so i pull into the drive-thru... "welcome to mc donalds" the pleasant voice booms through the speaker, "would you like to try to see how quickly you can clog your arteries?" (okay, that may not be verbatim, but it was pretty close. i can't remember exactly what was said, but it did include supersizing a mcsomething).
"no thank you," i reply. "i have a card for a medium specialty coffee."
"okay, what would you like?"
"an iced vanilla latte, please"
"thank you. will that complete your order?"
"yes. thank you."
"please pull ahead."
by the time that i got to the pick-up window, i had envisioned something great. i licked my lips in anticipation.
"here you go!" a young 15ish boy exclaims as he hands me my plastic slurpee-domed cup.
i look at it (somewhat confused) thank him, and drive off.
this "iced vanilla latte" has nothing in it. no whipped cream. no sprinkles. nothing requiring the domed lid, but hey, i still give it the benefit of the doubt. i take a sip.
"cough!!!" i almost choke. i hold up the clear cup to see if there are coffee grounds on the bottom, (there are not). so i take another sip, and again look for certain grounds. (which are still not showing themselves) it must just simply taste revolting. i set the drink in my cup holder and ponder this for a minute.
what i came up with, was that since there was no apparent vanilla, no whipped cream, no latte, no coffee grounds, etc. and the fact that it was 3:00 pm on a friday, was that they must have used old coffee. really, really old, nasty burned coffee. they have made me a mcnasty and poured it in a cup over cubed ice. nasty.
i then realize that this is mcdonald's, and they probably always taste nasty. i appreciate the fact that it was free, and did not cost me $2.39 plus tax and realize how worth it it is to pay just a few more pennies and get my usual tall chai latte or my white hot chocolate when i'm feeling deliciously frugal.
considering the fact that i had a stomachache from hell with (no kidding) kidney pain, i cannot stress enough how disgusting this beverage was. please avoid the mc cafe entirely. if you really must try it, please do not pay for it. i can hook you up with a free one, but don't blame me if it kills you.
13 comments:
I should have warned you sooner about how absolutely disgusting their so-called "cafe" drinks taste.
I decided to try one out, just to see how it tasted.
I ordered a latte, or more-so, a cup full of hot milk with watered-down coffee.
It tasted absolutely horrible.
I worked in a coffee shop for 4 1/2 years and know what constitutes a good cup of coffee. By simply tasting it, I can tell you that they are using some sort of coffee concentrate. The milk isn't steamed, it's microwaved, and forget about ordering a flavored coffee (caramel or vanilla), because they pour a shitload of syrup in the cup to kill the taste of anything in it.
Outside of Starbucks or Caribou Coffee or your local coffee house, the only other place I would recommend getting any sort of coffee would be Dunkin' Donuts.
McCafe is more like McCrap. But hey, it will probably go over big with all those people who *THINK* they are drinking the real deal, just because they never have had it before.
I have to say that I have not tried the latte at McD's but I have had the non-fat iced mocha and I think it is rather tasty coming from a fast food chain. Of course, it is no Starbucks, but I think your coffee bashing was a bit harsh.
Hey, if they're branding it as "premium" coffee, they are far from it.
Honestly, I've had better coffee from gas stations.
oh gas station coffee is the best.
Not everyone can be lucky enough to have 2 Tim Horton's in their town.(Port Huron) For drive thru coffee it is the best. However, my mom warned me about McD's specialty drinks awhile ago. She tried to order one and the clerk talked her out of it. Said if she wasn't used to it, then she wouldn't like it. Mom took her word for it and ordered a reg coffee instead. Which is pretty good btw.
anonymous,
while i appreciate your viewpoint, i'd prefer to have a name left along with the comment. because i track ip addresses anyway (a secret little weapon of mine) you're actually not anonymous to me. you should just man up, click other, and leave a name. it's simple blog etiquette.
second, my coffee bashing is not harsh. trust me- i could have said worse, but felt that telling my readers that it tasted like burned coffee would suffice. i am a coffee drinker. i have tasted burned coffee and coffee with grounds in it. my mclatte tasted like burned coffee. i have a friend (as well as my dad) who LOVE mcd's regular coffee. my good friend hits the drive-thru every morning on her way to work. she quite enjoys it.
finally, because you have not had an iced vanilla latte, you cannot tell me that my bashing was harsh. the beverage was harsh- on my stomach- for most of the evening.
once you have tried said beverage, please come back and report on your findings. if you decide that it was delicious i will send you a coupon for a free one.
so am i really that bad???
