I’ll agree with the consensus that most of their “pastries” are horrid abortions—e.g. their croissants are to genuine croissants as the ebola virus is to cuddling with loved ones. But I will actually go out of my way to enjoy one of their delicious molasses cookies: always moist, a little ginger-y, crusted with sugar crystals, pleasantly bitter. Yum.

In Ann Arbor, they’ve been serving little opera cakes, which, if there were a God, would taste like… victory. Instead they have a cloying marshmallow-y taste.

Back to the old dissertation, then…

But my impression is that Starbucks has contracts with dozens of small-to-medium-size bakeries around the country to produce pastries to their specs.

So, the Starbucks in Wichita gets its pastries from some Wichita bakery which uses Starbucks recipes on Starbucks-approved ingredients (“flour will be a commercial all purpose grade containing between 10%-12% protein”, and so on for every ingredient).

This is less mass-produced than it could be (e.g. they could be baking every single muffin inside a hangar at Sea-Tac airport and flying them all around the world). But some of the regional bakeries will still be large enough for the slur to stick.

This means, on the one hand, that every Starbucks will have something called a cranberry scone, fairly similar in plan and ingredients.

But as you bakers know, it also means that there can be a lot of variation in actual quality. And even in the thickness of the fudge.

If a regional baker is falling below specs, then the head office ought to hear about it.

1) I went to the web site. I expressed my thoughts. Unfortunately, one of my thoughts involved the phrase “our fascist taste Overlords”. I am almost certain that this can not be considered helpful; but, I did try.

2) The recent pastry innovation ‘round the DC area is introduction of walnuts and the gradual phasing out of moisture. “mmmm, Cake-y; like dried mud!” So very dry, in fact, one must purchase an additional coffee to wash it all down. And that, my dear friends, is how they “get” you.

As for skipping Starbucks coffee, many financial planning books will tell you that one good way to save the little you need to start investing is to give up on visiting cafes for expensive drinks. So yes, making coffee at home is likely a better bet.

Christopher – I think many of their products are, indeed, quite standardized across markets. That’s what it seemed like to me.

By the way, the St. Patrick’s day special green fudge mint chocolate pastry was also great. Unfortunately, I think it’s only served that time of year. (It’s also proof that they are able to make good fudge so there is no reason for ruining the espresso brownie with a bad addition.)

I find their coffee too acidic and low on taste. Pastries, according to NIH, are the enemy of fat people, so I stay away from them (particularly this Matza week).

Hey, it takes exactly 5 minutes to make great coffee at home.

The original Brownie is a hangover from those days. Unfortunately, as the coffee house market became more competitive, they decided to focus on the beans, and less on the sugar. The thought being ‘with coffee this good, who needs fudge?’.

But we do need fudge, and the movement must begin!