Walt's Corner

They’ve forgotten the face of their father. They’re too big for their britches. You can’t get to be that big without cutting corners when you are mass producing a product that can be easily reproducible while trying to maintain a profit margin big enough to keep your employees and keep that board of directors fat, rich, and happy. They’ve brought in a new CEO who is going to try to right their wayward ship.

Bottom line – they don’t adhere to my 4 Bs of Coffee. What Starbucks did accomplish, however, was to turn the public on to buying single servings of coffee that were vastly superior to the Maxwell House, Folgers, and Farmer Brothers coffee that brewed through the average Americans’ Mr. Coffees every morning. By popping up on nearly every corner, everyone had easy access to a cup of coffee, whether that was in the form of a Latte, espresso, or pour-over. That made people in the know of what a good cup of coffee should taste like, think to themselves, I can do better. And they did.

I know what you’re thinking. “The 4 Bs of coffee? I’ve never heard of them!” That’s because I just made that shit up, but they still hold true.

So what are my 4 Bs of coffee? Beans, Burn, Burr, and Brew. Starbucks has a handle on Burrs only, while some may argue they also got a handle on the Brew as well. I fall into that camp with a disclaimer. I’d say they have a partial handle on the Brew in some areas while others they do not. The coffee snob in me says they don’t while the more level-headed logical part of my brains gives them credit. More on that in a future article.

Over the next 4 articles in my Coffee category here on my Corner, I’ll dive into each of those Bs and we’ll see where Starbucks is fucking up.