Starbucks wins "20/20" show's coffee taste-test

ABC News reporter John Stossel writes: "On our unscientific test, Starbucks came in first. A close second went to, surprise, the Sam's Club brand, Marques de Paiva. Oren's came in a distant third, closely followed by Nescafe, the instant coffee. The most expensive brand, the $12 a pound Dean & DeLuca's, ranked second to last, and dead last was Folgers, America's best seller." (TownHall.com)

Comments

[Laura]

Not surprised about Starbucks (my favorite: Venti blackeye)... not surprised about Folgers. Only question: what fantastic marketing plan keeps Folgers as America's best seller? (I think it's tradition).

[msuspartan]

LAURA WROTE: Only question: what fantastic marketing plan keeps Folgers as America's best seller?

This is a country that chooses Wal*mart as its favorite retailer, McDonalds as its favorite restaraunt, Chevy as its favorite car and Dubua as the favorite presidential candidate. In that context it would be suprising if Folgers was anything but the #1 seller.

[Ms. M]

I still remember the Folger coffee commercials from when I was little. The images of the early morning and the coffee and the coffee brewing made me want to love coffee before I was even old enough to like it. They were warm and fuzzy like Campbells Soup comercials. (Of course now I know what shit the coffee is)

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

Folgers is kind of gross once you get to having a french press each morning of something exotic like Kenya or Sumatra. Folgers is not that good and I really dislike it. Today I did a tasting of the Elephant Kinjia and most people found it very good. Not sure if they would buy it but who knows. I do think that if you drink Starbucks coffee by cupping it, you do recognize its superiority. Although Starbucks serves most of its coffee via drip so therefore people don't get the full effect. The important thing that Starbucks has to do is to make sure the urns are always squeaky clean.

[cornfrost]

Boston Rebel:
Interesting note about clean urns. A while back, for weeks on end, we had no Urnex. At some point, customers started complaining, even when the coffee was brand-new fresh.
That was when we had the metal urns. Now we have those cheapo plastic urns, which are hard to clean, even though we now Urnex them often. The coffee residue seems to adhere to that plastic seamed lining, and it's hard to get off unless you soak it in Urnex for hours and scrub really hard. Cleanliness aside, I wonder whether those icky urns have an effect on coffee quality.

Folger's sucks because it has Robusto beans in it. DUH!

[CoffeeBoy]

MSUSPARTAN ... Your quote make may day! How very very true you are. You are a funny guy... (Too bad you like MSU - Let's go blue!)

[Andrew From Seattle]

I am a super Starbucks fan, but I still remember back in the day when Starbucks was still in its infant stages when they switched to the dark roast they are using now. (dark does not mean burnt, it is just a different more dynamic flavor easier to be more consistant with large batches) well when the dark roast first came out people didn't like Starbucks as much as the other coffee stands because it was too strong of a flavor, i think it is cool now that so many people have experienced starbucks and enjoy if nothing at least the feeling they get when going to starbucks to associate the taste of starbucks coffee with the highest quality of coffee for a taste test! I think that is soooo cool and for having 9000 locations, i think starbucks is doing an awesome job with quality!

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

Starbucks has left me with a bitter taste. My mother called the store on Mother's Day to see how I was doing. The person who answered the phone said I was too busy making drinks on bar. I am never to busy for my family, especially for my mother. Starbucks can screw me over as much as they want but when it comes to my family, they better watch their backs. My family is the most important people in my life, certainly not Starbucks. I am so angry with Starbucks to think that they can do that. I am filing an official complaint.

[Fortymile]

Hey rebel........when you are on the clock you are on company time and the partner who told your mother you were busy did just what she should have. There is a policy about personal calls, you aren't supposed to get them. Who are you going to file a complaint with? While you are at it, complain about things like "Why do we have to clean the steam wands" and "I don't think I should have to be on time to work". Your posts are usually very well thought out and you do a good job representing our company, but this time you sound like the whiny partner that makes running one of these stores not so fun.

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

Actually I come in 15 hours a week on my own time to make up for my lazy ass management and then they go and tell me I shouldn't go into overtime. I usually get only one day a week. Not to mention that I do clean each steam wand every single time I use it and also blow steam through it. I also happened to close the store the night before and opened it again. I hardly ever go home but instead read every single stor manual every other week and still manage to attend an Ivy League college. I'm sure you belong on some Jerry Springer episode where your mom is your sister too. Opppps did I imply you are inbred, that would explain your low intelligence and lack of empathy? Opppps, I didn't use my STAR skills. Maybe your mom really should've kept her legs shut that night or opened them up to rip you out! Go back to your trailer park. Death to Starbucks. Until at last I smote her ruin upon the mountainside.

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

I am unlike any partner you have ever met. Usually I'm smiling an happy but like my mom always says, still waters run deep. Deep inside, I'm a raging ocean that just happens to have a very cool exterior, like a tsunami, it looks all fine until it reaches land and causes devastation everywhere. Thankfully, my many years of restraint have allowed me to quietly contain my rebellious spirit. I'll suffer in silence until one day, it'll be all over. A new day will come when all will be made new, and there will be no Starbucks!

[msuspartan]

To Boston:

First of all, if (and it is a big if) you should be mad at anyone, it is the "partner" who answered the phone. It wasn't the corporation who answered the phone, it was an employee.

