i forgot about this, I wanted to send a small box to the UK, the wanted 65fr also, I went to france and posted it for 6 euro....

i am posting a moving box sized item 30KG from germany to Denmark, by DHL, registered/tracked for 29 euro. for fun i may check the swiss prices to have a laugh.

swiss post is 5-7 days 130chf and within 2 days 405fr !

That is because they use half a liter of milk for a cappuccino, which is absurd. But still in Italy a cappuccino costs 1.2 € and they make a living.

Ok, that one's definitely not true (the taste aspect, I mean). Switzerland's always been a pioneer country in terms of decent coffee machines for home use because people very much know what good coffee is.

However, you definitely have to brew it at home. With very few exeptions, there's no decent coffee to be had at restaurants.

Peter

Starbucks is succesfull due to its yuppie foo-foo factor. End of story.

I (respectfully) disagree.
We have an all-automatic Swiss machine in the cafeteria in our company and it makes weak, untastefull coffee, for 2,10 franken.
I bought a 40€ eletrick moka which makes much better coffee of 10-20 times costing Swiss machines, sure it's not automatic and you have to know what you're doing, but I shocked a lot of my collegues with the coffee I make, one even told me regretting buying one of those all automatic for his home.
None of my Swiss collegues knew the distinction between arabica and robusta, the basic distiction btw.
I just don't see the culture of coffee here. The fact that there is no Starbucks on Italy and there are here, should tell you something.

http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/5/...aly+This+Month

Tom

It's an hoax.
Bufala = hoax in italian

http://www.milanotoday.it/economia/s...naio-2012.html

Their invasion of Italy will be like the one of Russia by the Nazis.
Il caffè al bar is an institution in Italy, especially in Naples.
The price competition is unbearable for Starbucks as you can get a very decent espresso for 70 eurocents and i seriously doubt they will sell a lot of americanos.
Perhaps they will get away with frappuccino and caramel latte but it will fade out when the hype will pass. I bet u will see mainly tourists there.

No more not less of what has happened with Mcdonald too.

It's probably not so much a problem of the machine but one of poor settings and poor (cheap?) choice of coffee. Garbage in... garbage out.

Could the coffee snobs start their own thread (or just join the existing Starbucks threads) and leave the rest of us to be outraged in peace?

I don't even like coffee and this thought disgusts me.

Partially, because I love the whole Italian-ness of espresso and the machines and the sit-down with little cups, etc... But, mostly because, I can envision all of the To Go cups with Starbucks logos littering the canals, etc., of Venice.

Only in those countries silly enough to support them! They failed in australia and pretty much pulled out of the market since the locals go to real coffee places not yuppie places serving crap

Staying in a 3 star hotel in Vervey, crap dinner costing over 100 chf a head with the cheapest wine, WTF!

It's okay if you hate Switzerland for any reasons. We have too much immigration anyway. At least the German immigration seems to slow down.

If the horrible auslanders leave who will do the work? The country will collapse.

Swiss people work too, you know...

And Switzerland has always been an immigration country, which is great. I just don't like folks that come here and have nothing but complaints. That the bill in a restaurant was too high, and this and that sucks and bla, bla.

You have noticed, haven't you, that a lot of what is written here is sarcasm? You know it's a British thing: If you don't like something you stay polite about it, but if you like it you rail against it as if there's no tomorrow. In no other country do you, for example, get handicapped people complaining that people don't make enough jokes about them.

What? That's reta... Oh.

I guess in general I understand British humor since I love Monthy Python and from time to time even watch Little Britain on Swiss TV...

In internet forums smileys are useful if you want to say something was indeed just sarcasm or whatsoever.

The point is to be "straight-faced".