McDonald's Coffee Tops Starbucks

[andrew47]

Coffee snobs get their comeuppance in the March issue of Consumer Reports magazine.
Published reports say the nonprofit organization's taste testers ruled the coffee served by McDonald's beat out the pricey brew served up at Starbucks.
The magazine reportedly says McDonald's Premium Roast Coffee has "no flaws," labeling it "decent and moderately strong." The java from Starbucks, meanwhile, was determined to be "strong, but burnt and bitter enough to make your eyes water instead of open."
The testers also ranked coffee from Burger King and privately held Dunkin' Donuts, which claims to serve nearly a billion cups a year. Neither stood up to the competition, the magazine said.
Burger King's brew "looked like coffee but tasted more like hot water," the report states, while Dunkin's "was inoffensive, but it had no oomph."
McDonald's was not only the best tasting, but was also found to be the least expensive cup, the magazine said. (AP)

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/02/mcdonalds_coffe.html?p1=MEWell_Pos2

[CoffeeAddict]

The mag i work for (Canadian Business) came to the same conclusion. We ran a survey with 4 coffee professionals in Toronto and they all agreed that the McDonalds blend was superior to the starbucks brand in a double blind taste test.

All coffees were prepared with a french press minutes prior to drinking using freshing burr ground coffee.

I participated in the taste test and drink quite a bit of coffee and I actually chose the McDonalds as well over the starbucks even though I drink starbucks quite often. Although my every day coffee is PC brand Arabica bean coffee :D

[mdc]

All coffees were prepared with a french press minutes prior to drinking using freshing burr ground coffee.



wouldn't this make the test irrelavant?

When you buy coffee at McDonalds is it never prepared in the way you did the test. It often sits for long periods of time and would never taste the same way you presented it

Starbucks has a system that turns over the coffee at a much higher rate thereby providing a better chance that you are recieving a fresh brewed cup of coffee rather than one that has been sitting for long periods of time

Your test therefore shows that McDonalds has the most potential, but isn't necessarily the best in real world situations

[CoffeeAddict]

yeah ours wasn't really a scientific test per se. It was meant to be more fun than anything else really.

But you're right there's probably more chance of a starbucks coffee being fresher than a McDonald's coffee. After doing that taste test I was drinking mcdonald's coffee quite a bit actually from a McDonalds! But I stopped buying coffee shortly afterwards to save my pennies :D

If I'm out and need a coffee I will actually drink a McDonalds coffee though if thre's one close by. If there's a starbucks, lettieri, tim hortons, and a second cup and a timothy's all on the same corner I'll always go for the lettieri first, the second cup second, timothy's third, starbucks forth, then timmy ho hos

EDIT: we also ran the test that way to be most fair as we wouldn't know how long those coffees were sitting there and didn't want to give an advantage to anyone. I believe the McDonald's coffee was the highest ranked in the group and it got 2.5 stars out of 5 from our experts :o

Another thing I thought out is that I BELEIVE that mcdonald's coffee grounds are sealed in packages prior to brewing whereas the starbucks coffee is pre-measured into flat-bottomed filters so its exposed to the air for quite a while before brewing.

Let's face it coffee is a complex art. There's a lotta freakin things going on in coffee. But all in all I'd stand by the test and say that I actually do prefer McDonald's coffee over starbucks after my taste testing experience. It was a real eye opener that's for sure.

[Siefer999]

wouldn't this make the test irrelavant?

When you buy coffee at McDonalds is it never prepared in the way you did the test. It often sits for long periods of time and would never taste the same way you presented it

Starbucks has a system that turns over the coffee at a much higher rate thereby providing a better chance that you are recieving a fresh brewed cup of coffee rather than one that has been sitting for long periods of time

Your test therefore shows that McDonalds has the most potential, but isn't necessarily the best in real world situations

i dont know about your mcdonalds but the ones i go seems like they are always brewing a pot. even if its not freshly brewed, coffee in insulated pots last about an hour before tasting even slightly different.

that study must be one of a half-dozen that had been released recently, i remember reading something similar a few months ago and another one a month ago
i always drink mcdonalds and 7-11 coffee:) 7-11's exclusive blend is delicious. mcdonalds coffee used to taste like coloured water up until maybe 4 years ago. the mcdonalds at bay and dundas always has a pot brewing probably cause they have a lot of business though.

this is probably the 4th or 5th survey done. i remember reading about it a few months ago before xmas somewhere and again somewhere else last month

[CoffeeAddict]

strangely enough I can't find the article on our own damn website but here's a Regina Leader Post story ABOUT our story about the starbucks vs mcdonald's coffee:

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/canada_world/story.html?id=9af404dd-0e49-4fee-bc57-01be823174ff

[Supershyguy]

there was an exact same thread a couple months ago about this lol

[bananaman]

I also have to agree that McDonald's coffee is delicious, moreso than Second Cup's or Starbucks' "medium" blend. Mind you, I had their coffees at the King/Yonge location so there was probably a lot of traffic to force them to keep brewing a fresh new pot. Any coffee, regardless of location and franchise, will taste like crap if left out for too long.

[Steeve Urkel]

Mcdonald's coffee is decent and they are quite busy, so I doubt their coffee would be very "old".

I miss that they no longer have the coffee and a muffin for $1, it is now $1.50 or something.

Also, their muffins are way better than Richtree/Movenpick!
if you take one of the movenpick muffins and put in on a sheet of paper or look at the brown paper bags they put them in, their is oil soaking through the bag, it is so gross.
they do not use water to make their muffins, but only oil so they stay moister all day.

Mcdonald's muffins are never oily and I think they probably make them from Quaker muffin mix, they are much lower in fat and are tasty.
They are just "normal" muffins like raisin bran or bluebery I think- nothing too fancy. Much cheaper than starbucks also.