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At some point the allure of premium branding just wears off if the thing you’re selling is now on every corner, I suppose? Just my speculation but what 20 year
by cromka 3y ago
At some point the allure of premium branding just wears off if the thing you’re selling is now on every corner, I suppose?
Just my speculation but what 20 years was considered a „specialty coffee” now has nothing on the actual barista-run specialty places. And people learned how their coffee can actually taste like.
Not to mention the effect advocates like James Hoffmann must have had on people’s general awareness.
- bhhaskin 3y agoI think it's more that a lot of people are starting to make choices because everything is getting outrageously expensive.
- jncfhnb 3y agoI’m not familiar with what you’re talking about. But in my experience as someone who has gotten mildly into coffee, Starbucks feels like a cheap brand that tries to push sugar crap on people. I had the vague impression that Starbucks was sort of premium and Dunkin’ was trying to become their equal in prestige, but now they both feel like they’ve sunk to the Dunkin’ level.
- xenospn 3y agoStarbucks to coffee is what McDonald’s is to food. Nothing premium about it.
- astrange 3y agoMcDonald’s is somewhat premium in many countries, the idea that it's poor people food is US-only but isn't even true here. Poor people work at McDonald’s, they don't eat at it.
- pseudo0 3y agoMcDonalds might be premium compared to a roadside food stall, but it's on the low end of the spectrum in first world countries. Anywhere I have traveled, McDonald's was just the emergency option if you just really needed food that wouldn't give you food poisoning. Also, poor people absolutely eat there. All those poor people working there get free food and employee discounts, others use the app, or they eat there once in a while as an alternative to more expensive restaurants.
- astrange 3y agoDon't know which ones you're going to, but Australia and Japan are very first world countries and they love McDonald's there. (I think US McDs is better than Japan's though.) Maybe I get that impression a little less in the UK, but that's only because their food isn't bad enough for British people to like it when they could be eating smack barm pey wet. Also, by somewhat premium I mean in the same category as Starbucks, not a sit down restaurant.
- SimianLogic 3y agoI'm pretty deep down the specialty coffee rabbit hole... but if I'm traveling or camping and don't want to bother with grinding, Dunkin' pre-ground is my go-to. Available pretty much everywhere and tastes good however you prep it.
- astrange 3y agoOne thing that's odd about "coffee culture" is that people act like coffee comes from "baristas" and not from coffee farmers. Although the farmers get it from the coffee plants.
- etrautmann 3y agoI don’t understand what you mean. This could apply to literally any supply chain anywhere. I typically associate a phone with the manufacturer, not a Congolese child mining cobalt ore or the sand that became the silicon wafers.
- acdha 3y agoStarbucks hasn’t been considered specialty coffee since before the war in Iraq. Their secret is that Americans like milkshakes and putting coffee in them makes people feel less guilty ordering one every day. Their dark roasts are designed to still be perceptible over all of the fat and sugar. That kind of worked back when the competition was Folger’s annealing to the pot at the local diner, but chains like Dunkin’ expanded and McDonald’s et al. upgraded and they all have better tasting coffee you don’t need to sweeten so much to cover the bitterness.