That $4 cup of coffee...

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

You're thinking of blood.

Hey, vampires have to read too...


I'm not saying anyone here is a vampire.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

Hey, vampires have to read too...


I'm not saying anyone here is a vampire.

If so, I am safe as my blood is sadly lacking.

[Kumabjorn]

And here I thought that red wine was the blood of civil society.

[cromag]

I'm a tea drinker -- we have a very nice Asian market nearby where I can buy good, loose tea in bulk. But you cannot get good tea on the road, so i get coffee, heavy on the milk and sugar. I really like good tea, but I like coffee better than tepid, bad tea. And when I stop in at Starbucks tomorrow (they have several of the franchises along the New York Throughway) when I drive my son back to college, I'll be the person who asks for, "Whatever you give a person who asks for a large coffee."

I have to think long and hard before going over $5 for an ebook. It's been known to happen, but (unlike in caffeine-land) there are too many good alternatives at that price for me to spend more.


(Any vampire that dines on my over-caffeinated blood will have trouble getting to sleep the next morning!)

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Spoiler:

No Monkey, you want banana beer
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Produ.../?id=264091325

It's not bad actually

[ScotiaBurrell]

Originally Posted by cromag

I'll be the person who asks for, "Whatever you give a person who asks for a large coffee."

It's not hard. Just ask for a medium or large coffee. Thats the vernacular for...drip coffee.

If you want a bit more flavor ask for an Americano. Similar to drip coffee, but they make themfrom espresso and water, not coffee grounds and water. Its a bit richer and more flavorful. About 35 cents more.

I am on week 3 of a 4 week coffee and cola fast. It was supposed to have been all caffeine -- but I needed something to keep me from losing it so I started drinking green tea. Now I just need to find...a flavorful one.

I will not go back to a everyday coffee habit again. The difference is dramatic.

[Kumabjorn]

In what way is the difference dramatic?

[ScotiaBurrell]

I had a very very very very slight headache (like a soft buzzing if that make sense) come and go that started the second or third day after I stopped drinking them. It lasted eight or nine days then stopped.

After that my sleep habits turned upside down. I was a light sleeper. Now I get sleepy earlier (much earlier) in the evening and I sleep _hard_. Now I am better rested when I wake in the morning. Much more energy now.

[ScotiaBurrell]

Kumba who are the overdressed people in your picture?

[Kumabjorn]

Akemi and Rie, two friends in Tokyo. From a few years ago.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

honestly, nobody does. . unless it's wine or a mixed drink, i've yet to have alcohol and think "yum, that's tasty". beer, whisky, whatever, is simply varying shades of tolerable.

So that is why the top brands of Scotch or Irish Whiskey can go for prices well north of $100?

Granted, the aging and blending does give it more flavor, but there are plenty of people who will buy cheap stuff too. And then there is Vodka, where you actually pay more for less taste... Never quite understood that.

--
Bill

[taustin]

Originally Posted by Catlady

So how do you acccount for the sales of non-alcoholic beer?

I'm back to my alien mutant theory.

[HomeInMyShoes]

"Beer. On the rocks."

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by cromag

And when I stop in at Starbucks tomorrow (they have several of the franchises along the New York Throughway) when I drive my son back to college, I'll be the person who asks for, "Whatever you give a person who asks for a large coffee."

I may be too late to offer assistance, but if you want a close-to-decent cup of coffee at a Starbucks, ask if they have a "Clover" machine. Those things actually make presentable coffee! I won't drink coffee from Starbucks if they don't have that machine, even though it's a bit more expensive.

[MattW]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

I ran across this article in The Digital Reader where they're making the case for why a $4 cup of coffee is a better deal than taking a $13 flier on a new-to-you author.

[...]

I think Nate Hoffelder makes a good case in the article.

We all know that things like the enjoyment you get out of a good book or a cup of coffee are highly subjective and not easily quantified. It has also been argued that we do not make rational buying decisions, even though we think we do - some scientists have been telling us that for years. But just for the sake of the argument (and for a little bit of fun), let's try to do exactly that - quantify it.

Let's say that a cup of coffee will give you five minutes of enjoyment - hell, let's make it ten (perusing the newspaper while drinking, perhaps, or slurping it on-the-go). Which makes it 40 cents a minute at $4.

Let's say reading a book lasts you ten hours (just bear with me). Which comes to a little over two cents a minute at $13.

There are two unknowns here: the risk of picking a book you won't enjoy (since, as the article claims, you'll enjoy each and every Starbucks coffee, but not each and every book) and the relative quality of enjoyment you get out of one compared to the other (not how long it lasts, but how much you like it). That is, of course, almost impossible to quantify, but let's see where that leads us.

If we assume that the quality of enjoyment is more or less the same (i.e. you enjoy a good book as much as a cup of Starbucks while you're reading or drinking), that would mean that you could pick 17 wrong books and still get more bang for your buck with the 18th book (since 40 cents a minute is 18.46 times 2.17 cents a minute).

On the other hand, you'd need to enjoy that coffe more than 18 times as much as a good book in order to get your money's worth.

So, let's say that Starbucks coffee might be 5 times as enjoyable as a good book for every minute of consumption (the instant high of caffeine, let's say, compared to reading a book where not every page is as gripping as the finale) -- you could still pick two duds for every book you like and the books would come out ahead.

See how it's done? That's what I call science

Matt