And it just so happens that today is a good day for that as it relates to the question of whether Starbucks coffee is very good:

http://tinyurl.com/l9ukln

Quote: "The 6,107 people who participated in the survey also weighed in on a category that’s been hotly contested of late: Best Coffee. Not surprisingly, top honors went to Starbucks, with Dunkin’ Donuts finishing second."

We appreciate the ongoing conversation.

~ Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks Coffee Company

Look. I'm a Seattle native, so I'm predisposed to like Starbucks - but, seriously? I wasn't aware that Consumer Reports was a filthy, rumor mongering site bent on destroying your good name, so I think it might qualify as 'credible'. And while the linked article might not be recent, it was judging black coffee, and I'm not sure either you or McDonalds have made any top-secret, ground breaking changes to a drink that is made of filtered beans and hot water.

If you're going to come across all sassy in Starbuck's name, you might want to pick an article that doesn't spend it's final 200 words comparing your competitors product to an unmodified pail of Hershey's chocolate syrup.

Wait, let's check Howard Shultz memo from 2008

Confused? Your once and former customers aren't.

The Trouble With Starbucks

There is no way Starbucks selling pretty much nothing but beverages and snacks can compete with a powerhouse selling breakfast, lunch, and dinner in addition to a quality cup of coffee (although I don't drink coffee so I can't judge).

It's like trying to compare a regional grocery to a huge super Walmart (the ones with the grocery store in them).

Starbucks only solution is to increasing their licensing programs. Get their drinks everywhere (instead of paying through the nose to get their stores everywhere). Maybe license mini-starbucks corners in Burger Kings, Subways, etc.

This says nothing of the quality of the coffee experience.

Mr. Thompson says above, " I know lots of coffee lovers and none of them praise Starbucks for the coffee..." We spend an awful lot of time and energy (250,000 tastings last year) to get just the right single-origin and blends of coffee into our packaged coffee and into our stores to be served to you. We have our own results to show what our customers think, but it's great to have Zagat respondents independently saying it about us.

> brad: Zagat calls this the fast food survey and they put a number of coffee purveyors into the quick-refreshment chain subcategory of that survey: brands like Peet's, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Caribou and even Dunkin' Donuts. And in that review, Starbucks won the category for best coffee.

Again: appreciate the conversation!

~ Chris

Thanks for your comments, and for jumpstarting this debate. Let me clarify my point, which might have been a little unclear. It's a two-parter: 1) I don't think Starbucks coffee is so much better than competitors as to establish an insurmountable competitive advantage in terms of coffee alone; 2) I don't think the McCafe is a serious competitor of the Starbucks cafe mocha any more than the quarter pounder is a serious competitor of a good restaurant's blue cheese burger. If there's a big enough market share for the latter category, I'd say you've got nothing to worry about.

Plus your local paper seems to think your losing cafe mocha market share:

Starbucks no longer gives small coffee shops the jitters
"Unlike independents going up against a big retailer like Wal-Mart, other coffeehouses often thrive when Starbucks is nearby. While they respect much of what Starbucks has done — notably, opening more than 11,000 stores nationwide that bring espresso and lattes to the masses — they have learned not to fear it."

So Outback will win out over Mortons or Ruth Chris for steak.

And yes, Starbucks is not as good as many of the smaller chains or a few local coffee shops, but it's okay. It does not make me openly weep. Thank you McDonalds for setting the bar so low.

Oh, and those really teeny Starbucks'? They suck. Dudes, what were you thinking?

I'm sorry if that is harsh. You're not doing much, in my opinion, to encourage anyone to do business with you here.

With freshly-roasted and freshly-ground coffee now far more widely available, DD and McD have been tempted to "Starbuck-ize" themselves. I'm not sure they need to. Their normal coffee is still good, fresh, hot, and cheap. But they ought to be able to snag a slice of the "sugar with some coffee in it" market that Starbucks created. And they win on hot, tasty, breakfast dishes, hands down.

DD and McD will never for a minute fool anyone that they are not 100% American. But, neither will Starbucks (sorry, Chris.) In fact, I'd bet that Starbucks is popular worldwide precisely for a relentless American-ness, glowing brightly right through the "international" affect. The cheerful and first-name-friendly counter folk, the in-your-face add-on merchandise, the big ol' chairs, the big ol' HUGE portions, the massive sugar infusions, the (gack) whipped cream; the pretty, but scrubbed and non-threatening, "hip-lite" decor; the bland-but-big food: Starbucks' genius is that we U.S. patrons can pretend we're in Europe, and people from other lands can pretend they're in America, and no one has to really leave their comfort zone.

