I normally don't write 1-star reviews and it's especially painful to write one for a store I visit frequently and a brand that I admire for quality and consistency. Todays coffee run to this Starbucks location was infuriating.
At first I thought I got lucky when I saw the drive thru line being much shorter than usual. I should have taken it as a sign that something was off. I'm a big fan of the dark roasts that Starbucks has, especially earthy ones like Sumatra and Komodo, or the balanced ones like Casi Cello and Verona. However, I'm not too keen on the super dark roasts like Italian, French or Espresso roast which are served as the dark choice sometimes. Therefore, the conversation at the speaker always starts with me asking what todays dark roast is. Todays reply was "we have our regular dark" - ugh - another new hire that hasn't been trained well. That happens once in a while and I keep my cool and ask her to please go check or ask someone. Today it turned into 5 rounds of "we just have our regular dark" until I felt the need to explain to her how Starbucks and roasts work and that there is no such roast called "Regular Dark". At that point the manager entered the conversation. I got my hopes up that I was finally able to find out and get my order placed. Instead, I was told that todays dark is Veranda. Ouch. I've seen new hire confuse Blonde Veranda with Dark Verona before. Easy mistake to make. No big deal. So I ask her to please go verify. The response was " we are serving our Christmas Blend". Finally a plausible answer and a good one, since this year's Christmas Blend is from a great variety of Sumatra beans and is actually one of the best that Starbucks has. I order my venti with cream and pull to the window for payment.
When she hands me my coffee, she tells me to be careful since it's very hot. Odd comment and I didn't think a out it twice, but was about to find out why. Luckily always take a small zip before putting the coffee in my cup holder and drive off, just to be sure I got the right order. I've been accidentally handed mochas and lattes in the past. Mistakes happen, no big deal, just zip and if wrong they will fix it. Today, I immediately noticed the coffee being much hotter than usual. Scorching hot like americanos are served due to the boiling water. The taste was not present either. It felt like they put a quarter coffee in my cup and topped it off with hot water. I don't like asking for do-overs but after the ordering incident and attitude, I wasn't going to take this. I asked her politely that my coffee tasted off and if I could switch it to Pike. Sometimes a brew goes wrong and a batch ends up off, so best to switch variety than get one more bad one. It took way too long to pour a new cup, which again was a sign that something was wrong. When I got my Pike, it tasted exactly as watered down and was exactly as excessively hot as the Dark. Clearly they are trying to mess with me. At this point, I felt bad for the people being held up behind me in the drive thru line, so I tossed my coffee in the trash and went to another store, where I got a good tasting cup at the right temperature as one would expect. Needless to say, I will be telling all of my family, friends and neighbors to avoid this store from now on. read more