Orange Sky
September 19th 2004
These days, Starbucks has some pretty mediocre coffee. They’ve replaced all their real espresso machines with automatic ones that always spit out the same thing regardless of what idiot’s operating them, which is great if you never take the lid off your drink, and get shots of syrup injected into it, and blend it with with chocolate and carmel and other crap, and call it a “macchiato” even though it isn’t anything close to a real Macchiato.
That was me being a coffee snob. I don’t go to Starbucks for the coffee, even though it is pretty decent when there’s no other option (for instance, when you’re in Dixon, California, between hicksville and Davis, don’t go to the local coffee shop and order a cappuccino), no, I go to Starbucks because I have gift cards for Starbucks. Lots of them. So the best thing I’ve found to use them on is the music. Last year, Starbucks bought a small Berkeley record label called Hear Music, and they’ve put out some great collections of great music since then. Today, I picked up their “playlist volume 2, a quarterly guide to music”, after thouroughly enjoying the first volume. I highly reccomend it. The album is nearly a perfect mix of eclectic, thoughtful, diverse music, concluded with my new favorite song of the week, Alexi Murdoch’s “Orange Sky” [iTunes]. So if you’re a Starbucks regular, or if you just have some extra gift cards, don’t miss the music. It may just be the best thing there.
Simply out of curiosity (I’m not living in the US), how does one get Starbucks gift cards?
I get them as gifts! Seriously, people give me these in lieu of cash; I’m not sure what the preoccupation is with gift cards here in the US, but we have a lot of them.
If you mean “where can I buy one”, I think you can get them online at their web site, or at any of the stores.
Oh, so, sometimes instead of the “thanks for helping me, let me buy you a coffee”, you get a “thanks for the help, here’s a gift card to have a coffee”?
Kinda weird, but handy.
We have some pretty decent coffee here in your home town… if you need something for those all night study sessions you must be having…
They’re my fav, Stacy’s brew at the Ojai Coffee Roasters.
And the new guy is Coffee Boy (www.gocoffeeboygo.com)
Hope all is well with you.
Cheers,
Jodi.
Thanks Jodi! Next time I’m in Ojai I’ll check out all the new coffee joints, but until then we certainly have some of the best in Berkeley. “Brewed Awakening” is my favorite only 2 blocks away, and on southside there’s always Strada.
All is indeed well! Thanks for the comment.