Archived comment by Ellie:
I'm more of a hot chocolate gal! And Starbucks Hot Chocolate sucks, its all chalky and mankified. I go to Books etc for my hot chocolate, its cheaper than starbucks, plus theygive NICE cream and as much chocolate sprinkly stuff as you want!! Plus everytime you buy a drink they stamp your card and when you ahve 1 stamps you get a free drink, mmmmmmmmmm. Plus they guess my order all the time, its soooo cool. And they don't ask you to leave as soon as youve finished drinking like Starbucks did: GRRRRR. I'm off Starbucks for good, even though they have comfy sofas.

Archived comment by Arlene:
yeah, but I have to cut down on my soda consumption (teeth, etc) & it's cold in my office so I want tea (don't drink coffee) & I've become something of a tea snob. I can drink bagged tea, but I definitely prefer looseleaf. And while I like orange pekoe & other black teas, and I like my gunpowder, there are times when I want something way different. My best bet? gourmet shops that carry tea. *sigh* And since funds are currently low (Christmas shopping, such a joy), tho I did get some little $.79 jars of jam for my neighbors, etc.

Archived comment by Saint:
Was that sympathetic enough? Not-really-sad to say, I prefer cold drinks, and cold cheap drinks are a bonus.

Archived comment by Saint:
I'm very, very sorry. :(

Archived comment by Arlene:
Wahhh, I was in Williamsburg Market Square & I couldn't afford to buy any of the specialty teas at the gourmet cheese, etc shop. I bought some fabulous green pearl there this past summer. So I consoled myself with a chocolate truffle gastronomic delight at Wythe's instead. I'm just looking for sympathy. I really want something other than Lipton's for my hot tea right now.

Archived comment by triticale:
Reparcoffae would of course be more nearly on-topic.

Archived comment by JK:
I'm not leaving, just catching up on my summer reading (although it's more like winter/spring, since I'm only up to about February 2001 posts...)

And I've seen your idea of torment, and I'll take the adulation you shower umrguy and Mike with any day (after I come up with some repartee, of course)

Archived comment by Arlene:
yeah, JK come back. We love someone new to torment.

Okay, here's a wideawake drink. Take a 2 liter of Jolt. Open & allow to go flat. Use that to make your coffee.

A friend (who's allergic to caffeine) saw some people he was tutoring do this.

Archived comment by Jon:
Come back, JK! The only way to absorb all the IP lore is to become a part of it.

Last week, I lapsed back into my caffeine addiction at work... I was at a training location, with a Starbucks barista. *sigh* That's why I wasn't posting, if anyone was wondering. Still, I'm back to tea again, so it wasn't a total loss of control.

Archived comment by Karin:
Eve! It's okay...I've gotten through it and you will too...just get up and walk away from all computers for 10 minutes or so. You'll feel much better, and when you come back you will be able to see things at a new angle, at least it worked for me and my csci friends...

Good luck anyway

Archived comment by Passerby:
No wonder the guy thinks you need espresso instead of tea!

Archived comment by Saint:
I never thought I'd be glad I did fuzzy studies instead of CS. Eve, I'm in awe of your stress tolerance, that you haven't already gone radio.

Archived comment by Eve:
JK, that beverage sounds awesome.

...Day 4 of coding 12-17 hours a day. 25 hours 'til project submission. Eyes: dry and painful. Head: pulsing. Fingers: stiff, knuckles: crackly. Disposition: decidedly bipolar. Heh. Heh. *sob*

Archived comment by Saint:
Not that I'm advocating the use of drugs, but...
If you only drink coffee for the caffeine buzz, why not just hit your local dealer for some speed? Better and longer effect, and no vile coffee aftertaste (although speed has quite an aftertaste too, depending how you take it). It's probably even cheaper in the long run, compared to coffee-house coffee.

Archived comment by Rowdy:
Sorry, that last comment was in response to Mia. I wasn't just talking to myself this time. :)

Archived comment by Rowdy:
No, I work at the Books A Million in Paducah, KY. The drinks can be really great at Joe Muggs or really awfull. Depends on who makes them. If they're made according to the standard that they're suppose to be, nobody can really drink them. But the people I know have experimented around and found the best ratios for everything.

Archived comment by JK:
I just found this site, and have been reading back from the beginning, in order that I could understand all of the "in jokes"...

