The time before last that I drove to the Subic Royal store aboard the Subic Bay Freeport Zone to go grocery shopping, I noticed a new Starbucks coffee shop in the process of being completed. I made a mental note that I'd have to stop in and take a look around when it was done. Well, it was done by the following trip (more than a month later), but I didn't feel like stopping in at the time. Little did I know that my son had already been there.

Bum Scoop

A couple of days ago, one of my sisters-in-law (Florian) told another sister-in-law (Darlene) that they sold t-shirts and blouses at the Starbucks coffee shop. She had overheard it in a conversation while riding a bus from Olongapo to Bataan. The next day, I decided to go there with my son, Darlene and her daughter, Ashlene (who's 3-years old I think).

The coffee shop is easy to find because it's on the corner of Rizal Highway and Argonaut Street and it almost stands out like a sore thumb. Parking is on Rizal Avenue on the opposite side of the intersection, so going through the intersection and turning around in order to park in that parking lot was interesting to say the least. Cars coming off the exit from the Subic expressway don't slow down for anything as they try to beat the light at that corner.

Well, there were things for sale at the Starbucks coffee shop, like coffee mugs and other assorted items, but not clothing of any kind. Florian must have heard the conversation wrong. I now call her "Bum Scoop Florian".

Starbucks Coffee Prices

My son wanted a "Java Chip" drink like he'd had before so I ordered two of them. I also ordered an "Apple Berry Freeze" (apple and strawberry with crushed ice) for Ashlene since Darlene didn't want anything. When I paid P490 (just over USD $10) for the drinks, I remembered why I didn't frequently go to Starbucks when I was in the US. I'm sorry, but those prices are absurd.

What's even more absurd is that Starbucks expects to do well at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. Their prices are too high for the average resident in the Philippines, so they must be catering to the upper class and tourists. I'm not in the upper class and I'm not a tourist, so I guess I won't be going back there again. I'd be much better off (and probably "save" a lot of money) by buying my own coffee beans, a coffee grinder and brewing my own coffee.

On second thought, I think I'll stick to making coffee like Starbucks at home using Nescafé instant coffee and milk. My worn-out taste buds really can't tell the difference.

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It seems that all of the coffee drinks in US coffee shops start with espresso as the base. It may not be true for all coffee shops, but it's certainly true for Starbucks and Seattle's Best.

Unlike most people who come and go and pay little attention to anything but what they're doing at the time, I observe everything that goes on around me. I have seen how both of these companies make coffee drinks — I purposely observed every facet from start to finish.

What Exactly is Espresso?

Espresso is sometimes referred to as espresso coffee and it's often mispronounced and misspelled as "expresso". Invented in Italy, as were most coffee beverages, it's a concentrated form of coffee, up to three times as strong as a regular cup of coffee.

You can't make espresso with ordinary automatic drip coffee makers. You need an espresso machine which brews the coffee under extreme pressure. Most people don't have one at home.

When served as espresso, the coffee is normally served in espresso cups of one kind or another. In most coffee shops, they use cheap containers that can be thrown away. Restaurants use fancy cups designed specifically for espresso. The cheapest espresso cup is usually more expensive than expensive coffee mugs.

Observations

I don't normally buy coffee at Starbucks or Seattle's Best (which has been owned by Starbucks since 2003). It's good coffee (at least in the US), but it's just too damned expensive. Of course, I won't buy coffee from fast-food joints either and that's because it usually tastes like they made it with my dirty socks.

On rare occasions, when I really needed my coffee fix, I bought coffee at both Starbucks and Seattle's Best. In March of 2008, while I was picking out books at a Border's bookstore, I succumbed to the smell of the coffee brewing nearby (within the bookstore). The aroma is what caused me to buy coffee at Starbucks on previous occasions.

I always ordered cappuccino. I like cappuccino a whole lot more than the other coffee drinks. Whenever I ordered a regular-sized cup, I noticed they used one shot of espresso. Whenever I ordered a large-sized cup, they used two shots of espresso. No wonder I always got a quick caffeine buzz after drinking the cappuccino (I never really thought about it until now).

Espresso Experience?

Other than being used for the cappuccino I drank, I have never tried espresso as a stand-alone coffee drink. With cappuccino, it's diluted by the added milk. I picture acid reflux coming back to haunt me if I try espresso straight from the cup, therefore I will probably never try it.

I know a few people that only drink espresso. It's not for me. I love the smell and flavor of coffee as it's normally brewed at home. I don't need a caffeine buzz every time I drink coffee, thank you very much.

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What's the difference between a coffee cup and a coffee mug? While the terms are used interchangeably, there actually is a difference. A coffee cup, per se, holds one cup of coffee. A coffee mug, on the other hand, holds more than a cup. How much coffee a coffee mug can hold depends entirely on the design of the mug.

Coffee Mug Collectors

There are a whole lot of people who collect coffee mugs, just like numismatics collect coins. I don't know what special term is used for coffee mug collectors, but I've know quite a few of them over the years. Many of the people I've known to collect coffee mugs were in the military, just like I was for 20 years.

These were people I knew as well as people I worked with. I never specifically collected coffee mugs, but I built up a collection nonetheless. It seems like I obtained a mug for every military unit I was with, for every Marine Corps birthday ball, for every recruiting function and everything between the gaps.

Some of the people I knew were fanatics about their collections, displaying them in special display cases in their homes or even at work.

A Dirty Coffee Cup is in the Mind of the Owner

Early in my military career, I cleaned a coffee mug for a senior enlisted fellow and he freaked out on me. Literally. I learned, and quite quickly I might add, that people like that wanted that nasty looking brown color on the inside of the mugs. Don't ask me why. I was constantly cleaning the coffee mugs I used.

The only time I ever saw one of the fanatics clean a coffee mug was when he left coffee in the mug, sitting out on a desk over the weekend. When he returned to work, there was green stuff floating, growing on the top of the liquid. I don't know what that stuff is, but it looks disgusting.

I'm a fanatic about coffee, but not about coffee mugs. Any coffee mug will do the trick for me. In fact, I only have four coffee mugs in my house here in the Philippines and I'm using one of them right now.

The Night Market at Subic Bay

Next to a carnival attraction called "Millennium", which is open for months out of the year, there's a night market. On the Christmas before last, one of my sisters-in-law bought a huge coffee mug from that night market and had my name "burned" onto it — "Richard" in some kind fancy writing. It held two times what a normal (if you can call any mug normal) coffee mug would hold. Now, since I'm the only Richard within a one-block radius, nobody could swipe my mug to use as their own without being seen by someone.

Alas, about two months ago, my younger son decided to make coffee for me. I was upstairs in my bedroom (where I am now) and doing my thing on the computer. By the way, my master bedroom is huge; it's big enough to hold two king-sized beds side by side. Anyway, he took my mug downstairs to get me coffee. While he was filling the coffee mug with hot water from our water dispenser, the bottle emptied. The mug was sitting on the spot where the water spillage goes, whatever you want to call it. He didn't move it before changing the water bottle and the jostling of the dispenser caused the mug to fall off and onto the floor. It's a tile-covered cement floor, I might add.

All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty together again. Or, in this case, my coffee mug. I don't know when I'll ever get another one quite like that.

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