Starbucks...

[joker20]

I was wondering if anyone knows the espresso machine that is used in Starbucks? I had a latte the other day and it was fantastic, but I would be interested in purchasing the espresso machine used. Does anyone know which one or ones used?

thanks guys.

 

[shadow745]

I surely don't visit any Charbux, but based on what others in various forums have said they have pretty much done away with any semi-autos and have gone to commercial automatics. Problem is they are rather expensive, probably being $10,000 or more easily. You can buy a decent home machine and a good grinder and blow the latte they made for you out of the water without question. Just don't buy any beans from them in an attempt to duplicate what they do. Later!

 

[joker20]

thanks for the reply... yea that is way out of my price range.. so I was looking at the Rancilo Silvia, do you have any suggestions or comments about it?

thanks again.

 

[shadow745]

Yeah the Silvia has quite the following. It will give you quite a bit of steaming power and is capable of extremely good shots, but according to others it is very finicky on grind particle size/consistency, tamping, temp surfing, etc. You will need to consider getting a really good grinder. Not just an all-around grinder, but something espresso specific. If you don't have the $$$ for the Silvia and a good grinder might I suggest a good hand grinder. If that's your thing Orphan Espresso has nicely restored hand grinders (must be espresso capable though) available here and there and they also have the Kyocera ceramic burr hand mill, which will grind for everything under the sun according to users.

Any other machine you have in mind? Oh yeah, there has been talk lately on forums about the LeLit espresso machine on sale at some online sites. Don't know the specifics, but it is said to be on par with the Silvia for quite a bit less. Later!

 

[Crazy4Coffee]

I was wondering if anyone knows the espresso machine that is used in Starbucks?

It is called a Mastrena and is made exclusively for Starbucks by Thermoplan. By the way, about 50% of Thermoplan's business is in supplying Starbucks with these machines.

 

[shadow745]

Well IMO they should've stuck with the Lineas or other "real machines" that they used before and kept training their staff on how to pull shots to perfection like they did for years. Now they look like what you see at McDonald's and other places..... just pushing buttons to do everything and the crappy results speak for themselves. Charbux thought they had the market wrapped and became more greedy and stupid.... look where they are today..... going down in flames. Later!

 

[DylanAsdale]

I'm usually not bashing others' taste in coffee, but Starbucks coffee charges WAYYY to much for the quality of their coffee.

If I had to put a reasonable price on a 16oz cup of their "'Pike Place' Roast" coffee, I'd give them maybe a quarter at most.

Besides, Starbucks is infected by partisan-hack liberals, so the "baby-killer atmosphere compensation" should reduce the price of the coffee to about 10 cents.

 

[CCafe]

Well IMO they should've stuck with the Lineas or other "real machines" that they used before and kept training their staff on how to pull shots to perfection like they did for years. Now they look like what you see at McDonald's and other places..... just pushing buttons to do everything and the crappy results speak for themselves. Charbux thought they had the market wrapped and became more greedy and stupid.... look where they are today..... going down in flames. Later!

Lineas are a great machine, but have a major drawback for a massive chain like Starbucks. It takes time for people to become proficient at making drinks on an espresso machine. Sure you can give someone an hours training and release them and they'll be making drinks. But will they be consistent every time, NOPE! They were having massive consistency problems but more to the point it takes time and money to make a good Barista.

Now lets talk about turn over. People quit for all kinds of reason and there are more reasons then I have time to write here of why people get fired. Now take all those in to count and find out how much money Starbucks was paying to train one Barista? The last figure I heard was somewhere in the ballpark of $1,500 to train one person to do their job the very best they could. Starbucks currently has over 16,000 stores. Hypothetically lets just say each store fires only 1 person a year. That is 24 million dollars the company throws out the door. Now you can see why investors in the company would like to change that figure up a little. Because now if they cut that training cost down to a mere $750 that's an extra 12 million in their pockets.

Money is the root of all evil but it is also what makes this world go round. Just because you think Starbucks compromised itself on the premise that they did away with quality for quantity, maybe you should rethink your statements. Were all in the world to make money. I know some are in it for the love of it but I need money just as bad as the next guy. So I'm not going to down talk Starbucks just because they found they could save a lot of money by simply changing machines. It happens all the time in life. People are constantly moving towards better, faster, cheaper. In 20 years people will look at traditional equipment the same way we all look and manual lever machines today. They are great but they can't pump out the amount of espresso that today's machine can.

 

[shadow745]

Me rethink my statements? Not a chance.... I firmly believe switching to machines that require less training, less effort and less than superb results is the downfall of Charbux and others. I could care less about money.... I firmly believe in quality over quantity any day. AND I'm glad to see Charbux losing their asses and having to shut stores down. Not that people are losing jobs, but that Charbux is losing the stranglehold they had on America.

I will give them credit for bringing specialty coffee to the general public, but IMO that's about all they've done.

And I surely would never dog levers as that is where it all started and IMO is where it will end. Nothing on the market is better than a good ole lever. Who cares about quantity when the quality suffers so much?

Seems like you're trying to dog some of my posts made recently. Doesn't bother me one bit but do expect a good argument because forums are and should be about controversy. Nobody is right/wrong as we all have our opinions. Later!

 

[CCafe]

HAHA I'm dogging you for sure. I have my reasons and I'll keep it up too!

 

[shadow745]

Well, name some of those reasons and don't dish it out if you can't take it...... I know this is way off topic, but since the thread is regarding Charbux I don't think anybody gives a damn anyway. AND don't bother allowing me to be a moderator as I could care less anyway. Later!

 

[CCafe]

I know some of the other moderators talked to you about a position. Don't think because I'm dogging you that I'm testing you. I'm dogging you cause you make is so darn easy to. Besides everyone that is a moderator here knows how to keep an open mind. If you want to become a moderator here you need to learn this.

I may not like Starbucks either but I don't resort to name calling or putting the entire company down.

 

[shadow745]

Like I said..... I won't bother being a moderator. I do have an open mind for the most part, just don't tolerate alot of crap like others do. I don't sugarcoat anything and speak my mind and could care less what others think about it. I probably won't bother coming back here..... time to move on to something else. Later!

 

[PinkRose]

Hey Guys....!!!

What the heck happened here??

During the course of one day, Shadow745 went from saying, "Doesn't bother me one bit but do expect a good argument because forums are and should be about controversy. Nobody is right/wrong as we all have our opinions." to saying, "I probably won't bother coming back here..... time to move on to something else."

I certainly value the information that you both share in this forum, and I know it's been helpful to lots of others. It would be a shame to lose any active forum member over a dispute about Starbucks or for any other reason!

Rose