Sorry, I was not being aloof by being anonymous. i cannot remember my blogger id. I have no problem with you knowing who I am . I guess I was just taken aback by your words. It is just something I do and I apologize for my shortness. I have not had sleep in a few nights and my emotions got the better of me. However, if you have another free latte coupon I would be interested in trying said vanilla latte and reporting back to your readers on my findings. You are not bad at all. I sometimes have this diesease called "Open mouth, insert foot.:
i have to say that the mocha is pretty good. a bit sweet, but nonetheless drinkable. haven't tried the latte...
when i ordered my first mocha a while back, i asked the drive thru guy how people liked the new coffees....he said that many complained about them. he basically went on to explain how people don't know how to order specialty coffees and expect a very sweet drink.
thanks for the lesson, mr. starbuck. perhaps the problem is that your latte just sucks.
anyway, i took my mocha and went on my merry way.
side note...i still haven't paid for one. i get two papers on the weekend and two sets of coupons. plus, mom gave me her two sets. so, i have many free ones to go until april 22nd. perhaps that's why they are so good...
ooh, mrs kane... i thought you'd pop in here being ever-so-fond of your mcdonald's coffee... :)
anyway, i'm not sure what i was expecting out of the vanilla latte- perhaps something similar to a starbucks vanilla frappuccino? anyway, it seriously was burned coffee with milk poured over ice. i'm still confused as to why it required such a large domed lid.
perhaps i will make my next freebie a mocha- if my kidney failure subsides.
btw, jer worked at caribu, so you can't call him mr starbucks. haha.
oh and one more thing... kylinn sings "bate bate chocolate latte" instead of "bate bate chocolate (in spanish)"
i did not teach her that- she sings it on her own. i might be a little proud.
Actually, I will admit that the McD's premium blend coffee is pretty good, much better than the burnt hot water they used to pass off as coffee.
Oh, and I don't think she was calling me Mr. Starbucks, but rather the 15 year old kid who's pressing the buttons on their "specialty coffee machines".
By the way, if you want to know the difference between a McDonald's coffee and a Starbucks coffee, all you need to do is order one at each place.
Starbucks will take anywhere from 3-5 minutes to make your drink. McDonald's does it in about half the time. Your average espresso shot should take 30 seconds to make, based on some research, McDonald's machines pull in about 7 seconds.You can definitely taste the difference.
Want me to keep talking coffee? I could go on and on and on...
oh- you're right about the mr starbucks thing.
i just found it amusing that we both had lattes (mine iced, yours hot) and they both were incredibly sucky.
in my post, i mentioned that i also like dunkin' donuts white hot chocolates. i swear that these taste like dessert. hit one of their drive-thru's next time you're out. aside from it being cheaper, it's much better tasting and you can order a box of donuts while you're there.
so go ahead, mr caribu, enlighten me. how long can you keep a bag of fresh ground coffee for?
It depends on how you store it.
Ideally, once you open your coffee, you want to store it in an air-tight container in a cool place away from direct sunlight.
This way, it can remain fresh for at least 3 months.If you leave it out, expect not to get more than a couple weeks of freshness out of it. You want to keep the humidity out, because that's what causes it to go bad (anyone who has ever experienced "coffee mold" knows what I'm talking about).
I'm not saying you can't still use it after that time, but you're not going to get as "fresh" coffee.
Also, ground coffee that is still in its vacuum packaging can stay fresh for a long, long time.
Oh yeah, here's a secret - if you like the hot chocolate at Caribou Coffee (white or regular) - save yourselves a couple bucks and pick up the Ghirardelli chocolate mix from your local retailer. It's the EXACT same thing they use.
My McDonald's isn't cool enough to have a cafe selection. We just recently (2 weeks ago) got iced coffees, which is really a little flavor thrown into regular coffee and then poured over ice. This was a huge improvement for us, because it is the first flavored coffee they've had. Actually, they do have vanilla cappuccinos, but they're really not very good for fast drinking with a mcgriddle...
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