Although tea has caffeine in it, I think I'm right in saying that coffee also has a couple of other stimulants and hits people harder. Plus those Starbucks cups must hold nearly a pint.

Also: neo-dinner jazz. Thanks for that, you cunts.

Geographic issues? Really? I've been inhaling coffee since I was 17. 30 oz a day, minimum.

This may account for my number of posts.

And here I thought it was youth hockey in Winnipeg . . .

It might be a pint cup, but there's shag all coffee in it.

This data, which is the only thing I could find without paying for it, suggests that coffee consumption in the US had declined since the war as consumption of Coke, Pepsi, etc, have grown.

And this shows that Americans consume considerably less caffeine, relative to other countries, than one would think. The Dutch and Scandanavians, of course, are completely tweaked on the stuff.

So its not at all clear that Starbucks has increased coffee or caffeine consumption.

I do think, however, that it's put an acceptable face on a very widespread drug addiction. A respectable middle-class professional woman can claim "Oh, I just can't get buy without my caramel machiato triple-foam latterama in the morning. Hah hah! You know me, got to have my fix! ha hah" and everyone laughs knowingly and come off all cool and executive-like (of course, if anyone says that in your presence, you should smack them. Hard.)

In former times (by which I mean, like 1992), caffeine addiction was not cool and executive. It was the province of those wild-eyed English-major, black turtle-neck wearing guys I'd see down at the diner at all hours of the day and night, or long-haul truck drivers or students like me who always seemed to find that the only way to get a paper done was to work all night (which is why when I think of college, I think of a sharp pain in my stomach) or soldiers (my friend who went to West Point says that on long training excercises the only way to stay awake and keep marching was to eat the MRE freeze-dried coffee grounds dry.)

It wasn't really socially acceptable, but it was a lifestyle.

We're talking about all big cups of coffee from post-Starbucks chains, to be fair, Ton Ton. I bet some of them put coffee in there.

Actually, one of my housemates works at Starbucks, and brings us back free packs of coffee. They're really good, much nicer than anything you can get in a supermarket, and strong enough to make me want to dance to The Fire Engines (although that's down to how I make the coffee I guess).

I'm off thinking about the music/branding interface now, anyway, which is far more important. Microsoft commissioned Brian Eno to create the starting sound on their computers, whereas Apple use a rather smug synthesised version of the closing chord from the Beatles' A Day In The Life. Even befor eyou get to Apple's heavy implication in the promotion of U2, Microsoft are clearly better people, aren't they? Despite being cunts with stupid programs.

Some do, yeah, true enough. Caffe Nero do, for example. As do Costa. I OD'd on Costa once, forgetting how much coffee they use and ordering extra shots. I think it was Costa, can't think who else it would have been.

I'm a Nero man meself.

Reed of the Valley People wrote:

QUOTE:
I do think, however, that it's put an acceptable face on a very widespread drug addiction. A respectable middle-class professional woman can claim "Oh, I just can't get buy without my caramel machiato triple-foam latterama in the morning. Hah hah! You know me, got to have my fix! ha hah" and everyone laughs knowingly and come off all cool and executive-like (of course, if anyone says that in your presence, you should smack them. Hard.)

Walking into Starbucks over a year ago for her morning ridiculous blended drink, my mom fell and broke a bone in her foot. She got up and still went in to get the coffee before going to the hospital.

I started drinking coffee when I was about 12. Not every morning, but it eventually became that when I was in high school. I think the old wives' tale about coffee stunting your growth is true, and I point to myself as proof.

Nero are my favourite chain coffee in the UK (Monmouth on Monmouth Street make my favourite espress of all, and is where I buy my coffee for home).

From all this I think I'll say again that although I dislike Starbucks coffee, the company are just not insidious and damaging (except in as much as not buying fair-trade and so on). As others have said, the very fact of Starbucks has meant that every town in the US and most towns in the rest of the world now have some place which isn't scummy where you can go and sit down and read a paper and drink a non-alcoholic drink without feeling like you're stealing a table from someone who wants a meal. The fact that there are myriad independent coffee hosues who've become succesful enough to be chains is also a good thing.

And, by the way, the fact that the Scandies and Dutch are the most wired on caffeine surely gives a lie to the suggestion that the increase in espresso consumption has turned the world into a bunch of wired psychos.

(Although there is a bizarre but entertaining thesis that coffee is the driver of wars and imperial success).

I am forever thankful that I don't like coffee. I have a can/500ml bottle of diet coke a day at lunchtime and that's all the caffeine I need or want.

I'm buzzing on Delice de France espresso as we speak, but then I was heavily into the beers of Franconia and the Lower Rhine last night, and though the Schweinebraten sandwich did a manful job of soaking it all up, I'm still feeling a few effects.

Beer. There's an example. I never buy the "brand". Only people who don't care what they drink buy the "brand".

The Chubby Cyclist said:

"As others have said, the very fact of Starbucks has meant that every town in the US and most towns in the rest of the world now have some place which isn't scummy where you can go and sit down and read a paper and drink a non-alcoholic drink without feeling like you're stealing a table from someone who wants a meal."

I think this is another example of a key regional difference. In New York, and San Francisco, and Cambridge (Massachusetts), we had significant numbers of such places decades before Starbucks came along. They were called coffee shops (in California, coffee houses) and had infinitely more character and individuality (and better coffee) than Starbucks (even when they were part of a chain, like Chock Full o' Nuts or Horn & Hardhart). They were also cheap, which Starbucks most definitely is not.

Linus and I could no doubt bore the rest of you to tears by reminiscing about Berkeley coffee houses (we were Cafe Med people, linus), but rather than do that I would just note that the reaction to Starbucks in places where their "branding" and "purchasing synergies" have allowed them to displace such institutions (and other goddamn useful things like hardware stores) may well be different than that in places where we are just talking about who fills one of a dozen drive-throughs or one of 200 slots in a megamall.

Perfectly healthy then, hobbsey.

I have to say I agree with you on Apple though, depsite the fact I'm actually typing this message on a desktop mac right now (feel my rebelliousness). Apart from the overwhelming, cloying smugness that dominates much of it's advertising - most apparent in the Mitchell and Webb adverts they used over here - is the constant stream of balls about how great they are to look at. My old editor kept hold of a six year old mac that was basically knackered because it was 'a design classic'. What's that all about?

Everytime I see someone with a mac I get that Sainsbury's advert voice in my head - 'this isn't an ordinary laptop, this is a mac Air, which allows you to do lots of things you only need to do if you are a graphic designer, mmmmmmmmm let me lick your balls for your superior consumer choice.'

The announcement of the iPhone was one of the most embarrassing things I have ever witnessed - Steve Jobs entering stage right to the sort of raptuous applause that only those who believe they're witnessing the second coming of the technological christ. Apple are a cult, and one based almost purely on aesthetics. Bill Gates might be taking over your work place, but Steve Jobs wants to take over your life. Think about that.

M&S advert, you mean.

I hate M&S food. It's Vesta boil in the bag curry for Daily Mail reading old people, pretending it's haute cusine because it costs eighteen times as much.

Good pants and socks though.

M&S's dried pasta, extra-mature Cornish cheddar, Golden Wholemeal bread and sloe gin are all great. (Not all mixed together.)