If aliens came to overtake our planet, they probably would think our planet’s name would be Starbucks. The global purveyor of crappy, over-roasted, calorie laden caffeine drinks has a foothold in 65 countries around the world.
As a person with an intense love of coffee, the obsession over Starbucks baffles me. If you love coffee and drink Starbucks, then you don’t love coffee. You have the taste of a regular coffee, which is somewhere between acidy, over-roasted tires and freshly smoked cigarette butts. Their cappuccino doesn’t even taste like a cappuccino. It’s espresso laced foam on top of coffee-flavored milk.
This brings me to the countries that are lucky enough not to have one. The irony of ironies is that Italy does not have one. The country that is the basis for their business has rejected them. It’s where CEO Howard Schultz got the idea to bring coffee culture to the world.
The other irony is that many of the bean-growing nations like Ecuador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru don’t get to taste their beans get ruined by a corporation.