It's Starbucks, for crying out loud! You're going to get exactly what you expect when you come here. And for that, I could give them at least four stars, I suppose. But if you expect more from your coffee shop than a mediocre cup of coffee that may or may not be made the same way twice, then take the three stars and be happy with them.
One look at my kitchen and you'd swear I am the biggest Starbucks fan in the world. And I used to be. I have at least 40 Starbucks mugs from around the world (and the US). Most I've collected in person during a visit. Some have come from friends who knew how much I loved Starbucks and wanted to add to my collection.
However, I grew tired of never getting the same coffee twice. This could probably have happened at any Starbucks, but it happened at this one because it's the one closest to my house and the one I visit most frequently. And yes, even though they never make me the same cup of coffee twice, I still go here because it's convenient and I'm too lazy to do it myself some mornings. I also used to order a bacon gouda breakfast sandwich nearly every morning (stop judging me), but more often than not, the outside was scalding hot and the inside was still cold, so I stopped that practice as well. I'm pretty sure I'm better off anyway. That thing has a lot of calories!
My drink of choice used to be an iced caramel macchiato. But often that drink would not taste the way I thought it should taste -- the way it tasted when I fell in love with it. So I switched to an iced vanilla latte. Really, it's not that different from an iced caramel macchiato, so I'm not too sure why I thought this one would always taste the same. Either it was too sweet or it was barely sweet. Neither one was a good taste for me. So I deduced that by removing the syrup from the equation, they'd stop messing up the drink. I turned to a plain ol' iced latte. I'll be darned if they didn't find a way to mess that up too! Sometimes it was really good. Other times it was really bitter. And I could tell immediately by the color whether or not I'd like it. It's like I was being punked! I was looking for Ashton Kutcher behind every corner, but no! It was just lazy baristas, I guess!
I gave up on Starbucks for a while, but then I was on vacation and there was a Starbucks and I decided to try something else: an iced breve latte. I loved it. It was amazing. I went home and ordered this drink from "my" Starbucks, and it was fantastic! Delicious! Perfect! Does it taste this way every single time? No. But when the proportions are off, it's less offensive somehow. I can better tolerate it when it's made wrong, so I continue going.
The other day it was so perfect that I considered going back through the drive-thru to thank whomever it was that made my drink. In the end, I decided that was just weird and kept going wherever it was that I was headed.
Most of the staff at this Starbucks is pretty good. Every so often they get someone in there who is either really quirky or just BAD, but the last two that started out that way have improved and it's not an issue anymore. They do have one girl who works there now (I won't mention her name to save her from embarrassment) who always sounds so bored when she is working the speaker. In turn, it makes me feel kind of like crap. I miss the days when Leonora was working drive-thru and you could FEEL her exuberance through the speaker! Leonora, please come back! Or the girl from Ukraine. I forget her name, but I loved her too!
A good 90-percent of the time I come to this location, it's drive-thru. Occasionally I'll go inside, but in the summer they seem to have a problem with bees. I hate fighting off the dadgum bees! This is a pretty popular location, so I do wish the inside were a little bigger. The tables are often all accounted for, so sometimes I'll go in hoping to have a seat, but will have to leave because there are no tables available. However, if you're lucky enough to get a seat, you'll probably also have an outlet nearby, which is also a really good thing. read more