Starbucks uses what are called automatic espresso machines, devices that grind the beans and brew the coffee at the touch of a button. Both programs are heavily automated, but McDonald’s is more so. In fact, if you look unhappy or Italian enough, the staff may even rummage in a cabinet in back of the cash register and produce a properly scaled, ceramic demitasse for your straight shot.
Admittedly a pure shot of espresso is not a frequent order at Starbucks either, but it is on the menu. When I asked whether I could order one, the counter person consulted a manager who indicated that this was possible, but even after a button-poking run through the cash register data base she could not tell me how much that simple drink might cost. An ordinary straight espresso without milk was not a menu option at the two McDonald’s we visited, for instance. Then there is the “we know coffee” angle pushed by the Starbucks New York Times ads. The Starbucks website claims that if one considers “our milk options, number of shots, various syrups and the choice of whip or no-whip, we have up to 87,000 different drink combinations.” You can squeeze a lot of options out of the much simpler McDonald’s menu too, but nowhere near that daunting number. McDonald’s offers two milk options, Starbucks five, including soy (for 40 cents more). McDonald’s offers a choice of five syrups. For example, the potential number of variations available to the consumer (in syrups, in milks, etc.) is much larger at Starbucks than at McDonald’s. Big Menu, Small MenuĪ pure taste comparison of two sets of similar beverages overlooks other major differences between the two programs, of course. Instead we used the familiar schoolroom A through F scale. In reporting our evaluations, we decided against deploying the usual Coffee Review 100-point rating system as too recondite when applied to what are essentially coffee-powered versions of fountain beverages. Our assumption was that by attentively sampling the four we could get a general idea of how the programs generally match up from a sensory perspective.
(Note that Starbucks retains the traditional “caffè” in “caffè latte” and “caffè mocha,” whereas McDonald’s reflects current vernacular by shortening the names to “latte” and “mocha.”) We bought the modest, twelve-ounce size of each of the four beverages (“tall” at Starbucks, “small” at McDonald’s). Our choices: A cappuccino, caffè latte, caffè mocha (espresso, frothed milk and chocolate syrup) and caramel latte. We sampled four different hot, espresso-based beverages in two McDonald’s Northern California locations offering the new McCafé menu, and the analogous four beverages at two nearby Starbucks locations. Hence our McDonald’s/Starbucks espresso beverage taste test: one skirmish observed in the Great War. Finally, coffee is buried in the drink somewhere, and its character and quality does have an impact on how much pleasure we take in all of the milk and the syrups. Frothed milk can be frothed in different ways, some syrups are better than other syrups, and the drinks can be assembled differently. The battle front that seems to have escaped much comment so far, however, is how the beverages themselves stack up. The business press calls winners on the basis of the bottom line, and generally appears to be of the opinion that the Arches will wreak considerable havoc on the Mermaid. McDonald’s is rolling out its McCafé line of espresso-based (OK, milk-based) beverages with a national advertising assault of old-fashioned scale and intensity, while Starbucks, the Chain that Brought the Caffè Latte to Main Street (plus strip malls, high-rise lobbies, et al) has retaliated with full-page ads in the The New York Times, ads of the reasonable-sounding, text-heavy type that non-profit organizations run to set the record straight on political, social and economic issues of great importance to the Republic. The latest front in what the business press likes to call the Coffee Wars is clearly more a battle about frothed milk, whipped cream and syrup than about coffee.
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