Sul blog della Oxford University Press (che fra l'altro è anche la casa editrice che pubblica i libri di mio marito, questo e il prossimo che uscirà) si trova la trascrizione di un interessante dialogo con un importatore di caffè, il quale spiega, fra l'altro che "McDonalds has better coffee [than Starbucks] (...) McDs has won numerous blind tasting competitions and they have cheaper prices. (...) In my opinion the difference between the two is not so much the bean, but the way they roast. [Starbucks uses] mechanized roasters, everything is consistent but not necessarily good. The issue I have is their roasting method, which as most of their detractors would agree on, is far too dark resulting in a burnt taste. Unfortunately many people prefer this approach."
E questo, tanto per cominciare, mi fa capire cosa non mi piace in generale del caffè che bevo qui: il sapore di bruciato.I due proseguono poi parlando del Trenta, la misura extra-large che si può comprare da Starbucks e contiene circa un litro di liquido (circa trenta once, appunto), cioè più di quanto ce ne sta in uno stomaco umano (o in una bottiglia di vino).
Proseguendo nella ricerca, dopo aver scoperto l'esistenza, sempre da Starbucks, di un meraviglioso "espresso trippio", sono arrivata, sempre grazie a Licia, a questo post sull'autorevole Language Log, che ho trovato molto divertente. In particolare vorrei riportare quello che scrive il comico Dave Barry sulla questione delle misure dei caffè, perché mi ha fatto sbellicare dalle risate:
We begin today with a disturbing escalation in the trend of coffee retailers giving stupid names to cup sizes. As you know, this trend began several years ago when Starbucks (motto: "There's one opening right now in your basement") decided to call its cup sizes "Tall" (meaning "not tall," or ''small"), "Grande" (meaning "medium") and "Venti" (meaning, for all we know, "weasel snot"). Unfortunately, we consumers, like moron sheep, started actually USING these names. Why? If Starbucks decided to call its toilets "AquaSwooshies," would we go along with THAT? Yes! Baaa!Recently, at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Death March, Mister Language Person noticed that a Starbuck's competitor, Seattle's Best Coffee (which also uses "Tall" for small and "Grande" for medium) is calling ITS large cup size — get ready — "Grande Supremo." Yes. And as Mister Language Person watched in horror, many customers — seemingly intelligent, briefcase-toting adults — actually used this term, as in, "I'll take a Grande Supremo."Listen, people: You should never, ever have to utter the words "Grande Supremo" unless you are addressing a tribal warlord who is holding you captive and threatening to burn you at the stake. JUST SAY YOU WANT A LARGE COFFEE, PEOPLE. Because if we let the coffee people get away with this, they're not going to stop, and some day, just to get a lousy cup of coffee, you'll hear yourself saying, "I'll have a Mega Grandissimaximo Giganto de Humongo-Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong decaf." And then you will ask for the key to the AquaSwooshie. And when THAT happens, people, the terrorists will have won.