In my very long life I have tasted 3 coffees at Starbucks. Singapore, London, Easyjet, and 1 chocolate at London. All of them were for me memorable and for all the wrong reasons.

Now recently I read that next year the SBB / CFF are changing form Lavazza to Starbucks. I am really annoyed at this move, for my taste Lavazza is an excellent coffee, and Starbucks is the worst. People have different tastes, but to change from a European coffee to an American one is madness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavazza

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks

I hate nothing more than seeing people drink out of plastic or cardboard beakers, this is the main reason I avoid all such beverages. the amount of wastage lying around on every corner and space is disgusting.

I hope that more people think like you Sbrinz, a boycott is what we need - at those times my wife and I were in North America and we never had a decent cup of coffee or a decent hamburger.

We'll be drinking beer direct out of the bottle next...

The March 2007 issue of Consumer Reports of American fast-food chain coffee called McDonald’s Premium Roast coffee to be "cheapest and best", beating Starbucks, coffee. The magazine called Starbucks coffee "strong, but burnt and bitter enough to make your eyes water instead of open".

Interesting yes?

I like Starbucks. Their food is OK, the atmosphere (in most of them) relaxing and comfortable. Their summer fruit crushes aer tasty as are their "strawberry and cream frappuccino" things.

And I like their lattes.

The only thing I don't like is their coffee. One can't really taste it in a latte which is why I don't mind them. THey do sell some pretty good packets of coffee beans though, for grinding and using at home.

A friend of mine keeps a box next to her coffee machine for the empty capsules. My first time there I picked up a used capsule by mistake and made a coffee, it tasted weak and had bits in it. Years late I ordered a coffee on Easyjet from Spain to Geneva, not realizing it would be a Starbucks, and it was weak and had bits in it!

Well, I think it all depends on what you want at what time.

I enjoy a nice strong Lavazza coffee in the morning. And as far as I'm concerned, MacDo coffee is excellent, good value for money.

But I also enjoy a long and somewhat weak Starbucks coffee that I can syrup while reading a book in their quite comfortable coffee places.

For me, the two kinds are not mutually exclusive but complentary.

Sounds strange to me changing from Lavazza to something (don't really know what it is and never want to try) like Starbucks (do they exist in CH? Who would ever go there for having some "american" coffee urgh, Germans maybe?).

I doubt that normal people like American (or American like) food or beverages,

what they do like however (MacDonald's) is the (also somehow dirty) easy athmosphere without having to read Galateo or Knigge ...

I want to know how Starbucks get the cats to piss into the cups.

Sorry mate but I may be being stupid but I can't make head nor tail of what you are trying to put over.

I wrote my bachelor thesis at Starbucks together while drinking ice tea and getting distracted by my ex-gf. I think the Starbucks shop has partly collapsed during the earthquake in Christchurch. I have nothing wrong to say about their shaken ice tea

Coffee is a crappy drink and it always amuses me to see coffee snobs argue over which crap is crappier than the other.

But let me give you all a free coffee from Starbucks tomorrow:

http://coffee.starbucks.ch/facebook/...voucher_ch.pdf

Not exactly a nice comment is it when we have people from New Zealynd on here!

I quite agree with the posters who said that Lavazza and Starbucks are complementary, rather than mutually exclusive, and I like their lattes too (vanilla, hazelnut, etc.). If I want a regular, simple coffee, I will go for sure for a Lavazza though!

I know this has been done to death on this forum, and I am sorry for that, but every time I see uninformed comments like this I can't resist. Making the statement above about American food shows your lack of knowledge, understanding, and appreciation for the impressive culinary diversity of the country, or simply, you have unluckily only been exposed to the McDonalds-type foods.

I hope you will have one day the chance to discover the culinary wonders of the USA: travel from the cajun cuisine of New Orleans, to the game meats of Wisconsin, to the Texan chicken-fried steak and barbecues, the Georgia peach cobble, homemade biscuits and gravy, roasted turkey with chunky cranberry sauce for Thanksviging, corn bread, pies, and the palate-heaven that is California: fresh produce all year round, fusion cuisine, winking at Italy, Mexico, Japan, Thailand, China, Vietnam, and many others. The list is long, and I haven't even written everything that was on my mind...until then, feel free to criticize McDonalds

Are you saying no one likes American (or American like food)? Or if they do, they aren't normal? There are over 300 million Americans. I am sure you will find a few of them who are normal. And who like American food. And who aren't obese. (had to cover all grounds here, before the American bashing could start )Possibly even as many as 30 million of them, which is, last time I looked, about 4x the number of people who live in Switzerland. OK, this is irrelevant, but I just wanted to point out there there are probably a few more people in this world who prefer American food to fondue. I will add, that I like both. And McDonalds has its time and place, especially once you have kids. And who doesn't like a Big Mac once or twice a year? Granted, you usually feel ill afterwards...

I agree with Keith66 and BokerTov

Gee sorry if I did hurt anybody;

by saying "normal people" I meant "common CH resident/citizen" or "not anglosaxon European" and as I think most of the forum's users are on Swiss soil you can take CH as a reference where it is not normal to have American food every day.

Of course it is wrong that all over the US food is bad or that there wouldn't be any local particular good cuisine (same maybe for UK), but what is exported to fast food franchisers all over the world is mostly worth quite nothing in terms of food itself - sorry.

Maybe regarding the way of offering it and the athmosphere it's different,

but you might agree that offering American coffee to a Swiss, French, Turk, Italian, Arab, Greek,

is a sacrilege.

You would think that they would learn from past mistakes. Their decision to put McDonalds on the trains many years ago ended in a major flop. I predict a repeat about to happen.

For decades I've been looking for grits ...

The problem with all that (sometimes very good) stuff is that they don't export it, or if they do I don't find it.

Well don't knock it if you cant find it. For years the World thought that Toblerone was the best the Swiss could offer as chocalate.

This thread is now weak and bitter.

Like a Starbucks espresso.

Oops thought that myself .. at least "among the best" ....