Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/04/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Mon, Apr 19, 2004 at 06:32:19PM -0400, dante@umich.edu wrote: > Although it's easy to be dismissive of Starbuck's, the one thing it does have > going for it is that its tight controls on making espresso make its product > absolutely consistent worldwide. Consistent indeed...consitently mediocre, and that's talking only about an espresso shot! And let's not talk about burnt because Starbucks way over-roasts its beans to give that consistently flavourless cup. When it comes to steaming milk there doesn't really seem to be any clear guidance there because I've seen staff abuse milk in every possible way. It's very rare to get a milk based drink with properly steamed milk at Starbucks. > While a "doppio" at Starbucks might only hit > 90% of the fun factor of Segafredo through a Pavoni machine done properly, it > beats the hell out of the burnt double shots I have experienced in about half > the cafes I have visited in Europe (not a small number). > If you want consistency then you wouldn't be using a Pavoni - dreadful contraptions. In fact Starbucks historically have used the best machines available - La Marzocco Lineas. This was at some point deemed to much work for high-volume shops and they changed instead to fully automatics which certainly didn't help the quality of shot any. Europe is very variable in its coffee and the success of Starbucks in any one country is usually down to how poor the coffee culture and knowledge tends to be in that country. Starbucks therefore does well in the UK because here people historicaly drank that stuff called Nescafe (I hesitate to call it coffee!). France has crap coffee but they don't have many Starbucks because Starbucks would have difficuly forcing that sameness of store decor that probably wouldn't allow them all to sit looking outwards at the world going by. I'm not sure there is a Starbucks in Italy - why should there be where even in St Marks square in Venice I can get a stunning shot of espresso for 80 cents? -- Tony Terlecki ajt@mrps.demon.co.uk