[brityank]

Starbucks coffee sucks to me. Every time I taste it, it seems to have a burnt undertaste; very disappointing.

Was really brought into coffee in the Navy; the shack had a 60-cup perker that was always going. We added a little salt to the grounds before brewing, and made it strong. The grounds came in 20 pound steel cans, and was mostly from Maxwell. Used to hang at Marie Callenders restaraunts in SanD and Long Beach; great bottomless cup coffee, and the best deep-dish strawberry pie.

[dwilli]

Thosr 20 lb cans of coffee and the 10 lb canned hams keep the military running. The supply people have to have something to trade for hard-to-get supplies.

[djf]

Try the Millstone beans, esp the "Bed and Breakfast" blend.
Very good balance, not charcoal!
IMHO, just about the best I've ever had, and I have 3 regular drip machines, two espresso machines, two electric grinders, and an old-fashioned hand crank manual grinder.

[holyscroller]

"Starbucks coffee sucks to me. Every time I taste it, it seems to have a burnt undertaste; very disappointing."

What Starbucks really introduced was the $4.00 cup of 5 cent coffee. I live in "Coffee Central" (Seattle) and the BEST coffee is "Seattle's Best," followed by Tullys. The best deal around is at McDonalds, who sells a good cup of Seattle's Best "Senior Coffee" for those over 55 is only 35 cents.

[mollynme]

Starbucks coffee sucks to me. Every time I taste it, it seems to have a burnt undertaste; very disappointing.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking with a gentleman who used to be a coffee buyer. He told me that Starbucks is known throughout the business for their marketing ability. He maintains that they bought the (mostly Vietnamese) beans that no other brokers would touch then turned around & sold them as premium (at more than premium prices). They made huge profits but at the expense of taste. This man told me that when Starbucks first became available at your local grocery store they were labeled as "premium" but they were forced to remove this from the labels.