Free tea and coffee what is all the fuss about ?

Drink what you like and ignore the snobs – unless you’re a fashion victim.

Vintage Bintage

😆

suggesting that certain groups of people based on country of origin are somehow suited to partaking in a certain beverage.

Dunno about that Binners, there’s quite a few women with beards sat staring at (big) macs in my local golden arches.

Oh and more seriously I reckon the majority of the Waitrose free drinkers are pensioners and that, and probably not going to be spending much money in local cafes anyway.

I’d love to do a blind test with some of you coffee snobs with Starbucks coffee and some independent. I’m not saying it’s the greatest coffee in the world, but it’s not shit. You may not like lattes and whatnot (and sometimes the staff to cock these up if you get a bad branch, or especially if you are at a service station – they aren’t actually Starbucks staff usually) but the coffee itself is decent enough.

It’s always fun to ask for “a coffee” in a costa or Starbucks, it’s as if such a drink never existed.

What’s the problem? Would you go into a bakery and ask for a ‘cake’ or a BMW dealer and ask for a car, and not expect any follow up questions?

I’m not a coffee snob but I still think Starbucks coffee is pretty crap. Doesn’t taste of much.

Caffe Nero is alright IME but I’m far from an expert.

Jeeze some of you are getting all uppety just because Waitrose offer free Tea and Coffee??

Seriously?

You need to get on your bikes more 🙄

it’s not shit

It is.

Hence why it is disguised by being added to a bucket of milk along with a seasonal syrup flavouring.

It’s all in the grind, Sizemore. Can’t be too fine, can’t be too coarse. This, my friend, is a science. I mean you’re looking at the guy that believed all the commercials. You know, about the “be all you can be.” I made coffee through Desert Storm. I made coffee through Panama while everyone else got to fight, got to be a Ranger. Now it’s “Grimesy, black, one sugar” or “Grimesy, got a powdered anywhere?”

Grimes, 3/10/1993, Mogadishu

Molgrips, I disagree with you about Starbucks, I always find it tastes a bit burnt. Not a coffee snob either, quite happy with Costa etc, even Maccy D’s is acceptable.

This is based on normal coffee BTW, filter or americano.

Off to Waitrose now for a free coffee, anyone want one?? Might pick up a free paper too. Better odds than picking up January 2013.

Yes please, see you downstairs 😉

It is.

Hence why it is disguised by being added to a bucket of milk along with a seasonal syrup flavouring

Do you think they always do that? Is that why you hate them so?

I don’t like the epsresso at Costa or Nero as much as Starbucks – it’s got that sweet cloying texture that I find hard to drink. Starbucks espresso is more dry, astringent.. prefer it.

One latte = about 40m on a bike

Which is the better choice?

The Italians know a thing or two about coffee – cappuccino after breakfast??????

Going past all the which coffee is best stuff, so what if Waitrose offer free coffee? Isn’t that called a free market? How can you ban somebody doing something because it will put somebody out of business.

Do any of you who run independent coffee shops shop on amazon, CRC, Wiggle, Tesco, Shell, BP etc?

Going past all the which coffee is best stuff, so what if Waitrose offer free coffee? Isn’t that called a free market? How can you ban somebody doing something because it will put somebody out of business.

The Americans have quite a good line in this. For a country that seems to love the free market and hate regulation there’s an awful lot of stuff that prevents fair competition. Just look at how Tesla are banned from selling direct to the consumer.

Starbucks coffee tastes a bit burnt/smoky because they roast it to within an inch of its life. Some people like it because they’ve drunk instant for years and possibly still do so at home, so a coffee that’s espresso based, even if it’s from one of the chains, is a treat. It’s always going to taste better than Gold Blend or equivalent. Given a choice of the big chains, I’d drink Starbucks on taste alone (though Costa improved their coffee a lot – it’s their ubiquity that turns me off a bit), but not on principle if there’s an independent nearby. Of course, plenty of independents will do a perfectly good espresso and dilute the shit out of it because they’re too stingy to do an extra shot in a mug. In which case they can arse off too.

If I’m in Costa I’ll drink a cortado or espresso macchiato – better than the Starbucks verison, and the best vehicle for their espresso imo.

I’ve dried Monmouth Coffee espresso and some independent place in Canary wharf, and I couldn’t drink the espresso straight.

if it wasn’t for the turgid crap most people serve up as tea, designed for those with no taste buds, probably 20 a day smokers and the like.

