Starbucks, Live and Learn

Starbucks is revamping, finally. And getting rid of the Breakfast Jack or whatever the fuck it was they started serving!

Originally, I hated Starbucks, mostly because of their business practices. I started out with espresso bars in the late 1970's, and by 1981, almost bought one in Cardiff (which is still there, and I kick myself in the ass every time I think about it). In 1984, I worked a friend of mine's place, The Go Between, in Silverlake (shout out to Deborah whom I haven't seen since then, and ran into at my uncle's funeral a couple weeks ago -- post on the funeral coming up over the weekend). Starbucks would open a shop up right next door to a competitor, for god's sake, and drive the independent out of business!

However, all of my travels in the late 90's and early 21st century presented a dilemma .. how to get the same damn quad espresso, half caf, over ice? I cannot tell you how many times I simply threw the drink in the garbage in front of the person who made it for me! I mean, come on, how hard is it to pull four shots, two of them decaf? And how many of those places actually bought cheap ass espresso beans? Sheesh. Finally, I had to cede to Starbucks. It didn't matter if I was in Atlanta, New York, Denver, Detroit, any fucking city in Florida, or even Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (which, by the way, my friends swore no Starbucks existed, but I found one!), I got the same damn cup of coffee ... four shots, two decaf, over ice! And it tasted the same everywhere (although it didn't cost the same, cough cough).

Yeah, in recent years, Starbucks turned into the Wal Mart of coffee, but glad to see they are going back to their roots. My bad for converting, but hey, I'd kill for good coffee, damn it!