Well, in case of the Utrecht opening, maybe the coffee tradition/culture locally is different.

In my country (Indonesia), the prevailing so-called “coffee culture” are usually traditional and more grass-root based. For example in the northern most province in the Island of Sumatra, the Aceh province, the coffee tradition there is to get outside the house 11PM in the night to the nearest “warung kopi” (coffee street-hawker). There they would start chatting and socializing with lotsa people into the morning.

Well, no cafe included. Starbucks in Indonesia are mainly patronized by middle-to-upper class society who can afford a $2-4 glass of coffee. That’s a lot for a country where the same class/strata can eat a decent meal for their standard for less than $4, drink included. So a coffee that costs the same as the meal? Well it’s “elite”!

“This leaves equipment tuning, cleaning and maintenance as one of the biggest suspects for why Starbucks’ quality can be so erratic. You might also suspect the shelf-life, storage, and turnover of Starbucks’ coffee at each café as well.”

The only time I saw people calibrating or getting inside the guts of the superautomatic espresso machines was when one of them broke. There was a sticker saying that each shot should take a certain length (forget the exact number of seconds) but I can’t remember that duration ever being checked. Maybe the manager did it when I wasn’t there but who knows.

We had high volume so you wouldn’t think that beans would sit around for very long, but unfinished 5-pound bags of beans were stored in cabinets behind the bar overnight with no special airtight containers.

So if it’s not bean supplies and roasting, what might be at the root of their inconsistency? You could point to the barista training, but their Verismo and Mastrena machines are designed to be push-buttoned and idiot-proof. Milk-frothing and syrup-pouring are some of the only variants they have that isn’t machine-controlled, and our ratings are based on straight espresso shots.

This leaves equipment tuning, cleaning and maintenance as one of the biggest suspects for why Starbucks’ quality can be so erratic. You might also suspect the shelf-life, storage, and turnover of Starbucks’ coffee at each café as well.

Thanks for sharing this data.

-Tommy

I paused at the first paragraph, hung up on the third sentence. A McDonalds french fry is a McDonalds french fry… that’s true. It’s easy to shut off your brain and just assume that it’s the same every time.

But when I stop to really think about it, sometimes my french fries at McDonalds are disappointing. Sometimes they’re over-salted. Sometimes they’re clearly not just out of the fryer, and they’re limp and a little soggy. Sometimes they’re TOO hot, and I stop myself from popping it in my mouth immediately, lest I burn my mouth. Sometimes they’re not quite cooked as thoroughly as I tend to expect them. I know that others can relate.

People usually say, of big chains, “You know what to expect.” What you don’t necessarily know is exactly what you’re actually gonna get. It’s the expectations that have been homogenized.