Starbucks In The Office At 10:00am
There are certain colleagues of mine who attend morning meetings with a coffee bought from Starbucks. They like good coffee and that’s cool. But I have a sneaking suspicion they think it projects an air of discerning taste and affluence, because the drink costs two pounds fifty (about $4) a cup.
They think:
“I am wealthy and I don’t have to drink the evil office coffee.”
I think:
“What time do you call this? It’s 10am and either you’ve been out to get a coffee, in which case do some work, or you’ve just turned up, in which case you have more money than respect.”
Also, by 10am, I am on my third cup of stale, freeze-dried ordinary cooking variety coffee, so I am a little agitated.
Unlike some people, I have no problem with Starbucks. They are a multinational greedy company, but they employ thousands of people and they make good coffee. Nescafe, the brew of choice stocked by my office, are also part of a multinational (Nestle) and employ thousands of people, but they make very shit coffee. It tastes even worse the way I drink it: no milk, no sugar - black none (also known as a Woopie Goldberg).
I should ask work to get in some decent coffee. And Fair Trade stuff. Decaf would probably be a good idea, too.
September 29th, 2005 at 2:30 pm
Snap. Black, no sugar.
My coffee of choice is Cafe Direct.
Or failing that, any old coffee as long as it is Fair Trade and doesn’t contain chicory.
Oh, and extra caffeine if possible - in order to crank my pulse up to ‘just discernable’ if before 11am… and to maintain ‘hovering on the edge of consciousness’ after 11am.
As a contender for horribleness, can I add Maxwell House, which surely has to be victor?
September 29th, 2005 at 3:00 pm
I have Cafe Direct at home. It rocks and so do I.
Maxwell House is awful, granted, but I think Nescafe takes the prize on ethical grounds.
http://www.babymilkaction.org/
September 30th, 2005 at 10:39 pm
… coffee bought from Starbucks. They like good coffee …
You are kidding me right? Seriously? Starbucks=good coffee. No.
Obviously the great British cuppa hasn’t evolved on iota in the time I’ve been away (10 years). I’d heard from mates (Kiwi and ex-pat) that it was still shite coffee in the UK but I put it down to “one-upmanship” … but now I know.