This Can't Be Good

Though the recession has brought some interesting trends and price corrections, not all is well. Apparently the idea that coffee is a beverage made from water infused with roasted, freshly ground coffee beans through either the drip or press process has receded below the line of good taste. Starbucks has announced Via, a new instant coffee that it insists is "just as good" as its store coffee. Perhaps this is true, given that Starbucks coffee is really not very good, but this could launch a disturbing trend of insisting that cheap and fast is good. This is all part of Howard Schultz's plan to save the $4 coffee vendor from the recession. Frankly, I'm never in so much of a hurry that I'll go in for Insta-Bucks. Folks, Starbucks has been destroying the world's taste for good coffee for years. Now, having beaten the planet into caffeine-addled submission, they're going for the killing blow. Duck.