Everyone has an opinion on coffee
Somewhere along Starbucks’s path toward world domination, coffee became a subject of serious debate — right up there with presidential candidates, the Mideast conflict and, yes, barbecue.
Back in August, the We here in All We Can Eat ran a coffee poll, which Northside Social won (likely because the shop really knows how to stir up its social networks) and which stirred some little birds to chirp for their favorites online.
A month or so later, Going Out Gurus compiled a list of the best coffee shops in the area. Somewhere, a barista is still stewing over his snub.
Which brings me to some recent social commentary about our increasing obsession over a cup of joe. The first is from singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding, who has lived under the jackboot of Starbucks’s totalitarianism long enough to pine for the softer, Golden Age of the Starbucks empire. A sample lyric from the video above:
Coffee Snobs – watch more funny videos
And I miss the old Starbucks/
But the new one’s just the same/
It’s got coffee, CDs/
It’s even got the same name/
I wouldn’t have even noticed/
If you hadn’t have told me/
There’s a Starbucks where the Starbucks used to be.
If Harding’s tongue is pressed firmly in his cheek, then director Eric Appel has stuck his far past his lips, giving coffee snobs (like me) the razz in the Funny or Die video above. As much as I love the vid, I have to say, I have not experienced the sheer, unadulterated derision portrayed in the skit (though I’ve heard plenty of baristas complain about the milkshake-like coffees at Starbucks).
So how ’bout you? Have you ever been treated like a knuckle-dragger at a gourmet java emporium?
