Starbucks: Left Bitter

Published on Monday, February 5, 2007, by Joyce Slaton / Edit Post

Haw haw! Take that, you blow-dried, doppio-sipping, clove-cigarette smoking, black-leather-jacket wearing urban hipster types! Interested in a new crop of coffee offerings at fast food joints—pitched to compete with coffeehouse bevvies—the impartial judges at Consumer Reports have found that McDonald’s house coffee beats the swill served up by Starbucks.

As The New York Daily New reports in a piece called “Joltin’ Joe!”, the panel at Consumer Reports found that at $1.35, McDonald’s coffee was the cheapest and best, noting, “Although it lacked the subtle top notes needed to make it rise and shine, it had no flaws.” Compare that with Starbucks, which produced a brew so nasty that it was “bitter enough to make your eyes water instead of open.”

Ouch! Burn on you, Starbucks. CR also tried coffees from Burger King (“looked like coffee but tasted more like hot water”) and Dunkin’ Donuts (“weak, watery and pricier than Starbucks”), but McDonald’s Premium Roast Coffee was the winner. OK, so I give you permission to drink the joe from Mickey D’s. But avoid the food. That stuff is death.

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POST A COMMENT |4 Comments

COMMENT

  • I understand that another Starbucks acid-intensifier is the fact that they use 4 times the bean-to-water ratio of your countertop Mr. Coffee.

  • i thought i was one of the only people who knew this! tho i wont go out of my way to go to a McD's for their coffee like i will for SBux, if i find myself walking around windy, cold manhattan i will def go into mcd's for their new fair trade brew. its really really good. cheap and WAY better tasting than anything from a bodega or kiosk.

  • Well put slacker and right on taget

  • I think some of us have known this for awhile now. I really like the McDonald's coffee, but I like Starbucks too. It depends on what I feel like drinking, since they are quite different, McD's being very mellow and smooth, while Starbucks is much sharper. I actually find it strange that Consumer Reports did this taste test, since coffee is, if you will, in the tastebuds of the drinker.
    And not...+READ

    I think some of us have known this for awhile now. I really like the McDonald's coffee, but I like Starbucks too. It depends on what I feel like drinking, since they are quite different, McD's being very mellow and smooth, while Starbucks is much sharper. I actually find it strange that Consumer Reports did this taste test, since coffee is, if you will, in the tastebuds of the drinker.
    And not all the food at McD's is death, sometimes I just want one of those little breakfast burritos with salsa you squeeze out of a plastic packet.-COLLAPSE