There are two major varieties of coffee beans: arabica and robusta. Robusta coffees are easier and cheaper to grow, but they taste harsher and more bitter. Arabica coffees, from Mocha, to Java, to a dozen other varieties of more costly “gourmet” beans, have a range of subtle and rich flavors. However, there is more to coffee’s taste than the type of bean used. The way the coffee is roasted ultimately determines how it will taste to the drinker.
CAFFEINE MUGS GALORE!!!!
Coffee is generally either medium roasted, dark roasted, or burned. (“Light roast” properly refers to a special German and Viennese roast that has little currency.) When coffee beans are medium roasted, the full range of their abundant and satisfying flavors is brought out. When coffee beans are dark roasted, they lose much of their subtle flavor but attain a deep richness that some enjoy, for example, in espresso. When coffee beans are burned, their refined flavor is destroyed. What remains is bitter and unpleasant.
Most fine coffee beans should be medium roasted. Junk beans are often burned, because, once you burn the beans, you can no longer tell what sort of quality they might have had if they had been properly roasted. The fact is, all burned beans taste the same: burned and bitter. Starbucks coffee is burned and bitter. You can tell when beans are burned because they take on a black color. We can only assume that Starbucks starts with the worst possible beans. After all, burning better beans is just a waste of money. Unfortunately, through the vagaries of marketing, not only has Starbucks become virtually omnipresent, but nearly every other coffee roaster has jumped on the burned bean band wagon. That is why, when you visit a shop selling a variety of whole coffee beans, most, if not all, of the beans have been burned black as hell.
Battling Coffees
In the ultimate coffee smackdown, it was yuppie Starbucks vs. Ronald McDonald and the Dunkin’ Kid. And the clown and the kid won!
Consumer Reports magazine said that in a test conducted at two locations of each emporium, its tasters found McDonald’s coffee to be “decent and moderately strong” with “no flaws.” On the other hand, the Starbucks brew “was strong, but burnt and bitter enough to make your eyes water instead of open.” The March, 2007 issue of the magazine, advises, “Try McDonald’s, which was cheapest and best.” And other blind taste tests have consistently rated Dunkin’ Donuts and MacDonald’s as the best tasting and Starbucks as the worst tasting coffee sampled.
So, if you want to find decent arabica coffee that is properly roasted and that therefore boasts subtle and satisfying flavor, you should shun Starbucks and try Dunkin’ Donuts and MacDonald’s. And, by the way, blind taste tests, for example, those conducted by Consumer Reports, consistently rate Dunkin’ Donuts and MacDonald’s as the best tasting and Starbucks as the worst tasting coffee sampled.
Dunkin' Donuts: Best Tasting Arabica
To see the valiant efforts of coffee lovers to debunk the myth of Starbucks Coffee, check out The Great Starbucks Coffee Mystery -The Starbucks Free Speech Campaign, a web site in which people who love good coffee explain and discuss the inferiority of the Starbucks product.
True coffee lover never go for Starbucks ashes in boiled water with sugar. True coffee fan would end up belly up after drinking starbucks espresso. It’s disgusting and tastes like an ash tray in auto-camping in east germany. The only guys who can beat them is Insomnia coffee. I think they brew their coffee of used tyres.
I have been off coffee for about five years, due to a problem with my colon. I was overjoyed to find that, on my new eating plan, I could drink coffee again, without colon problems. So I started out with an old jar of instant Yuban which had never been opened but which I hadn’t been able to get myself to toss. Omigawd, it was delicious! When I ran out of that jar, I bought another one for backup to a new bag of Peet’s. To make a long story short, the Yuban, the Peet’s, and a bag of Folger’s that I bought in desperation, all taste like burnt beans. Is this the coffee nowadays? I really hate that burned nasty taste and I am so afraid that is all there is. Can you suggest something I could try that isn’t burnt? I know the whole country can be trained to eat (and drink) stuff that I can’t just because I remember when it was good, like the green bananas that the whole country has been retrained to eat. With bananas, I can buy what everybody else eats and let them sit for a couple weeks until they are ready to eat. But how do I unburn coffee beans? Is ANY brand not burning the beans these days? If it possible to get some raw and roast my own without burning?
Granted I am ignorant. This is my first try at finding something drinkable on the internet. Thank you for any ideas.
There are still some good coffees around. Dunkin’ Donuts and MacDonald’s sell excellent Arabica coffee that is not burned or bitter. Try them! They’re excellent and beat Starbucks burned beans in every taste test that has been conducted.
Nothing is as bad as Starbucks .. coffee.. but really now.. macdonalds is not much better .. it still tastes burnt with high amounts acidity! Yuck!
McDonalds coffee is medium roasted. That is a fact! Therefore, whether you love it or hate, it is not and does not taste burnt.
Although you can roast your own beans at home (I have friends who do this), it is time consuming and takes time to learn. Honestly, I’d recommend getting some Starbucks coffee. Much more recent reviews of Starbucks have shown a great improvement in its flavour in the last few years. It’s what I drink and I can always pick out the subtle flavours of nut in the Columbian blend, and the cocoa and spices in the Guatemala. It’s never bitter or tasteless.
There are of course others to try, Douwe Egberts does a good pre-ground and I’ve heard good things about Gevalia. Try a few different brands and blends and see what you like.
I don’t think Starbucks coffee will ever lose its burned, bitter character. But, obviously, some people disagree with me and with the many surveys that have confirmed my point. Each to his own!
You’ve yet to provide a survey that’s current but, if that’s your opinion, that’s fine.
Personally, I go for Starbucks BECAUSE I can’t stand the burned, bitter taste of other (lesser) brands.
It is of course fine if you prefer the burned flavor of Starbucks coffee. Each to his own, as the saying goes. But Starbucks does burn its beans– that is not a myth! And your snobbish mockery of average American tastes doesn’t alter the fact that almost every one who took the many blind taste tests liked McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and found Starbucks coffee bitter and unpleasant. In my experience, gourmet coffee drinkers invariably agree with these assessments.
Bennett,
I liked the story on “burned coffee”:
“The fact is, all burned beans taste the same: burned and bitter. Starbucks coffee is burned and bitter. You can tell when beans are burned because they take on a black color. We can only assume that Starbucks starts with the worst possible beans. After all, burning better beans is just a waste of money.”
I have always hated Starbucks coffee and now I know why. While I am not a true coffee connoisseur, I do have my favorites. Two of them are Jamaican coffee and Kona coffee.
100% Kona coffee is in particular very mild and flavorful. Something to do with the volcanic soil and mountains I guess.
As far as suggestions, I guess I’d find an article on the best coffees to be interesting. As is obvious, I tend to favor mild coffees. Another one I like is Guatemalan coffee.
Your friend,
Frank