So, when it comes to trendy overpriced coffee, I have a Starbucks card. I have a Costa card. And I have a Cafe Nero, er, bit of paper.
Now, my personal drink of choice is a Mocha. I like to have one every other day or so.
I think, despite their interpretation of the word ‘large’ not being actually large, the best tasting one is made by Cafe Nero. Yeah man, subjective, I know, but please abuse me as a thermometer on this later.
It probably comes a tiny millimeter ahead of a Starbucks Mocha. Not to mention that a Starbucks Mocha comes in ‘Venti’, which is pretend Italian for “feckin’ huge”.
And quite definitely in third place is Costa. Costa is the McDonald’s of trendy overpriced coffee.
Heck, trendy overpriced coffee costs a half-hour of work at minimum wage, and that is overpriced!
Now then, I’ve been working in a place that is next to a Costa, and walk away from a Cafe Nero and a tedious walk away from a Starbucks. Currently, I am attending Costa for my odd Mocha fix.
But that’s because I’m too feckin’ lazy to walk the additional 200 metres to Cafe Nero. And the queue is always so looooong. Sigh.
And I was discussing all this with another trendy overpriced coffee user and he pointed out that I appeared to be discussing my preferences based on the loyalty scheme. Indeed, he questioned whether this is what drove my decisions rather than the taste or quality of the product.
OMG!
He could be right.
You see, my Starbucks card not only earns me rewards, but also auto-tops-up from my bank account, so all I ever have to do is is just use the card. Actually, it’s the app I mainly use. It’s cool and shows me a graphic of my reward stars as they fill my cup in my desperate attempt to leave the ‘Green level’ and enter the ‘Gold level’. I get more rewards when I get to gold, and that means freebies and extra shots and stuff. Cool, eh?
Meanwhile, the Costa card is nothing more than a rewards card. As is the app. Just earns points. And points means the odd freebie when you redeem them.
Boring compared to the Starbucks card, innit?
But mega-boring is the Cafe Nero bit of bendy floppy paper. And so manual! They stamp this floppy paper with ink from a rubber stamp thing. How ancient! Worst of all, there’s no app. No app, can you believe it?
The impressive thing about Starbucks and Costa, of course, is that both have drive-throughs. And, Starbucks is sexier, ‘cos you can just hand over the auto-topping-up card to pay.
OMG!
I am judging everything by the rewards system.
Am I typical? Driven by reward cards, not by quality? Hang my head in shame!
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