The "Latte" generation, my rant

fab40

Cathlete
I must be the last of a dying breed, but I still like plain old coffee. It seems everywhere I go someone has a Starbucks latte of some sort. I know I'm a simple gal, but what's with this fixation of enormous coffee drinks? I still like my Maxwell French Roast coffee with a splash of cream. I have never even stepped foot into Starbucks, so I don't know how much people pay for these drinks. I go to the grocery store and people have their coffee drinks, which I find greatly slows down their shopping time and cart manuevering. Work, social events, meetings, driving, you name it, I guarantee someone has a "latte" of some sort. My girlfriends like to go for coffee on Sundays (while our kids are in Sunday school) and order these fancy coffee drinks. They look at me like I'm some bore with my regular coffee. Once in awhile, on holidays, I'll put some flavored cream in my coffee, woopee!!, but I think a true coffee drinker is part of a dying breed. Anyone relate or am I not hip enough these days?
 
RE: The

Nah, you're hip enough and probably more financially solvent than than those of us with Starbuck's habits. I did the Starbuck's thing for a while and the novelty wore off, plus spending around $4.00 plus per visit wasn't helping my financial health. After a while, nothing appealed to me there and I just went back to plain old (unflavored) coffee. I mostly just make it at home, or if I'm out, it's the drive through at Dunkin Donuts for me (that way I don't hear donuts calling my name). I still meet people for coffee there once in a while. Actually, I don't like their regular coffee, I think they over-roast it (imho). Chai tea lattes are what I usually get.

Around the holidays, I usually stop into Starbucks for a Peppermint Hot Chocolate (w/skim milk). It's a festive thing to do and they are really yummy. Plus they put red sprinkles on it, even if you don't get the whipped cream!

"Don't forget to breathe!"
 
RE: The

Not only can I relate....I'll make you a cup of plain coffee.
I can't stand Planet Starbucks. In fact, I hate it when people replace the word coffee with Starbucks - as in, "Let's go get a Starbuck's".
We buy really good coffee at our local coffee shop and I love every sip of it just plain black.

I have a coffee drink maybe twice a year as a treat or as a replacement for dessert.....I just can't see spending that much 1 or 2 or 3 times a day. I had a girlfriend who would order a drink that cost almost 5 bucks every time we went out and they she would wonder why she never had any money!

There are teenagers drinking it all over the place, little kids in stores drinking 4 dollar blended drinks chocked full of sugar and cream and we wonder why obesity is a problem? It is also so wasteful to have constant take out cups and straws for drinks that are expensive and not very nourishing.

Also, the coffee is truly an aquired taste! I like dark coffee, but it does taste very over roasted to me.

When I lived in Chicago there would be a cute coffee shop with books and puzzles and small poetry readings and then BAM a Starbucks would come in right next door and they would go out of business. In Chicago there were Starbucks within eyesight of each other.

I'm with ya.
Melissa
 
RE: The

I'm with you on this one. I don't care for Starbuck's. Heck, the $4.00 that is spent there buys me a container of coffee that will last me at least 3 weeks to a month. It's funny that while I'm replying to your post I receive an e-mail with the subject "Free Starbuck's for a Year". ha ha

My friend used to run a coffee cart in the lobby of an office building, and there was a lady who paid to have the coffee put in a Starbuck's cup that she brought with her everyday. Give me a break.
Shirley
 
RE: The

I like the way they've practically invented their own language. I went in there once to get a regular old hot chocolate (I don't drink coffee or tea) and ordered it made with skim milk and with half the amount of chocolate syrup. When the girl behind the counter called out the order to the person making the drinks, I had no idea what she was talking about.:p
 
RE: The

Plain old coffee drinker here, since 1985.:) I like my Folgers French Vanilla and Maxwell House Columbian Supreme. Both cost about $4 a can, which lasts me about 2-3 weeks. A little milk, a little Splenda, and my morning is made. $4 per shot at Starbucks is like highway robbery. And I don't need the extras. My hips don't need the extras. I was BORN with extras.:)

Pinky
 
to each his own

The truly hip are drinking white or green tea. And if you're over 30, you're using a straw to avoid the stains.

Honestly, I love my morning non-fat latte & my espresso machine has paid for itself many times over. It's my caffeine jolt for the day. I buy the beans at a local roaster.

But you guys are dead on about the fat, sugar & calories in many of the espresso drinks. And the hit to the budget can be significant.

