Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Starbucks

Where iSi-t?

xiaolongbao — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:29:09 -0800

Where in NYC, besides the home appliance building at J&R's Park row store, can I buy iSi cream whipper chargers? Prefer iSi, but other brands also potentially acceptable - I need whipped cream for my at-home Starbucks creation ASAP! If you know the rough price I can expect to pay (J&R charges roughly $9.99 for 10), that is a bonus. Thanks in advance!

Creative Coffee Request

tacit_urn — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:46:35 -0800

What should he order me from Starbucks? I am in the situation where a friend of mine, with whom I am sometimes at odds, sometimes frustrated with, and sometimes love, is bringing me coffee. I want to make this as humorously difficult as possible. What are some obnoxious qualifiers that I can put on my coffee request? Decaf Royal Mint-Infused Free-Trade Soy Latte with Hamburger. But with ingredients that actually exist and that he'll have to wait for. I'll drink anything.

WiFi Filter

bad grammar — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:33:40 -0800

Is there a scammy catch or otherwise bad deal to Starbucks' free WiFi through the Starbucks card and AT&T? Don't whale away at Starbucks and their corporate fascism and terrible coffee, please; I am taking an online class at my regular university and have to get online through the day. I registered by Starbucks card for 2 hours of free WiFi access at Washington, D.C. area Starbucks locations. As for why not the public library, the National Mall, etc. it is 90+ hot and I am carrying a laptop, which I used to access (not a smartphone) and books.

I realize that I've let myself in for a deluge of promotional e-mail from both companies, but have I let myself in for anything worse? Will AT&T send me bills?

I logged on at the Starbucks at 1502 Dupont Circle and then the AT&T link dropped out and I was unable to log out. I logged back on but the AT&T sign-in screen did not come back up. Will I be penalized for not logging out? I was able to log on and log out properly at another location. There were very many competing wireless links at the Dupont Circle location.

Help me make Starbucks iced green tea.

jbickers — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:47:04 -0800

Help me make iced green tea that tastes like the stuff at Starbucks. I am in love with Starbucks' iced, unsweetened green tea. Totally refreshing, and not at all bitter. But it's $3 a glass, which makes it too expensive to be a regular thing.

I watched them make it last time, and they use some kind of concentrate - they fill the glass about a fourth of the way up with that, then ice, then water, and shake. And it's perfect.

So, can you help me figure out how to make that concentrate? Would love to have bottles of it around. But my own efforts at brewing iced green tea are invariably bitter and unpleasant.

(Alternately, can you buy that kind of concentrate? If so, is there a brand that tastes as good as the 'bucks one?)

What is this acoustic version of Auld Lang Syne?

whataboutben — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:42:36 -0800

Song ID: Today I heard a great acoustic version of Auld Lang Syne on XM radio in Starbucks. The barista went to go check the artist name for me but was seconds too late - the song ended before she got to it. I'd like to know the artist/album name so I can get a recording. All I know is that it was a single acoustic guitar playing (or possibly another similar stringed instrument). No vocals. A very slow, somber sounding rendition. Its a long shot, but anyone know what might be?

French-press carafe only?

mattbucher — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:56:04 -0800

Is there anywhere online or brick-and-mortar where I can buy just a glass carafe for a French press coffee maker? I'm always breaking the damn things and it just seems silly to keep buying new ones when all I really need is the carafe. I've bought several sizes and brands (Ikea, Starbucks, etc.), but I'd be open to any suggestions.

This song is stuck to me like glue.

overglow — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:49:28 -0800

Help me find this indie pop duet that includes lyrics like "I'm gonna stick with you... stick like glue." So, last April (or maybe March) I was in a Starbucks and I heard this song that I really liked. I asked the staff about it, but by that time the next song had started and they couldn't tell me what the previous song was because the playlist was computerized and random. It was a male female duet, with a cheerful, summery feel, maybe with a little bit of vaudeville or roots music flavor. As I said above, the chorus included lines like "I'm gonna stick with you..." and something about glue. I don't remember the other lyrics, but I think there were some other cutesy metaphors for love too. I've tried Googling and searching on All Music to no avail--I know it's not the Elvis song or the Lou Reed song or the Angel song. I'm hoping one of you has heard this song and knows who sings it.

Hofstede Sri Lanka

trashcan — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:02:57 -0800

Sri Lanka, Starbucks - Hofstede and other research I am trying to find Hofstede's cultural analysis for Sri Lanka, it must be an academic source - not an unreferenced student article.

I would appreciate other information on Sri Lankan culture and thoughts on Starbucks entering Sri Lanka from an academic perspective.

Ideally examples of other 'Western' organisations being successful in Sri Lanka - for example Pizza Hut.