Secondly, if you continue to come and work for free, you have yourself to blame for being taken advantage of. Isn't there another employer in Boston who will pay you for the hours you work? I would wager there is, but if the job market is that bad in Boston, perhaps you should move to the city your Mother lives in. I am sure she will be glad to provide a roof over your head until you can get a job there.

[Jay]

I thought this was a joke! I'll grant you Starbucks can make a good espresso drink but number 1 for best coffee? I hear complaints all the time about how people can't stand the taste of Charbucks coffee. I wonder how much advertising revenue Starbucks pays to ABC and it's affiliates?

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

Yeah well I guess everyone is right. I shouldn't be so angry anymore. I forgot to take my pills as usual. Unforunately I can't get a job from my parents because they both took early retirement. They now travel travel around the world, I hardly can remember what country they are in one week and then after the other. I don't even work at Starbucks for the silly paycheck they give me. I usually go on shopping sprees, you know get new clothes each week. Sometimes I just cash my check and do not even look at the amount. Sometimes I am so silly! Sometimes I don't even know what to buy for clothes because I basically have the entire season of J. Crew, Banana Republic, and Abercrombie in my apartment that I just put my paycheck in the tip jars of Starbucks stores around Boston. Its so hard to buy stuff when you have everything you want. Like how many Italias do I really need, two is good enoughm, a primary and a backup. And I wish there were more good restaurants here in Boston. Some of them are so blase and its sad.

[FORTYMILE]

hey rebel...........why don't you quit? or call the comliance hotline and tell someone about your manager. there are always solutions to problems. calm down and act. get rid of the bad management.

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

I repent of my sins against Starbucks and have seeked forgiveness from my district manager. May Starbucks forever live long and no falter. May the Gospel of Starbucks spread into all corners of the world. All those who oppose us will fail. The weak will perish. Either join us or fall into shadow forever. We are the only way, there is no life outside of Starbucks. And all flesh shall see the glory of the Siren, awesome and beautiful, as a the dawn itself. Rejoice and be glad for blessed are we who are counted among the elect to be part of Starbucks.

[curls.b]

hey you guys.. i would very much like to know if i'm alone in this (i doubt so!) but you MUST'VE seen the changes on your hands. I mean, i've been with starbucks for 19months now.. and I swear that my hands have gone and turned into a 50 year old woman hard labourer pair of hands. and i'm only 22years old this year! the cleaning products really are ruining the skins of all baristas.. wot with the washing and cleaning up and the sanitizers and cleaning agents.. are KILLING MY HANDS!!! if your store have a solution to this problem, please share it with the rest of us! cos im sick of my hands being as rough as a pumice stone!!!!

ciao bella...

[barista]

curls - the sanitizer solution literally makes my hands bleed and i've asked everyone up to the DM if there is some alternative, but they don't care and would much rather have my hands bleed than do something about it.

[curls]

barista.. i feel for you. my skin are peeling and it's gone rough, i hate it! i cant even wear them stockings cos my fingers will cause it to run! I HAAATTTEEE IIITTT!!! plenty of partners who started out in starbucks with healthy skin, now has eczema and god knows wot other skin problems! hate it especially when the dishwasher breaks down.. then you have to get in there and wash the dishes and mugs clean. aarrrggghhh..

I brought this up during the public forum the other day for partners with our management.. and the other partners didnt back me up.. even when i tell them to look at their hands before they deny anything! sigh .. is there any cause to sue? eh? eh? or should we at least ask for compensation?

[blah]

Use gloves, solution #1
Slow down and use gloves, that way the evil spirit doesnt get all over you, just be happy they took away the old spirit =( which i miss a LOT, it worked great on metal >< this spirit sure smells though..

[teya]

Yes, I find that my hands are well-worn. I use gloves pretty frequently now, but find it difficult to always remember when going to grab a bus cloth or something. We are a pretty high volume store, but there are ways around it ex)leaving my pair of gloves close to the bus bucket so I remember and have time to grab em on the go. I usually rinse my hands immediately following putting my hands in the sanitizer solutions, and use lotion when I can.

[Brandon]

Everyone starbucks is a fantastic company that treats its employees well and coffee growers great also..... as good as they can for being such a corporate company. i must admit at first i hated starbucks, it was the man, but after working for them ive realized differently, and there coffee is by far better then anything ive had before

[StarbuxMgr]

I was so excited that we won, and then I saw who we won against.....Is our competition really Sam's Club coffee...ouch? Wow, we really beat Folgers? This competition is so lame, how about some real cafe competitiors. One sad boss

I can't believe you would care that Starbucks won this. It does not prove anything except that STarbucks can hold up against a very small segment of the crappiest coffee companies. I would like to see them go up against places like Peet's Coffee or another specialty coffee brand that is known for quality.

[Guh]

So many people complain about Starbucks, but alot of people really like working there. It dosen't have anything to do ith the corporation as a whole, but mostly your manager, and the people you work with. I have a phenomenal manager, which makes me enjoy work. So it all depends. It's no different than any other company in the world.

[videoland]

Also Patrick did (if I’ mn not mistaken) 3 of the BEST COMERCIALS EVER.