Sweet Caffeine Eases The Pain (Starbucks)

Member Name: SkyscraperFanClu

Product:	Starbucks
Date:	20/04/09 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheerily trendy, great coffee, pleasant place to relax, "you get what you pay for"

Disadvantages: Good value but not cheap .

Starbucks is a great place to relax from the stresses of shopping, work or whatever gives you the best excuse to sit around and drink coffee for an hour.
The coffee style itself is more American than Italian - huge mugs of steaming hot, rich and flavoursome coffee. The usual varieties are on offer are brewed to extremely high standards, plus a few unique variants are on offer. The lattes are milky and very thirst quenching, a deep, long coffee to unwind with while reading the papers. A double only costs 45p extra, and is well worth (indeed on especially rough days nothing less than a triple will do...).

The Starbucks mochas are outstanding, rich and smooth with neither a trace of bitterness nor the sweet syrupy flavour that spoils the mochas (or 'moccachinos') at various other coffee houses. The stronger cappuccinos give a better impression of the overall quality of the beans used and the techniques of extraction - and the results have never left me disappointed. Though the sheer scale on which coffee is produced here may leave you expecting an inferior final product that is quite simply not the case here.
Starbucks' frappucinos - cool, fruity drinks - are an excellent alternative in the summer months; the wild berry flavour is especially satisfying. A number of seasonal varieties are also produced - around the Christmas months the gingerbread latte and eggnog latte appear though I haven't tried these (apparently they are quite popular though).

Lunchtime snacks are catered for by a variety of sandwiches. These - like the coffees - are generously filled and rich in flavour. Various chicken varieties including a particularly nice chicken Caesar are on offer, plus a number of vegetarian alternatives. Cakes and sweet snacks are more abundant.
A large selection of biscuits, scones and muffins are available. I cannot claim to have tried them all but the few I have had were delicious. Cakes, crisps and other snacks can also be bought for consumption on or off the premises. The food selection is not as great as that of Pret A Manger, but Starbucks is principally a coffee house, not a café.

Unless it's gloriously warm outside, though, I recommend that you stay in. The best thing about Starbucks is the plush, relaxing seating areas with deep, comfortable sofas that you want to steal and put in your own living room. The whole area is non-smoking, which is an absolute blessing.
The Chester branch has a lovely fireplace in it, and I expect Starbucks in other cities have other unique features. In university towns expect these areas to be full of highly chilled students sipping excessive quantities of caffeine - myself included. It does cost a little extra to eat & drink in, about 30p on top of the price of a sandwich, but it's well worth it and the best way to relax from a heavy shopping trip or a hard day at work.

The only real downside to Starbucks are the prices - it is not extremely, but noticeably dearer than such high street rivals as Costa. That said, the coffee servings are far larger and taste better, so you get what you pay for. Starbucks is better value for money, but is more expensive. This is especially true of eating in - a quick snack can easily eclipse the £5 mark, which can put off a lot of people. It should also be noted that the variety of sizes and shapes of coffees on offer can confuse though not accustomed to such a selection, but the various types are quite easy to remember once you get acquainted with them.
The place comes highly recommended, though. The coffee is great and the atmosphere is brilliant. I could live there.


(As a final slightly off-topic point the question below "How flirtatious is the clientele?" is utterly pointless.)

Summary: Cheerily trendy, great coffee, pleasant place to relax, "you get what you pay for"