Cream and Sugar

By Kellen M. Henry

Where I grew up, coffee was something your mom made in the kitchen and your dad schlepped to the office in one of those green Stanley thermoses. Coffee shops were places people went if they lived in other states.

Coffee used to be utilitarian. Like buffalo plaid and canned beer, it was more demonstrative of people who got up early and punched a time card than people who exploring the depths of their own indolence and disposable income, hanging off of pleather coffee shops loveseats.

These days, even my little hometown of Princeton, W.Va. (pop. 6,347) sports a Starbucks and I’m a well-entrenched member of the latter coffee-drinking class. Since Starbucks shops are the dandelion of Chicago, I often turn to Intelligentsia Coffee, the boutiquiest of specialty coffee shops, to keep my sense of superiority well-tuned.

At about three bucks a pop for a regular drip coffee, that means I’ll spend more than $1,000 on coffee a year, not counting the days when i’m tempted by an americano, espresso or some kind of frilly croissant. I don’t want to think of how many giant oil-drum sized containers of plain old Maxwell House that could buy from the grocery store. (That’s right… you can buy coffee at the grocery store)

With people ostensibly cutting back on non-essential purchases and the warm weather making other treats more tempting, I’ve noticed that the chain coffee places are really stepping it up.  Here, McDonalds is heavily promoting its McCafe products on the CTA, as it pursues Starbucks‘ status as ringleader of the easy gourmet coffee circus. The burger joint is also slinging free mocha on Mondays until August 3.

Starbucks has taken up what I call the “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” tactic– If they can lure you into the store, you’re going to pick up the freebie and but probably something else too. Tomorrow, July 21, they’re giving away free pastries with the purchase of a beverage from opening to 10:30 a.m. Since you’re saving on breakfast, it’s pretty tempting to order a larger coffee, right?

And then there’s the yellow receipt deal. For the summer, any morning purchase at Starbucks gets you are coupon for a Grande-sized cold drink for $2, about half off. Not only is the store getting a boost for lagging afternoon traffic, but they’re also tempting you to buy some other treats with the money you’re saving.

It’s not hard to figure out the angle they’re working here, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be advantageous to the caffeine addict too. If I can get two sizable coffees for $4.50, I’m doing better than when I’m paying $3 for one smaller beverage, a la Intelligentsia.

There’s no doubt I’ll still indulge frequently. Intelligentsia’s coffee is really delicious, its atmosphere is delightful and it’s baristas are super-humanly attractive. But before class tonight, it looks like I’m headed to Starbucks, yellow receipt in hand.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Chicago, Commoncents. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.