Am I saving a ton of cash by using Starbucks' power?

terceiro — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:55:33 -0800

How much money am I costing, say, Starbucks if I charge my laptop there every day? Hypothetically speaking, let's pretend that 300 times per year, I plug in at the local Starbucks and charge the battery on my MacBook from 0% to 100%. How much, broadly speaking, will this cost the Starbucks in electricity? In other words, how much would it save me if I never, ever charge the battery at home?

I recognize that there's probably some variables here, like the actual cost of electricity, but if someone could ballpark it for me, I'd be much obliged.

Who goes bicycling at three in the morning?

mrbill — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 01:57:52 -0800

What was the late-night bicycling event in Houston at 3am on Sunday the 28th? My wife and I headed out to get some late-night coffee at the Starbucks at Westheimer and Post Oak.

We arrived there right around 3am, and as we turned left onto Post Oak, we noticed more people on bicycles (with headlights / glow sticks / etc) waiting at the light on Westheimer.

Sadly, the drive-thru was closed, so we just headed down Post Oak, noticing a large number of people on bikes congregated in the parking lot north of Starbucks while more pedaled past going north.

A few looked to have numbers pinned to their jackets/shirts, but it didn't seem to be a race (nobody was in a hurry). There had to be at least a hundred people in this event.

So, what the heck was this late-night (3am) bike event?

Wifi not working in Starbucks

london302 — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 03:41:22 -0800

Wifi Problem: Laptop logs on to wireless network at home instantly but doesnt do so at a Starbucks (UK). (Sony Vaio notebook (Tz) runs MS Vista) (details below) At home it finds the favourite network, logs in and I am online. At starbucks it finds the t-mobile network, shows satisfactory connection but when I fire up the browser instead of taking me to t-mobile login page it gives me an error message saying no internet connection detected.

Can anyone help? thanks very much in advance.

Why would Starbucks throw perfectly good coffee away?

bach — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:42:15 -0800

Why would Starbucks throw perfectly good coffee away? As a temp picking orders for a Starbucks warehouse (18,000-24,000 packages shipped per shift) I happened upon one of the custodial staff disposing of unopened coffee, teas, and other food-type items. When I asked why, he said it was company policy to do so. The store the items were picked for wasn't going to open for two months, so they returned them to the warehouse.

I see this as extremely wasteful and uncharacteristic for a company like Starbucks to essentially trash 100 cases or so of perfectly good product. Could they not donate it to a food bank or soup kitchen, etc.... or give it to the employees. :)

Should I be mad or is this the norm for food warehousing?

I can see the "chain of custody" view, that by doing so, the company doesn't open itself to a lawsuit because someone somewhere drank something that was a returned item, etc... but I'm curious if other companies have similar procedures.

Other "beginner" coffee drinks?

blahtsk — Mon, 28 May 2007 20:15:00 -0800

Starbucks mocha... mmm... what next? I'm not a big coffee drinker, but I loves me some mocha goodness. I've tried peppermint and orange mochas as well. Peppermint mocha is good. The orange one tastes like a mocha with an orange creme popsicle melted in it. Not so good.

Anyway, are there any other "beginner" (or even "intermediate") coffee / espresso drinks, preferably with chocolate or something else that eases the coffee flavor?

Should I report what I suspect is a ponzi scheme being pitched?

frieze — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 13:38:32 -0800

What should I do about overhearing what I think was the pitch for a ponzi scheme? So I spend my fridays from about 11 to 2 in the starbucks a few blocks from my apartment. For the last three weeks the same two (or in one case three) guys in nice suits have been pitching different groups of five to ten people trying to get them to go into some kind of business with them. Because there isn't a whole lot of seating room I've been next to them each time and overheard a few sections of the pitch and it sounds like they are selling distributorships for some kind of telecom device/service which I can't understand. All of the technical talk I've heard them give is total bullshit (I have two CS degrees so I can tell when they make no sense) and the stories they tell about their genius backers are too good to possibly be true. While it's possible that these guys are just stupid businessmen their scamming/sales talk is too polished, and the fact that I saw one of them sell a "Gold Plan" to one of the visitors for $2300 pretty much cements the whole thing in my mind. So what do I do? I really don't want to piss someone who is running such a lucrative scam off (I foresee it ending badly for me) , and I don't have any real evidence anyway. On the other hand the stories I overheard from their customer/victims make me want to help them out, since they seem ill able to lose the money they are "investing". Should I try to chase down whoever in the city/state police would be investigating this kind of thing? Should I do so anonymously? I live in NYC if anyone has any hints on who to get in touch with.

Find that cartoon

hwestiii — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 10:31:46 -0800

Trying to track down a couple of Doonesbury cartoons. I'm trying to track down a couple specific Doonesbury cartoons that I really liked.

One appeared some time in past several years in which Mike vents about Starbucks' particular and somewhat misleading drink sizing nomenclature (a small drink is classified as "tall", etc.).

The second is from late 2004 or early 2005 and has soldiers in Iraq discussing high ranking Bush administration members' sense of personal responsibility for Iraq. The punchline is something like "Bush doesn't think, he only believes things. It keeps him from being conflicted with reality".

