucks Fan?” It seems like people either love or hate Starbucks?

Are You A Starbucks Fan?

View Results

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I’m somewhere in the middle. There’s somethings that I really love about Starbucks, like their Dark Cherry Mocha. However, I’m not always a fan of their coffees. I’m more of a medium to light roast drinkers and their coffees are definitely aimed at people who like a darker brew.

Plus, there is the whole over saturation of Starbucks and I’ve seen them push some smaller coffee shops out of business when they open up on the same block. However, they were one of the first “gourmet” coffee shops that I ever visited and were my gateway drug to my coffee obsession.

So what about you? What’s your opinion on Starbucks and why?

Last week’s question was “Do Labels Like Fair Trade Matter To You?

There was some great discussion over on the post, lead by Coffee Nate so make sure you check it out.

The results were close with the “Yes” answer leading with 39% of the vote. “Sometimes” and “No” were tied with seven votes each.

Melody said:

You can open up a can of worms with your blog post on this topic, but I am of the belief that there is more than one way to skin a cat. A coffee can be ethically sourced absent a special ‘fair trade’ label which requires the farmer to pay a licensing fee to Fair Trade Association. Some coffee roasters are moving away from FT to “direct trade” (Intelligentsia, Stumptown), and Starbucks as CAFE Practices and Shared Planet.

Nate said:

Do they matter?
OF COURSE THEY DO!

Fair Trade Certified ensures a certain set of standards, I won’t go into all of the details, but I did cover them all in a recent post. While it is true that simply being certified FairTrade does not ensure quality, that is up to the buyer/roaster/consumer!

Karen @ Blazing Minds said:

As long as the coffee tastes nice, then I don’t really care to be honest, but I suppose I’m upsetting someone, somewhere, which that comment ;)

Photo by Nick Humphries.

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This is not something that you see every day in the Daily Shot Of Coffee Kitchen. I’ve seen a lot of coffee grinders, most of them were of the electric variety. This is the first manual coffee grinder that I’ve seen in person. Cate from Cate.TV was kind enough to let me borrow it and share with you guys and blog about it.

I don’t know anything about the age or make of this coffee grinder, but after testing it out, I need to get one for myself. Ok, I don’t really know if I need to have one, but it would be a great piece to have in my kitchen all of the time.

I know that there’s some people that collect coffee equipment, but I don’t know anyone that collects antique coffee equipment. Do you have any old time/antique coffee making equipment? What do you have and do you want to share some pictures of it? I’d love to post some more pictures here.

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Starbucks Dark Cherry Mocha Review

March 11, 2010 Coffee Reviews
Starbucks Dark Cherry Mocha

The Drink: Dark Cherry Mocha From Starbucks
Type: Espresso Based Drink
Overall Rating: Four Out Of Five Coffee Mugs
I’ve been craving Dark Cherry Mocha for what seems like forever. I had a feeling that I was going to love it from the minute that I first read about it on the Starbucks Melody site in December. However, [...]

13 comments Read the full article →

Doi Chaang Single Estate Signature Review

March 10, 2010 Coffee Reviews
Doi Chaang Single Estate Origin

The Drink: Doi Chaang Single Estate Signature
Type: Whole Bean
Overall Rating: 3.5 Out Of 5 Coffee Cups
After my first enjoyable experience with the Peaberry from Doi Chaang Coffee, I couldn’t wait to try the Single Estate Signature, another coffee from the remote northern Thailand village and see if it’s taste was just as good.
Their description had [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Original Donut Shop K-Cup Review

March 9, 2010 Coffee Reviews
Donut Shop Coffee

The Drink: Original Donut Shop By The Coffee People
Type: K-Cup
Overall Rating: Three Out Of Five Coffee Mugs
You may have heard of this proverb “don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” I’m sure one or two people have used it. Anyways, it reminded me of this K-cup called the Original Donut Shop by The Coffee People. [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Ethiopian Harrar From JarBee Coffee Review

March 8, 2010 Coffee Reviews
Ethiopian Harrar

The Drink: Ethiopian Harrar From JarBee Coffee
Type: Ground
Overall Rating: 3.75 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs
I had high expectations for the Ethiopian Harrar from JarBee Coffee. Some of the best coffees that I’ve tasted in the last year have been from Ethiopia. There was the Rocketfuel XXX which contained Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and earned a well above [...]

3 comments Read the full article →

Fresh Brews: Return Of The Coffee Wars And The Bikini Baristas

March 7, 2010 Coffee News
Tim Hortons Coffee

It looks like a blast from the past. This week’s coffee news round up includes the coffee wars (but with a new competitor joining in) and the bikini baristas. Of course the fun doesn’t stop there…
Coffee Blogs
The Shot The Return of the Coffee Middlemen
The Shot looks at the benefits and negatives of the rise of [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

Poll: Do Labels Like Fair Trade Matter To You?

March 6, 2010 Polls
Coffee Labels

Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance Certified, Organic, Shade Grown. The list goes on and on. This week’s poll question is “Do Labels Like Fair Trade Matter To You?” Do they affect your coffee buying decisions? Or could you care less?
I’m a fan of buying coffee that’s produced with an earth friendly method and provides a working [...]

11 comments Read the full article →

ROASTe Website Redesign And Free Shipping

March 5, 2010 Coffee Sites
ROASTe

Last August, a brand new online coffee shop called ROASTe introduced me to some world class coffees that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. They had names like Romance by Paradise Roasters and an amazing coffee called Colombia – Guiterrez. In other words, I’m a fan of there’s and I thought I would pass on [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Love Buzz From Equal Exchange Review

March 4, 2010 Coffee Reviews
Equal Exchange Love Buzz

The Drink: Love Buzz from Equal Exchange
Type: Ground Organic Blend
Overall Rating: 3.5 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs
Every once in a while, there’s a description of a coffee that gets my attention. Love Buzz from Equal Exchange had one of those descriptions:
Created by a genius in Philadelphia, this secret recipe delivers a sweet, sultry and smooth [...]

6 comments Read the full article →