Starbucks has the distinct honor of evoking both a strip mall chain joint ...and an overpriced elitist coffee shop. I'll admit it--I refuse to say "venti" when I really mean large, even as I'm scolding myself for being a bad liberal by going to a Starbucks instead of Cafe Pick-Me-Up down the street.Starbucks is attempting to mend at least half that problem with a new line of coffee marketed to people who would never set foot in a green mermaid cafe. The new, improved, down-home line of Seattle's Best (which was acquired by Starbucks eight years back) doesn't have hoity-toity names to please the coffee-philes. It has just five blends, which are labeled simply 1 through 5, from mildest to strongest. Perhaps the coffee giant is trying to please the anti-latte-liberal Tea Party set?
This is a fascinating development in the midst of major corporations like McDonald's, Wendy's, and Perdue trying the "green aesthetic" on fer size. Doesn't Starbucks realize that everyone's copying them? Apparently there's some sort of sweet spot between appearing healthy but not too snobby--like saying you got those calf muscles by climbing trees rather than running like a gerbil on the treadmill?
It's now officially impossible to tell by the packaging whether a product 1. is green 2. tastes "sophisticated" (read: lowfat/pungent/complex/all of the above) 3. is owned by the company under which it's advertised. The McDonald's Green Initiative Team is about to get mighty confused.
It would be nice if we could finally get past the equation that green=elitist. Or alternatively, if we didn't always have yuppify (marginally) healthy food with a supersleek style. I wish Starbucks would stand their ground, because there seems to be a lot of jealous competitors out there, not to mention people pushing them to practice what they preach.
That said: I could totally live without Starbucks' bullshit size names.
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