Let’s remember Howard Schultz did NOT “create” Starbucks (as was already pointed out above). Starbucks was created in 1971 by three guys (English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker) who met while students at the University of San Francisco, and learned how to roast coffee from Alfred Peet (who opened his first shop in Berkeley, California, in 1966). Indeed, for the first year, Peet’s supplied Starbucks with their green beans . . .
In a convoluted turn-of-events, the three owners actually bought Peet’s from its founder in 1984 – note: Starbucks did not buy it; the three individuals, acting as individuals, did – and then, three years later, sold Starbucks to their former employee, Howard Schultz who (as was previously mentioned) re-branded his own Il Giornale coffee outlets as Starbucks . . .
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As for being doomed, we’ve been doomed ever since people were duped into thinking that Starbucks makes good espresso and/or coffee. As has frequently been observed, Starbucks doesn’t sell coffee, they sell milk!
And the Clover is but yet another example of the fact that we’re all doomed . . .
Yes, Clover can make a great cup of coffee – so good (potentially) that Starbucks bought the company, rather than let them sell their machines to any café that could afford the $10,000 price tag. The problem is that, to my taste, no cup of Starbucks’ brewed-with-a-Clover cup of coffee is as good as the cups I had from an independent café in Oakland that purchased one before Starbucks put an end to that . . .
You may like your Clover-brewed Starbucks – I am not questioning your taste – but, objectively, Starbucks sells one hell of a lot of milk: two oz. of espresso to 10+ ounces of milk! ;^)
Yes so they don’t have to take a chance on an Italian espresso shop. Consistently shitty Starbucks to the rescue. Our espresso is bad but you’ll love what we can do with milk, sugar and artificial flavoring to make you that coffee milkshake you so enjoy
You lost me with the insinuation that Starbucks knocked off any country’s coffeeshop decor. I doubt Starbucks intentionally emulated anything to create its institutionally boring style.
Either they’ll succeed or fail in Italy. Big deal.
As I mentioned above, my parents took a chance on an Italian espresso shop in Rome, and were laughed out of the store when they tried to order a cappuccino after 10am. I don’t blame American tourists for giving business to someplace familiar when they just want a cup of coffee without hassle.
Howard Schultz traveled to Italy in the courese of his life. He says after having been in Italy, he wanted to market an Italian coffee experience to Amreicans. Sometime shortly after that thought, a completely un-Italian kind of coffee experience became a widespread chain of coffee shops in America, associated with Howard Schulz, bearing absolutely no resemblance to an Italian coffee experience.
Just read another intervew today (this one in Italian) with Howard Schultz , where he said more than once that he wants to replicate “the Starbucks experience” for Italians in Italy “to surprise them”. He is being careful to say that the Starbucks experiences is not an Italian experience of coffee.
So Schulz and I are pretty much on the same page about this. When it comes to the relationship of Starbucks coffee chains to Italian coffee drinking, correleation is not cause. (Hope that doesn’t create further confusion.)
To clarify things even further, let me agree with you when you write
There is NO doubt that Starbucks is to the “Italian coffee experience” the same way that a can of Franco-American Spaghetti is to the handmade pasta served at Enoteca Pinchiorri or La Pergola – they have nothing in common!
If we can roll back the clock to, say, 50 years ago, there was only the smallest of “coffee cultures” scattered across the US. Within neighborhoods like New York City’s “Little Italy,” Boston’s “North End,” or San Francisco’s “North Beach,” one could find caffès that served espresso. Some may have even been really good (or not), but certainly trying to find a decent espresso in the vast majority of neighborhoods in American cities would have been futile. Americans were still drinking instant coffee at home, and “bottomless cups” of (relatively weak) “American coffee” in the country’s restaurants.
Howard Schultz’s “genius” was in marketing. I’m not sure he ever truly believed that he was creating an Italian experience at Starbucks, but: a) he “sold” Starbucks to the American public as “an Italian [read “sophisticated, continental, European”] experience,” which certainly struck a chord with the American psyche; and b) he sold millions of gallons of milk!
But the quality of the espresso at Starbucks (aka *$ , Charbux, etc.) is – IMHO – horrible. I know that millions and millions of people line up at Starbucks everyday for their “decaf, non-fat, who cares, why bother, caramel latte,” but who the **** goes into Starbucks and drinks their espresso straight? Even with sugar? (I am sure there must be some, but I do not know anyone, nor have I ever seen anyone order a straight espresso there.)
Even Peet’s is significantly better, IMHO, and they, too, roast their coffees in a more “Southern Italian” style. At least I’ve seen people drink straight espresso there.
Given the roast style of most Starbucks beans, I’d think he’d be more successful with the locals in Palermo than Milan. I think he will overpay to rent a location in a popular tourist area, and once the locals realize how crappy the coffee is, the store’s profit will rest on the shoulders of American tourists.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
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That would be me. And only on rare occasions when there has been no other option for espresso. It needs sugar as, like other Starbucks products I’ve tried, there’s a confusion between “strong coffee” and “bitter coffee”.
One of the reasons why I gave up on Starbucks long ago - I ordered an espresso and the barista was so confused ‘you don’t want any milk or anything?’ Later they discontinued the 8 oz short size. A cappuccino is not 12 ounces of milk, people!
I am no frequent traveler, but sadly my entire experience of Italy (major cities tour in 2007) involved American tourists. From what I could see, there would be plenty of consumers who would want a mocha-frappa-whatnot after their large pizza with canned mushrooms and a large Coke. Ah, Florence: your art is without parallel. Your food sucked. A Starbucks would have been welcome compared to the Nescafe frappe everyone pushed on us. (Of course I didn’t eat in the right places. I had no money and this was before mobile internet access.)