Can anyone identify the specific publication dates of each or whether they appear in one of the periodic paperback collections, and which?

Where to buy coffee drinks online

Juicylicious — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 01:10:19 -0800

Is there anywhere I can order Starbuck's Iced Coffee & Doubleshots online? I'm currently deployed to Djibouti. It's hot & humid here and I'm having a difficult time going without my favorite creature comfort - Starbucks Iced Coffee Light and Doubleshot Light, which I was able to buy at my local grocerly store before I deployed. I've only found one place online and they only sell the doubleshot and it's not the Light version. And, that store wants $54 for 12!!!!! A ridiculous price. They normally retail for $1.99 each or $6.99 4 pack.

Does anyone know where I can order these products online? I have an APO shipping address, so they don't go through customs.

Braaaaaaaaaaains.

Glitter Ninja — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 13:24:53 -0800

Help the glitter ninja be a convincing zombierista~! Z-day Columbia (Z-Day.net) is tomorrow night, and my best friend and I are both going- her, as a punk zombie with pink hair, and me as an apron-clad zombie starbucks barista. The general game plan is to wander from the park through Five Points as a zombie mob, being generally zombieish along the way. Please post your best tips (makeup, behaviour, dress) for being a convincing punk and zombierista!

(bonus points for specific costume-related behaviour!)

She's addicted!

skrike — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 07:54:07 -0800

Starbucks has a line of bottled frappuccino drinks sold in grocery stores, they also make light frappucinos inside Starbucks locations, but do they bottle and sell light frappuccinos? My wife swears she has seen them before but we've looked everywhere and called everywhere and searched all over the internet with no luck. She has even gone as far as to call the 800 number and ask Starbucks if they still make them. They claim that the light bottled frappuccinos are still being made and sold and are bottled by pepsi, but an internet search is finding me either recipes or just the regular bottles.

Does anyone know where I can find them for sale? It would specifically be the Mocha Light Frappuccino. Thanks!

Call me confused . . .

Gordion Knott — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 05:58:53 -0800

Is it my imagination, or is Starbucks espresso on a long road to suck? Okay, I'll fess up. Chalk it up to bad habits, but for a long time, I've been into an occasional Starbucks espresso as a break from my preferred lighter roast, Italian style espresso brew. Somehow, the carbonated, burnt Starbucks blend scratches a primitive itch.

But lately, I've been dissatisfied. No, not with the burnt taste, still as vulgar and unauthentic as ever. With the thickness. I've sampled espressos (okay, espressi for you Italian speakers) at about six New York Starbucks, and for god sakes, this sh*t isn't *even espresso*. It's a watery brew that's about as viscous as drip coffee.

Is this an east coast, New York thang? Have the espresso machines at Starbucks gone kerfluy? Has the company cut back on workers with the right mojo to pull a good espresso? Is the watery blend all about less coffee grounds and lower costs?

Yes, yes, I know. Starbucks these days is about confectionary drinks and all of that jazz. But sometimes, when I'm jonesing for an espresso, they're my best fallback.

What's the deal here, guys?

Why Does Burned Coffee Rule?

ParisParamus — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:06:39 -0800

Why does (what is the psychology of) Starbucks thrive(ing) selling coffee that, it would seem, most people find less than ideal? From speaking with a friends, family, and collegues, I can't recall anyone saying that they actually love Starbucks' coffee. Perhaps I travel in an atypical "coffee circle," but I wonder.

Specifically, why does Starbucks insist on selling medium-to-dark roast coffee exclusively, when, I suspect, most Americans would prefer a good light roast brew (or, why not sell both; dark roast does make sense for frappuccinos, etc.).

Is it that Starbucks has concluded that, given that most people put milk in their coffee, that "burned coffee" (what many call it) is, overall the best compromise?

Is it that people don't really go to Starbucks for the coffee but the ambiance and/or pastry?

Is it that dark coffee, psychologically, has a status/appeal BECAUSE most people don't actually like it? Something else?

Sh-sh-sh-shattered!

mzurer — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 09:08:07 -0800

Where can I find square plates branded by Starbucks. My fiancée had a set of four square dinner plates in a beige-ish color. After a slight mishap, now she has a set of three. I cannot find them listed online anywhere. On the back they say Made in China for Starbucks. Anyone know where I can buy Starbucks brand plates?

Coffee, Please!

sgt.serenity — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 05:30:38 -0800

How to order a normal coffee...... all i want when i go to a cafe is a coffee with milk , maybe i'm a bit daft but when i just ask for 'a coffee' im asked to supply some sort of thesis on which kind of coffee i'd like.
Is it an espresso , is it a capucino , is the milk warm , is the milk semi skimmed etc etc .
Please can anybody supply me with the correct expression for a standard coffee with normal full fat milk so i dont have to be quizzed ever again.
I've probably found my own answer here but i'd appreciate a concise term that i can use.