When I first started ordering coffee from Starbucks, I refused to go by their “Short*”/“Tall”/“Grande”/“Venti” classifications. I couldn't stand the pretension of having cup sizes in another language. And I was downright offended by “Venti”, which they went so far as to trademark (even though it's just Italian for “twenty” (as in 20oz (except in ( Read more... )

Yesterday I saw The Starbucks Challenge: Starbucks promises to brew a cup of Fair Trade coffee when asked... for the same price as their standard cup.

This appeals to me, so today I went in to the store by my office and asked for a cup. Immediately the guy offered to press me one, but said it'd be four minutes. Sure! It's not like I was in any ( Read more... )