Tuesday 13 November 2007

Spirit of Christmas

One of the girls in our teen group mentioned on Sunday how she likes the red mugs that Starbucks bring out for Christmas. I agree.

Fairplay to the design and marketing team of the coffee chain, they do choose good colours. The promotional boards in the store, the cups for sale, the menu board and the paper cups have a red quality to them which just seems very Christmasy - even in early November. I think I would describe the colour as a deep, warm cranberry hue. The cups for take-out also come with a cardboard sleeve in a complementary mint green colour. Add to that the white lettering and I think I can hear jolly old St Nick on his way for a double espresso pick-me-up.

And along with colour change are a few changes to the menu. On offer this time of year is the return of old favourites: Gingerbread latte, Toffee nut latte, and the Eggnog latte which I experienced last year. New this year is the bizarre Creme BruleƩ latte - we all know the dangers of the hot coffee lurking under the milky foam of a latte so I sure hope they don't also take a mini blowtorch to the top of this creation. I'll give it a try anyway and report back.

However, one change I noticed was decidedly against the Christmas spirit. More like Scrooge in fact. The price of drinks have gone up!! (Do red cups really cost that much more?)

As I have some readers from different parts of the world I'd like to do a quick comparison to see if this is another case of Rip Off Ireland. My tall latte cost 3 euro. I make the approximate equivalent to be:

US $4.38
UK £2.12

Forget rising oil prices. I can walk to the coffeehouse. But will I be able to afford a drink when I get there?

Please use this little experiment as an excuse to stop what you are doing right now and go out to Starbucks, bask in its redness and attempt to drink a foul sounding coffee - just make a note of the price of a tall latte while you are there, please.

5 comments:

Ali said...

Usually I don't work on a Thursday and I had hoped to prove (another) North/South divide on the cost of a Starbucks coffee.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to do it just yet, but it's high on my list of priorities!

Nick Coke said...

I had a creme brulee latte yesterday. It was definitely last year's 'eggnog' latte given a new name! Cheeky or what...

Cosmo said...

Hmm, to be honest I don't really want a creme brulee latte - even more so given your report about it tasting just like the eggnog. But for the sake of my blog....

jsi said...

Happy Thanksgiving
An 11 cent price raise for the rising prices of coffee and sugar sounds like excessive price gouging.
I like Dunkin' Donuts coffee, and Dunkin' Donuts prices...
...but I stopped by Starbucks just to see (and get a Vanilla Chai) and you are very right - big price jump. $4.75 - exorbitant!
I truly prefer coffee from my own coffee maker than spending more than I would even pay for lunch for my decaffinated drink.
And Creme Brulee is my favorite dessert - but it sounds like it would make a horrible coffee drink.
Best to your family!

Cosmo said...

Mmm, Dunkin Donuts. All the varieties of donuts you could imagine, good coffee (with a little half & half) and open 24 hours. It's the little things like that which I miss about living in America - plus being with the in-laws on Thanksgiving of course!

Thanks for the info Stateside, jsi. I think we've discovered a global price hike conspiracy!