I was trying to keep lurking until such a time as I would be fully versed in IP lore, but felt compelled to add to this discussion thread because I worked at the local equivalent of the "corner coffeehouse" at one point in my life, and I wanted to reminisce over a concoction which I imbibed on a VERY regular basis (5-6 night)

Take a 25 gallon tub. Fill about 3/5ths with hot water, take an oversized filter (we special ordered ours) and put in a half a shipping bag of beans (unground), fill remainder of tub with hot water, cover, and let steep for 24 hours. When finished, take the sodden filter out carefully, let it drain out completely, and pour in one cup of vanilla flavoring to take the edge off.

Serve chilled, blended, mixed, over ice, or as you prefer. We had students come from several local colleges to obtain the nectar, and they claimed (and I believed) that it was more potent than any other drink we served. We used it as a base for our chilled drinks as a requested substitution for espresso shots.

The "Coffee classes" that we were subjected to explained why this was (supposedly) more potent than espresso: the pressure of the espresso process adds to the caffeine content, but the speed at which the water is passed over/through the grounds does not lend itself to really extracting all the caffeine from the bean, whereas the overnight steeping had no pressure, but leached all of the available caffeine from the bean.

It's scary to think that this wonderful concoction came from someone accidentally spilling a couple of pounds of coffee and not cleaning it up, let alone trying it the next day (my supposition, natch).

Unfortunately, we were soon bought out and remodeled, and the shop lost some of it's roughhewn ambience. It also lost most of the staff (myself included) and it revamped the menu. The new manager said something about competing with the new Starbucks going up across the street.

I personally avoid Starbucks (for this and other reasons), but there are no specialty shops conveniently in my area, so I am on an extended coffee withdrawal.

Thanks to you all for all the fun I have 3-4 times a day...

>>>Lurking mode engaged, longwinded mode disengaged

Archived comment by debi:
I'm pretty sure it would count as payola only if it were somehow coming from the people involved in selling the particular songs they request. If you find out one of them secretly moonlights for the record company, then you should worry:)!

Archived comment by Jos:
Yes, it's important to keep your coffee friends happy. I work at a radio station, so they get to hear whatever song they want. In return (I hope this doesn't count as payola), my coffee card gets punched a few extra times.

Archived comment by Mia:
I personally favor tea (peppermint) over coffee, but when I drink the latter it is usually the pretend, powdered stuff that you find in tin cans. I like the Starbucks frappachinos (?) from the grocery store in any flavor, but actually walking into a Starbucks to order a drink with too many names and a horrible odor would make me nauseous. On second thought, it might be the reek of the building (be it a store, cafe, or whatever) itself.

And Rowdy, was that Books-a-Million at Katy Mills Mall? I had a friend who worked there...she thought the drinks and such at Joe Muggs were great.

Archived comment by Arlene:
Something to make the coffee (& tea) drinkers cringe.

While my mom was hosting a card party (read: excuse to talk) she asked my brother, about 8 years old at the time, to refill her cup. Which he did. She took one sip & almost sprayed the table. He claimed that since she had not said what she had wanted he had used his initiative & filled it half coffee & half tea.

Archived comment by Matt:
Good god, Ben. I take back my statement in the other post about having a chemical tolerance. Can I offer you a speedball to even you out?

Archived comment by Ben:
When I worked for the store / roaster / coffee-bar I used to get my caffine fix for free. My typical drink was 6 shots of iced espresso. I'd have 4 or 5 of those in a given night. Do the math, thats 24 to 30 shots of espresso every night. I wish that I were exagerating, but the truth is I had acid reflux by the time I left there. Oh it was soooo good.

...and I wasn't addicted, I didn't have to drink coffee - just if I didn't I was cranky, tired and generally a miserable person.

Archived comment by Shadow:
Probably the best cappochino I've ever had is the one I can buy at the Quik Trip. I have deemed it the "Ghetto-Chino"(trademark). yum. I went to a Starbucks or some other coffee shop, and ordered one and it was bitter, not at all the sweet concotion out of the small machine. Obviously I added tons of sugar.

I have no class, but the ghetto-chino is the way to go, baby!

Archived comment by Rowdy (long time lurker):
The people I get my coffee from know me really well. They're my coworkers. I work at Books A Million and we have a Joe Muggs there. I thought I was a caffeine addict before I was getting it for free. :D

Archived comment by Chris:
Getting back to coffee..... Buying that espresso machine was the single best purchase of my life. My neighbors don't always appreciate the noise or smell in the mornings, but tough. It sure as hell beats a mile walk in the morning to get my cappucino from Starbucks.

Archived comment by Jim:
FYI--I come here for the cheerful banter, youthful sarcasm and idealism [refreshing, yet amusing], and the old guy cynicism [guilty on occasion, still amusing].

