Thanks,
I was just curious, I have no intentions of working at starbucks in Taiwan…I am actually already hired as a worker teaching english.
Thx, your input was interesting however.
Jeff
Yep… there’s a grand total of… 3 or 4 Starbucks in Melbourne competing against hundreds of nice little greek/italian cafe’s. I’m missing those little alleys like Flinders Lane 
Though I’ve recently been introduced to the Frapaccino’s… only thing I would get a Starbucks.
While on the topic of coffee… anyone know where I can get REAL ice coffee in Taipei? Not coffee with ice cubes in it. Coffee with cream, ice-cream and some caramel. That’s the bomb!
Right here! 
Why drink coffee when the real buzz is in tea?
I wouldn’t’ve been caught dead in a Starbucks in Seattle. But here they’re like the safe haven I need every once in a while.
Taiwan does funny things to you 
While I hate how starbucks has McDonaldized coffee, I stop complaining when I remember how 5-6 years ago your could only get watery/weak coffee from the “local” independent vendors. If I go back 10 years then your only choice was Mr. Brown.
As for local outstanding coffee, some of the best coffee I’ve ever had in Taiwan is at Cafe Ole in some back alley off of Nanking & Kuang Fu. They had one person (the owner) whose sole job was to foam the milk and run the espresso through an ice bath before making the ice coffe so that the ice cubes wouldn’t melt too much. Plus high-end stereo & sound music choices…
McDonalds coffee is better.
Really?
There was an episode of the simpsons where the guys was at a mall buying stuff and when they walk out EVERY store in the mall became Starbucks…
I never go to Starbucks. But the other morning as I walked past on my way to work I thought I’d give myself a small treat, so I stopped in and bought a small (very small) coffee and a scone: NT$110.
That’s almost US$4.00 for a very small cup of coffee and a modest scone.
Get real Starbucks. Is a scone worth US$2? No. Is a very small cup of coffee worth $2? No.
I won’t be back for a long while.
Starbucks is going to charge a buck in an ‘experiment’ in the USA.
I doubt if that will happen here on the island. But who cares?
85c is only NT$35 as well as a number of other good coffee places.
Starbucks…Who needs 'em? Bahhh!
Beat that:
I was in Germany over the new year and saw a few Starbucks - EUR3.70 for a coffee.
Yep, that’s USD5.40 or NTD175. Not many people in there.
(Normal price is around EUR2.50 for a cup of coffee in a cafe)
we euros are the cashcows fro the US companies currently
exchange rate is around 1 Euro = 1.47USD, admittedly there is a 19% VAT (sales tax) on all purchases, but they still are ripping us off 
iphone in US: 399 USD = 270 Euro, 19% VAT is still 325 Euro only.
apple TV (no one wants it anyway but nevertheless) USA 229 USD new price, in Germany still 299 Euro (over 50% premium…)
and the list goes on and on and on (also for many other companies)…
I despise Starbucks. It is definitely the McDonalds of coffee - I mean three sizes of latte including a supersize - what’s with that? But I still go there. It’s a necessary evil.
I come from the city with the most coffee shops per capita in the world - fierce competition between 4 local roasting companies for a population of 250000. Starbucks closed, because noone went there.
It is still very hard to find a good latte in Taipei, but much easier than it used to be to find a decent one. Still, I only know of about three places with really good lattes, and if you’re in an area you don’t know, it’s gonna be a crapshoot as to whether the place you pick makes something acceptable (and they sometimes charge as much as a ludicrous 200NT).
That’s where Starbucks comes in. You can be almost anywhere in the country, and with starbucks, you certainly won’t get a very good cup of coffee, but your’e guaranteed that it will be acceptable. Decent even.
85, and QK are good alternatives. A little bit more variable, but usually somewhere between acceptable and decent. Occassionally even better than Starbucks, even approaching ‘good’. E-coffee, and the old chains like Dante are still crap, although there might be individual exceptions. The advantage of 85 and QK is they’re cheap. (By Taiwan standards - similar to what I’d pay back home).
My gripes (apart from general quality) - too many places don’t heat the milk enough, thus giving you a lukewarm cup. It’s always too milkey, never a little darker roasted, the way I like it. Also 85 and QK give you fairly stingy single shots of coffee in a latte. Somehow Taiwan cafes seem to think lattes are a light coffee. If you’re getting a starbucks, don’t get the medium size or the supersize (vente) - you’re just paying for extra milk. Small and medium are single shot, and L and XL are both double shot. The small is ridiculously small, so you may as well get the large (grande). That’s 110NT for a latte (QK is 60 and 85 is 50).
Anyway, things are much better than they used to be even just 5 years ago. Recently my father-in-law took me to a cafe in the arse-end of Jilong, and I wasn’t expecting much. Turned out to be the best coffee I’d had outside of a couple of places in Taipei. Surprise.
Brian
I’ve just tried the starbucks by the zhongxiao dunhua station. I ordered frapuccino carameljava chip, and I still love it just like when I used to have it in Jakarta, Indonesia.But I don’t really like the cheesecake there…it taste weird to me…
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]I despise Starbucks. It is definitely the McDonalds of coffee - I mean three sizes of latte including a supersize - what’s with that? But I still go there. It’s a necessary evil.
Brian[/quote]
C’mon! With statements like this your words lose credibility. 
j/k!
I know when I arrive in Taipei I’ll be visiting Starbucks regularly, even though I’m not a big coffee drinker. It’ll be a slice of home.
Of all the stupid corporate branding strategies, this one will surely go down as one of the dumbest.
Starbucks has just removed their name and the word “coffee” from their logo, the latter apparently because they intend to diversify into other products.
reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7045Y920110105
Anyway, it’s probably been over a year since I’ve patronised them, but I give them a two 
and a :roflmao: for that move.
Maybe they are afraid of a Trademark infringement suit from the “Starbacks Coffee” in China with the same circle and green color, although I think the China company uses Neptune in the logo. 
Maybe they are afraid of a Trademark infringement suit from the “Starbacks Coffee” in China with the same circle and green color, although I think the China company uses Neptune in the logo. [/quote]
Actually, my first thought was that they did this so their own well-known mark will be less distinctive and they may feel they will then have better odds in suing for infringement every other coffee shop that uses a similar green circle – that this is a sneaky ploy to eliminate all their competitors’ marks once and for all. But, it doesn’t seem like that strategy would win. And, that would be so foolish, to give up and relinquish their own good, strong, distinctive mark and settle for some weak, crappy mark, merely to play silly, strategic legal maneuvers with low-level competitors? So, I concluded in the end that they’ve just got a bunch of morons in charge of branding/marketing.
Can’t find the post I made related Starbucks intentions too change their set-up following the Global guidelines (removing the “cozy” aspect) but it also kicked in here.
Entering 101 this morning , they changed the seating arrangement to the stool / bar & wooden chairs concept - creating more seating by removing the low tables and sofa’s.
On one side, the set-up allows more people to use a laptop, on the other - the “relaxing” atmosphere has been given up.
No sure how this will negatively or positively affect their sales and franchise perception.
One thing is sure - the misses I see every day at 08.30 HR taking her breakfast and coffee in a comfy seat was nowhere to be found.