By contrast, McD and DD stores in other countries are exotic, a taste of something genuinely foreign to the local scene, because they are SO American -- for better and for worse. Class is a factor, of course, and the markers of proletarianism DD and McD have worn so proudly here don't register as easily abroad. But by going slightly Starbucks-y in the U.S., they risk having Starbucks make a similar move towards the center here, to compete for the loyalty of Americans longing for coziness and thrift in our new Depression era. It would not be a stretch. If Starbucks could lower its prices just a bit, and play up its decades of presence as a comforting, familiar icon of the American landscape, it could give DD and McD a run for the money, from a direction they might not see coming.

In any case, as someone who puts sugar and half-and-half in his coffee, I don't feel compelled to be too precious about which purveyor I use. Both McDonald's and Starbucks are capable of putting out vile stewed coffee during off-peak hours, and both are capable of putting out a perfectly drinkable cup of coffee. The food is not a selling point either way.

But that doesn't seem to be how the Zagat survey is structured. In the category of Best Burger (Fast-Food Chain), In-N-Out won, but that's only a regional chain (CA, NV, AZ, UT) and not a national one. Or look at some of the results in the Full-Service Chains category. Best Coffee was won by the Cheesecake Factory. It's a national chain, but it certainly doesn't have as many locations as Denny's or IHOP.

Or, rather, I would love to know: does Starbucks' design stem from an earnest, hopeless, true attempt at cosmopolitan chic, or from a sophisticated feeling for what will make the broadest slice of their target demographic feel comfy, yet cool?

Chris, care to comment?

P.S. -- Chubbrarian (love the name, btw): growing up in Rhode Island, which must be the doughnut capital of New England, which as everyone knows is the doughnut capital of the world, we always debated between Dunks, Mr. Donut, Bess Eaton, Tim's, and a couple of others I forget. (No Krispy Kreme yet, back then, and those are kind of sissy anyway.) I must stay loyal to Dunks, but I grant you Tim's, eh! Now, Dunks just has to bring back the REAL dozen box -- no more imitation KK boxes! Ever tried to eat out of one of those on your lap in a car?! Impossible. So what if it keeps the icing looking pretty!

Go ask a Krispy Kreme franchisee how that strategy worked out for them.

Consumer Reports conducted an actual test that abides by professional standards. Zagat didn't.

I'm sure your company's management is thrilled to be associated with the high quality sugared-chicken experience provided by Chick-Fil-A, that noted bastion of quality. Perhaps the next time your executives are having a formal function at Cheesecake Factory or Dairy Queen or Olive Garden they can discuss why their coffee is so over-roasted it's only palatable when substantially cut with steamed milk.

Starbucks has its uses, but serving as a source for exceptional coffee is not one of them.

While Starbucks may have made their name based on the idea that they produce "quality" coffee, what they've essentially created (or brought back) is the coffee SHOP experience. This experience, in my opinion, has diminished greatly over the past few years, and unless they fix it, could, I believe, cause continuing decline.

In my own experience at least, anytime I wanted a quick cup of coffee on my way to work, I would never go to Starbucks. I'd go through the nearest drive thru. But when I wanted somewhere to sit and chat with a friend, study, or just be in a public space to read, I would go to Starbucks.

Now, I go there only as a last resort. Why? Let me list the reasons:

-- The tables are so small they barely hold room for a laptop, let alone extra books.

-- The idea of free wi-fi is completely foreign to them. You have to have an AT&T account or T-Mobile to have access.

-- The space is small, but the tables are many, which means any chance of a remotely private conversation is completely ruined.

Add that to the fact that their coffee isn't make or break good, and I have no reason to go there anymore. Instead, I frequent my local independent shop, which has great coffee (which they make more personal and encourage you to stay by offering to put it in an actual mug), free-wi-fi, outlets at every single table, tables which have a lot of space, AND a comfortable selection of plush chairs/sofas to choose from if you only want to sit and talk.

If Starbucks focused on their actual interior of the store and started actually offering frickin free internet, then I would actually be glad to frequent them again.

Starbucks Flagship Store in Pike Place Market
"Dark wood. Cracked concrete floor. Coffee bean bags as wall coverings. It is cool, like a real community gathering place -- caffeinating hole? -- and not some yuppie's living room.

It's a lot like the Pike Place store, but with abundant seating -- small round tables, long skinny tables, outdoor seating for when it warms up -- and a menu that shows prices only for drinks made using Starbucks' high-end Clover machine."