Starbucks 'Reserve': we've been had, of course.

It's for chumps, but for 'shits and giggles' thought I'd see how good a coffee sold by them is, that costs a pint of beer.

I do like a good cup of coffee, and I am willing to pay a premium for a premium product: to a point, not a fault.  Also, too much coffee in Japan in a fancified cafe is no better than from an automatic brewing machine: often worse, so it drives me to this chain.  Japan: process divorced from product, immunity to cognitive dissonance, the 'uncanny valley', and all that.  I'd just about kill for a cafe anywhere in Tokyo that could: make a machiatto with little foam, pull the espresso with any crema, and if they could do either of those without a bloody show.

The bloody show...  Rather charming onesan made this coffee for me, and rattled off the spiel in Japanese, corporate Starbucks has had scripted.  Good for her she found it about as silly as me, but hey, she had a job to do, and keep (and who can help enjoying an honest giggle from a girl half his age?).  Gave me the grounds to sniff before the machine did its voodoo.  And sure, it was good.

About as good as Starbucks coffee was five years ago...  Anyone else noticed the change?  I am no devotee - never was - but in less fashionable parts it was the more palatable option.  My palate has not aged so quickly.  That is to say, it's more likely the corporation found a way to skim money for cost-savings since most twats who go to Starbucks get something more masturbatory than my black coffee: 'venti no-fat caramel frapuccino', or such.  You want some coffee with your baby formula?



This snowflake knows when he's being had.