5 Woodbines add a certain “je ne sais quoi” to my 2 cups of co-op red label to get me kick started in the morning and out the door to walk the whippet…

I’d love to do a blind test with some of you coffee snobs with Starbucks coffee and some independent. I’m not saying it’s the greatest coffee in the world, but it’s not shit. You may not like lattes and whatnot (and sometimes the staff to cock these up if you get a bad branch, or especially if you are at a service station – they aren’t actually Starbucks staff usually) but the coffee itself is decent enough.

Likewise. I generally drink at an independant when I’m in Andover (Blue Onion for the locals) but I can’t say the coffee is immensely better than the Costa down the road – I just like what they do, they price fairly and think they are worth supporting. The coffee is excellent to my taste, but I doubt I’d tell it from Starbucks, one espresso v another.

So anyone going to the London coffee festival? i’m sure theres lots to get your goat enjoy and some bearded hipsters with sleeve tattoos to gawp at not forgetting the coffee. theres even a starbucks there if you feel uncomfortable.

Whenever I am in my home town I walk past Costa, Starbucks etc etc and head to my indie coffee shop. Everytime.

Same when there used to be one in central Manchester too.

Anyone who will take ‘free’ coffee or tea over a decent indie needs to have a word with themselves.

Well its threatening to put them out of business in Wokingham

Assmuning you own one of them, which one? Could do some STW secret shopping.

Going past all the which coffee is best stuff, so what if Waitrose offer free coffee? Isn’t that called a free market? How can you ban somebody doing something because it will put somebody out of business.

Your faith in the free market is touching. However, big companies can use their size/clout in ways that are actually anti-competitive.

It’s all fashion/marketing/image bol licks

It all tastes rank and smells of burnt baked beans

*sups mug of tea*

Ahhhhhh

What?!

I’m a regular Waitrose shopper but I go because they sell stuff I want to buy, not for the free coffee. I find it a bit bizarre that people wander about the place with coffee in hand. Strangely I haven’t seen much sign of spillage.

As for the othe other coffee chains, I don’t go anyway. HOW MUCH?

I actually rolled my eyes when I walked in to my local Waitrose and saw folk queuing for the coffee machine (only a small store, no room for a cafe so the coffee machine is on the side of the customer services desk)

the funny thing is you have probably paid for that coffee in other ways by shopping at waitrose (depending on what you buy obviously)

I dont shop at Waitrose or John Lewis- even though there is a John Lewis nearby. It just strikes me as 50-somethings/the St Michaels/M&S from back in the 80s’. Dont give a shit as to the range of food they sell. They always seem to be full of people pretending to have money (or old people who actually have money).

However, big companies can use their size/clout in ways that are actually anti-competitive.

True. But the coffee shops will have to turn to quality rather than cheapness.

Hora you dont shop at John Lewis? well you did ‘back in the day’ 🙂

I feel like I should post on this thread. I have nothing to say but I’m supping on my tea and reading through this instead of working. I like tea and I like hob nobs. 🙂

grum – Member big companies can use their size/clout in ways that are actually anti-competitive.

And what is your solution? ban large companies from giving away coffee while people shop? Ban large companies from competing on price, banning large companies altogether?

Funny how nobody has answered the question about using amazon, CRC etc.

So anyone going to the London coffee festival? i’m sure theres lots to get your goat enjoy and some bearded hipsters with sleeve tattoos to gawp at not forgetting the coffee. theres even a starbucks there if you feel uncomfortable.

I think, while happy for folk to do most of whatever they want in private, I’d be uncomfortable with such a mass public display of masturbation.

Funny how nobody has answered the question about using amazon, CRC etc.

I’m guilty of putting up a recent PSA concerning an e-book available from the big A. Have made a conscious effort this year to avoid them as much as possible.

And what is your solution? ban large companies from giving away coffee while people shop? Ban large companies from competing on price, banning large companies altogether?

Funny how nobody has answered the question about using amazon, CRC etc.

Tighter anti-monopoly regulation? There’s plenty of instances of supermarkets abusing their power.

And yes I sometimes use CRC, but I do try and use my LBS for stuff when I can.

It’s stupid to suggest that people have to be ethically pure in every way before they’re allowed an opinion.

I do like tea too.

Funny how nobody has answered the question about using amazon, CRC etc.

Are they giving away free coffee too?

its a selfish way of drinking your coffee that benefits nobody but your own narcissism
Me, I’m about to make a nice espresso with beans from Mrs Workye Shallo’s farm in Yirgecheffe.

she gets $1 extra for her beans due to a direct trade approach that is far better than the ‘fair-trade’ label that means very little to a farmworker on a plantation.
i get exceptional coffee, she gets money to invest in the farm, what do you get in waitrose? you get to queue in a supermarket for a cup of turgid coffee that benefits nobody except waitrose.