Starbucks at Manchester Airport have two confusingly close and similar locations - both of which seem to be in Terminal One, which considering the other two Terminals lack a branch I find to be quite a waste - despite being listed online as Landside, this branch remains after security and is basically the first branch you see before going towards the gates and through BIZA Duty Free, where there is another branch.
It did seem pretty busy so there was a long wait to get served and only limited tables - the staff however did actually seem surprisingly friendly at ordering and once I had ordered my drink, it was made quite quickly - they were able to accept a voucher I had (to make up for a bad experience at another store which is a voucher accepted at all Starbucks locations), after clarification with the manager who explained the voucher and how it works to his subordinate who I presume was new. Otherwise my drink would have came to £4.45 for a Venti Iced Pumpkin Spice latte, which is around 13.5% more than the £3.95 they usually charge.
My drink tasted more of pumpkin than anything else and it left a bad taste on my throat to the point I couldn't finish it - with this being one of my favourite beverages at Starbucks across the year it was a shame how they messed it up. The drink also seemed smaller than usual despite ordering a Venti, which could be down to the fact they seem to use slightly different cups to different stores.
This Starbucks store is the only store I've seen to use paper straws and it was a real let-down for me, the paper straw began to sag and crumble before I'd even got to my table and left a horrible aftertaste on my drink, which meant I had to throw half of it in the garbage before boarding my flight to Stockholm - having had no sleep the night before ahead of a very early set-off and flight, I needed my caffeine boost and I thought Starbucks was a safe option for this but they just didn't deliver.
I really understand why they'd want to use paper straws but considering every other branch uses the green plastic straws, there is a expectation and consistency which needs to be maintained which this branch just fails to do, the consistency compared to other branches also doesn't match in terms of quality and waiting time - the only reason my drink was so quick after ordering was the fact I used a voucher and they wanted to make up for a past bad experience at a different Starbucks store but sadly they just didn't deliver that with overpriced, sub-par drinks which don't meet the Starbucks standards in terms of taste and appearance - even my coffee provided for free on my SAS flight was better.
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