Or asphalt...I can never decide. Dunkin' Donuts coffee, even McDonald's coffee, are far superior in taste. Let's hope DD puts Starbucks out of business for good.

SIX HUNDRED stores to be closed? Just this week, Round Table Pizza closed all of its Idaho locations citing low profits and the growing costs of fuel and ingredients. Is it time to be scared about the economy yet?

I realized that Starbucks had become a me-too business when they started adding a drive-through window to the store. It is still better coffee than DD, for me. Save gas people: park and get off your rear-end!

Starbucks coffee tends to be bitter and over-roasted. I enjoy darker roasts like Mahogany or Obsidian from Caribou, but the Starbucks stuff just tastes burnt to me. I for one welcome the change by our coffee overlords.

I don't know about this being a major sign of economic doom; I've been wondering for the past couple years how it is that Starbucks hasn't completely oversaturated its markets. For example, in the retail area nearest my home in midwestern suburbia, there's a Starbucks in the bookstore, a Starbucks right next door in Super Target, and a standalone Starbucks 1/2 block up the street. We don't even have that many gas stations in the same area, and everybody drives here. I don't see how they could NOT need to close some stores.

So...now the coffee will better match the music?

Starbucks is eliminating 12,000 positions?

That's the equivalent of nearly 500 real jobs!

There's a lot of confusion about terms here. Starbucks uses the confusing term "bold" to refer to dark roasts. There's nothing inherently "stronger" about a dark roast -- "strength" is a matter of concentration: the coffee-to-water ratio. You can brew dark or light roasts stronger or weaker. Personally, I find the new Pike Place Roast a pretty tasty blend. I think many Starbucks stores also routinely offer a "bolder" (darker) coffee as an alternative. Prior to rolling out the Pike Place, they generally offered both a light and a dark roast in their brewed (drip) coffees.

But it's simply inaccurate to refer to the change as "watering down." The brew is just as strong as before, at least to my perception.

And keep in mind that all those frothy milk-based drinks that most folks buy at Starbucks don't use the drip coffee at all -- they're mixed with espresso. Whatever their faults, Starbucks can be credited with raising the general appreciation of coffee quality so much that Starbucks' espresso is considered second-rate by many afficianados, who search out the local coffee houses that take more care in selecting thier blends and pulling their shots.

Now, I'm not even going to try to argue that Starbucks makes a superior cup of coffee. I lived three blocks from two of the best coffee houses in Seattle for six years, and I learned me some coffee.

But when I'm flying to the middle of East Bumbfugg for work, and my options are some diner's craptastic watery robusta swill or good ol' Starbucks, you had better believe I will push my way through a bus load of old ladies to get an americano.

If you live in a city where you have a Ritual or Victrola or Intelligentsia, consider yourself lucky. And if you enjoy DD or MccyD's coffee, take a moment to thank Starbucks for raising the quality bar for everyone.

But I'll never understand the enjoyment certain people gain by watching a successful American company fall on hard times.

I mean, except for Wal-Mart. Those bastards.

Coffee is disgusting anyway. Seriously, I don't know how anyone can drink the stuff.

I have an idea: try getting through a day without caffeine sometime. Oh that's right, most of you are addicted to the stuff ... um ... OK, try quitting caffeine sometime, and if you succeed, find out what it's like to no longer be a drug addict. Trust me, life can be beautiful without coffee. It's a lot less expensive, too.

I'll give up coffee if you give up making sweeping generalizations and mistaking your personal opinion for objective fact.

The first step is to admit you have a problem.

Coffee's important, people!

Coffee is important, which is why I do not go to Starbucks. A very mediocre coffee at best. I make my own from freshly ground high quality beans. Can you smell it? Lovely!

"A" problem? I wish.

I got millions of the things.

such monstrosities as Dunkin' Donuts house coffee

Maybe I'm just being a clueless New Englander, but what the hell is wrong with Dunkies' coffee? I would order it over Starbucks any day.

I wouldn't hate them if their coffee didn't taste like the undercarriage of a rusted-out Chevy. (This is not to say I don't drink it anyway sometimes.)

I remember the first time I ever walked into a Starbucks and plopped down $3.50 for a cup of coffee. I spit it out. It's the worst coffee on the planet because the beans are over roasted. It doesn't matter what "blend" you choose it all tastes the same: burned. There's no way to tell the nuances between the different blends, because they don't exist and I suspect there really is only one Starbucks blend. Yet the majority of coffee "aficionados" in the US swear it's the best coffee they've ever had and they refuse to try any other coffee. Just goes to show the power of a great marketing campaign.

I shed no tears for Starbucks and I avoid drinking the coffee wherever I see their logo whether it's on the street, in a restaurant and I will go out of my way to patronize a local mom and pop coffee establishment, Peet's, Seattle's Best, or even a DD or McDonald's before I'll buy any of that nasty Starbucks coffee.

They're finally realizing those 'biscotti beans' they're using might just be a tad over roasted? There's hope for America after all! Now if we can just get D.D. to figure out cream, sugar and flavouring doesn't consitute a cup 'real coffee', all will be right in the universe. America's "Running on Dunkin"............all the way to the bathroom.