A lot of people think Howard Schultz is a genius. The coffee company he bought a couple of decades ago has morphed into a chain with thousands of stores and tens of thousands of employees. He watched helplessly as an entire Third Wave of artisans muscled in on his "specialty coffee" niche. Belatedly, he tried ever-more-complicated drinks, ever-more inedible food & drink, ever-more fancy-shmancy stores. Through it all, he continues to pretend that Starbucks is all about the coffee. How quaint.
If point of fact, Starbucks has become a global candy store that pours sugar and fat down the American gullet. The original concept of Italian coffee, served at stand-up bars in the colonnaded streets of Milano and Bologna, poof! The proof: a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal to teach us the front-line mechanics of espresso. All of a sudden, Uncle Howard and his brand managers had rediscovered the macchiato, an espresso "marked" with a dollop of foam. This follows last season's Australian import, the Flat White, which baristas (not to mention customers) can't even understand. It's sooo much easier to ask for the smoked butterscotch Frappuccino, don't you think?
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