Let's try not to drag reality into this [after all, the site IS based in Berkeley]

Archived comment by Saint:
Do I have to add I found it rather scary myself? That incident, and a co-worker getting beaten to death by a drunk shift manager at a Christmas party, is why I only lived in Denver briefly.

Archived comment by Saint:
Sorry about that, Forever Innocent. I don't think Dunkin Donuts necessarily attracts more psychos than any other business, if that makes you feel better.

Archived comment by Karin:
So far my hometown is Starbucks-free, and we even have 100,000 people now! There are rumours they are building one there, which I think is a shame, because I can't stand coffee...

But here, where I go to school, we have Starbucks in the groccery store. Yup, walk in and there it is, a full-blown starbucks kiosk. It's crazy! I don't understand the coffeehouse thing...

Archived comment by Forever Innocent:
*long time lurker*
Being a female high school student who often goes to (or did up until now) Dunkin Donuts, that was one of the scariest things I think I have ever read on this site...

Archived comment by Saint:
I never drink coffee, but I have a coffee-server story all the same. And I'm going to share it, whether you like it or whether you don't.

I lived--briefly--in Denver, about three blocks from a Dunkin Donuts, which was in turn right next to a high school. I didn't go there much (the Dunkin Donuts, I mean, not the school--I never went to the school at all), but occasionally the siren song of sugar would drag me out at night. The customers at that time of night are pretty strange. So are the workers. Anyway. One night, a high school girl went there for donuts at 2 am. The night clerk raped and stabbed her, and dumped her in the high school dumpster. Then he went back to work. Some time later, while he was serving coffee to a couple of cops, the naked and bleeding teen staggered in, drawn by the sight of the cop car.

I'm pretty sure I had a point, but I've forgotten what it was. Something about pushy coffee servers, or maybe not. Oh well.

Archived comment by Bryan:
Folger's, Cafe Du Mond, or Cracker Barrel all the way :)

Archived comment by May:
PS.

Espresso tastes awful.

Archived comment by May:
I live in a small, weird place, and I go to school in another small, weird place, so I haven't really got the store front for me. But! In the school, we have a store, and there is the guy who works there all the time, because he er owns it. Anyway, I -rarely- go to the store, because well I don't like it, but I have friends who go there all the time, and they just kind of start chatting with him, and it's all really funny.

God, shudder. Just reminded me of how cramped up it is. It's a small place, and when there are breaks ALL the kids are in there. Like, HALF of the damn school. Arrr.

Archived comment by Roxy:
Starbucks loyalty? There's something interesting. I'm torn over Starbucks. First there's the argument of large corporations smothering small businesses, and as a loyal Berkeleyan, I try to spread my money around the local shops. However, as we learned from South Park and the Underpants Gnomes, large corporations are simply a sign of a healthy capitalist economy.
Then there's the problem of my own personal experiences with Starbucks. Somehow they're horribly obnoxious springing up everywhere you look - "Yeah, you better make it quick, kid. In five minutes this place is turning into a Starbucks" - yet never being where you need them. So many times I've been somewhere unfamiliar in need of some quick coffee, and after a fruitless search for a Starbucks, had to resort to a gas station.

Archived comment by Jos:
Like stylist loyalty, I had Starbucks loyalty, and moved away four months ago. I miss my baristas. There's no convenient Starbucks near me.

Archived comment by Jeremiah:
I'm only a social coffee drinker.
And I can stop anytime I want to, really.

Archived comment by Karin:
When I had my fun fast food job, we had a guy come in every day and order a cup of half regular, half decaf. Well, after 3+ years of him doing this I kinda knew what he was going to order...but he always got this pleased look on his face when I asked if he wanted the usual!!

I remember one time he didn't come in for a week, and when I asked him where he'd been hiding he got all embarrassed, wouldn't look at me and whispered "McDonalds" before running off to sit in his booth.

So what is my point? Something about how we all knew the regulars...almost too well sometimes...

Archived comment by Marla:
A question for the combined wisdom found within inpassing...

Does your local coffee person really know you? Or do they know you best of all? My sister recently ran into the funky coffee guy that I chat to every morning when I get my first coffee of the day and he introduced her to his friends as "'Marla's' sister � 'Marla's' the vague chick..." etc etc etc.

I am a vague person - but not THAT BAD!!

Does your coffee person know the real, non-wired, you? Or do they not have a full appreciation of the lucid self?

M:)

Archived comment by Nighthawk:
Come on, buy an espresso. You know you want one! Besides, all your friends are doing it...