Debra
 
RE: The

I used to be a major coffee drinker but have cut it out almost entirely. I feel like comparing it (unfairly I know) to quitting smoking. It was that much of an addiction. I have done all sorts of Starbucks, home brew and every coffe shop in between. Having said that, and I am not a big Starbucks junkie, I still will crave their Chai Cream Latte every now and then...mostly in the summer but sometimes in the middle of a blizzard when I feel like I need a taste of summer....Yummy!
 
RE: to each his own

I have to admit I love a latte in the afternoon. But I have to preface that by saying that after living in Argentina for 7 years and Costa Rica one year a "Cafe" is simply espresso. So going out with the girls meant ordering either a single or double espresso. With milk it was "cafe con leche" with a little milk "cortado" any way you get the idea. When we moved back here, to be able to get a decent cup of espresso was like a little bit of heaven, so I keep our little coffe cabin in busines.
 
RE: The

I like my coffee. I have only been to Starbucks once when I took my daughter there while waiting for a bridal shop to open. To me they were way over priced. I see the bottled coffees in the store and think I can go home in a few minutes and make coffee and put what I want in it, including ice if that is what I want. I guess I am particular about coffees though. For lower cost brands I prefer Maxwell House. Sorry Pinky I had a hard time getting rid of the vanilla folgers:) I gave it to guests. My first experience with coffee was when I was 9 and at a friends where we dunked buttered toast in black coffee. I loved it. I buy whole bean coffees a lot and grind them myself.
Diane Sue
 
RE: The

I DO like some of those "fancy" coffee drinks on rare occasions but at heart, I am just your "plain old coffee" drinker. I take it with cream and sugar....nothin' fancy.

Have a great work out!

~Wendy~

I smoked my last cigarette on March 17, 2004 at 10:00 pm!

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?WENDYMIN

http://lilypie.com/days/050519/1/0/1/-5/.png[/img]
 
RE: The

I have been to starbuck's one time and ordered regular coffee and it was without a doubt, teh worst coffee i have ever had! i prefer plain folgers and i always will. I'm ONLY 26(today!) and i have never liked the flavored crap with a fancy name!


jes

p.s. i will have to start using a straw though! Good idea! I was just ranting today about how someone shoudl be able to invent clear coffee. They alter everything else!

jes:+
 
RE: The

As a European, and having lived in both France and Spain, the only coffee worthy of the name and which I can drink is Espresso, with lots of milk, called a latte over here.

The kind of coffee served in "family restaurants" and diners over here is rat's piss and I would never be so unkind to my stomach as to drink any of this stuff!

I hate instant coffee, hate Folgers and Maxwell house. All they make is hot milky water with a brown colour. Yuck!

Lattes and espresso coffee have little to do with Starbucks. That's just clever merchandising and espresso coffee did not orignate with this canny US company.

And yes, I consider myself a "true coffee drinker" because espresso/latte is made from coffee beans and is therefore real coffee! It's got nothing to do with trends and everything to do with taste.

Each to her own!!

Clare :)
 
RE: The

I have to agree with you Clare. I cannot stomach what most American's call a cup of joe because it just plain tastes bad. The home brewed coffee's taste bitter and just plain old to me.

But see I think coffee is just one more thing that American's have turned into fast food crap. Everyone is in such a hurry to make that cup of Joe in the morning so who has time to actually grind fresh beans let alone use a coffee press? Drip coffee makers do nothing but make very weak coffee out of very old coffee grounds.

I drink hot tea more than I do coffee and I brew it one pot at a time. I could just scream every time I walk into a "Tea House" and I order tea and what do they bring me but a freaken cup of hot water and a Lipton tea bag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is not tea...that is crap.
 
RE: The

I order the Espresso, the Dark Roast or the Columbian from Gevalia. I can't drink anything else. There have been many times when I go to work at 7:00 AM & desperately need a serious cup of coffee but I refused to drink the Hill's Bros brewing in our break room. It's disgusting. Not only that, everyone makes it it so sickeningly weak.

That has really broken my coffee addiction, I think.

Marla
 
RE: The

lol the latte generation. If I have my one cup of drip folgers in the morning I'm good for the day. If I'm going to spend 500/600 calories I'm not going to drink it and it definately better have some chocolate in it!
 
RE: The

I've never even tasted a latte, because, if I've got it right, aren't they chock full of fat and calories? I'll stick to my black coffee, with no fat or calories, thank you very much. I've had the black coffee at Starbucks, but it's not my favorite. A tad too bitter for my taste.

We have a fabulous coffee maker at work that uses the little K-cups which brew one cup at a time, and we use Green Mountain coffee. YUMMY!!
:D
 
RE: The

Ditto Clare! and re: calories. . .a latte with skim milk is low cal, low fat and you are getting some much needed calcium! It is the sweet drinks that load up on fat and cals.
 

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