Pity they make such awful coffee.
similar to OP, I travel constantly for work. seeing the big Starbucks logo is a huge comfort. I think one aspect is down to the training. Starbucks employers know how to serve up their mediocre coffee, and that appreciate. I can't count the times that I've been in a random city, decided to try a local place for coffee, and then had to explain why I didn't want to put raw sugar in my iced coffee. There's a pretty key attribute involved in quickly dissolving sugar in a liquid. The "ice" is not one of those attributes. Even places like dunkin donuts fail to train their employees on the sugar dissolving mechanics. Starbucks allows me to order a coffee and then actually drink it, rather than chew it...
That's a valuable quality!
I travel heavily as well, and I can't think of any trip recently that did not include a Starbucks visit (FWIW, Panera is my other go-to). I know what I'm going to get (and not get) when I go there, and the last thing I need on the road is more random variables.
When I am at home, I stop in every day at a local small coffee shop that imports their own beans, roasts them, etc. The coffee is WAY better than anything at Starbucks. But independent places can be very hit or miss (as you note). I wouldn't go to an independent coffee shop on the road unless it came highly recommended by someone local.
I don't go to Starbucks because it's the best possible cup, I go there because it's the best possible consistent experience.
If you're interested in Japanese coffee culture you should read Merry White's Coffee Life in Japan which shows how rich Japanese coffee culture is and how it has influenced the recent speciality coffee movement in the US including popular places like Blue Bottle.
I'm not saying the Kissatens generally in Japan aren't great, they are! I love them to bits. They serve good food are independently run and have a really nice casual atmosphere and friendly owners, and unique character quite often with children and or dogs running around...
But the coffee often isn't that great, they can be quite smokey (Starbucks is the only nonsmoking coffee shop I've found in Japan) and the vast majority don't have wifi. I can see why a "digital nomad" might be attracted to Starbucks you know what you'll get and you can hang around working without feeling bad.
Thanks for the recommendations, I'll try and check them out.
In any case, if you care at all about coffee why would you even consider Nescafe as an alternative, instead of good old brewed coffee?
Their blonde roast is the only roast they sell that comes from beans roasted optimally.
Other interesting things I learned:
- coffee beans are actually the pits of a cherry plant
- the higher the bean is grown from sea level, the better the quality
- good beans roasted properly create a coffee that is naturally sweet requiring no additional flavours or creams and tastes great just black
- Ily, the Italian coffee brand, sells one of the highest quality coffee grinds you can get from a supermarket
- coffee commodity prices are cyclical and producers will hold back or flood the market depending on the commodity price. As a result, you can time which beans will be fresh and which ones will be stale because they were held back during low price periods
Wrong: if you go in a bar and order an Illy espresso you'll pay more or less 1 euro. This price is the same as any other brand, even the cheapest ones. There seem to be no price difference in Italy based on brand (in bars). If you go to Venice St. Marco's square where a coffee at the table will cost you easily 8 euro, and you order it at the bar ans drink it standing (the standard way), it will still cost you 1 euro. It's like a political price, as could be beer in Prague or fried rice in Bangkok. Don't touch those prices or you'll get a revolution :)
Right: at the supermarket Illy is one of the most expensive brands. It's about 5,5 euro for 250 grams, compared to 3 euro for a good Arabica brand or even 2 euro for a cheap brand.
Mind: the bar and the supermarket Illy coffees are different, the bar version being much superior.
I like Illy (if you love it, you may want to go to Trieste and enjoy it there) but I still prefer to get it freshly grinded from somebody who toasts in place. I especially like one in Venice, where it goes from 12 to 25 per Kg, the good one costing as much as the Illy. Nothing compares to a freshly grinded good coffee.