However, it's a gentleperson's sport, so I ought to show some manners, errr... "Crumpets, tea and caffeinated commentary!!!" Well no, I don't have crumpets and if I did, do you think I would share them! Yes, actually I would and will, when I can get my hands on some. But not this time. Anyway, you can make your own tea, or coffee, and read on if you enjoy coffee rivalries or just don't know what to do with the next 10 minutes of your life. Oh that's right, you're drinking coffee. Five minutes.
By Scott McLean
I was waiting in a McDonald's drive-thru Saturday night because I needed... well actually I wanted a large iced coffee from McDonald's.
A prog-metal song came on the radio as I was thinking about creamy iced coffee. I could have listened to love songs and thought about dreamy hot... coffee, but rock music is much more effective at keeping me awake, just not as much as caffeine.
Then a car exited the drive-thru...I'm moving, yippee!!!
As the vehicle slowly approached the window, somehow I held back my desire to finish off the Starbucks Venti iced Americano (you know, the big one) which I kept for comparison. Unfortunately the ice had melted.
Sadness overcame me? Nope. But it took too long to reach the window coz a family was ahead of me, or maybe it was just one guy with the appetite of an entire family. I'm not sure and don't care.
All I know is I got to the window and bought the iced coffee, parked, drank the coffee and was happy as a lamb, a ham, or (no, that's not it) oh yeah, a clam. The End.
I just wrote that because I always wanted to keep writing after "The End" just to confuse readers. haha
The Americano, which was almost gone, came close to perfection, with a little bit of cream and sugar. After a small sip of the McDonald's iced coffee, I finished the Starbucks Americano. I don't like to go back and forth much between two drinks these days. My taste buds might get confused.
This might be the best iced Americano I've had in my life, I thought to myself. It's difficult to say, but this one had excellent flavor.
The McDonald's iced coffee also seemed exactly the way it was supposed to be. Now I'm starting to sound like I should write fairy tales for coffee drinkers. But I'm telling it like it is, and was.
The weekend is an excellent time for spectator sports: football, baseball, and the newest sport I've been following -- the coffee competition between Starbucks and McDonald's.
Alright, it's not a real sport, for one reason because the fans of one coffee are way too nice to the fans of the other coffee.
I'm for good sportsmanship. However, fans need to get rowdy on occasion, paint their faces and bodies and basically always predict their team is gonna go all the way. And once in a while they are right. Still, nicey-nice just ain't gonna cut it.
We are customers who buy and drink the coffee and espresso drinks, so in that sense we are involved in the competition. So maybe we should put on our game faces. haha
There's a coffee fight brewing, which seems friendly right now, but don't get too happy-go-latte (I mean lucky) coz servin' up caffeine jolts is about more than how the game is played. It's business! But it doesn't hurt to mix in a little pleasure.
Along those lines, I'm out and about sampling the finest coffee and espresso drinks I can find. I'm sure some of you are as well.
Last week, I returned from Portland and Seattle, where the competition between Starbucks and McDonald's is more visible. In a couple of cases, the competitors are right across the street from one other.
One drive-thru cashier at a McDonald's in Washington turned up the volume on the rivalry, so to speak, by telling me about the coffee competition. I just listened, but he really got excited. Maybe I'll bring this up again.
I'm wondering if this competition is the reason the coffee drinks are better than ever, or perhaps it's only a coincidence.
In my opinion, it's not just McDonald's Vs. Starbucks. Other contenders may get into this 'friendly' fight for coffee supremacy. I'm not personally as interested in which chain is the biggest or how much coffee they serve to customers, but care about which coffee tastes best. That's what matters most to me.
It's of interest to this blog because good coffee no longer is only available in coffee shops. Some fast food outlets are now serving excellent coffee and hopefully it will keep getting better.
Note: In October, I went to Portland and Seattle. After returning from my trip, I wrote this article about the coffee competition. I reposted my article because I realized some of my friends didn't get a chance to read it, and because I wanted to write more on this topic.
