How Do You Feel when You See Someone with a Dunkin Donut or Starbucks?

Gourmet Coffee and Office etiquette...what's up with the Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks cups wherever you go? Don't get me wrong, I love my coffee more than the next guy/gal, but why has it become 'OK' to walk into every meeting, or classroom, or even to work in the morning or after lunch and have that Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks beverage in your hand? This phenomenon has become commonplace in our society today. It is now considered no big deal to cart these cups holding walking billboards everywhere we go. Some Kids are now associating these beverages from these two establishments with their parents. I recently saw on the bulletin board in school when kids were asked to draw their family members. There were Dunkin Donut cups in the hands of their mothers or fathers in many of the picture these five year olds drew of their parents. Next time you stand there with a Dunkin Donuts drink or Starbucks drink waiting for a meeting to start in the office conference room or anywhere there you are with others around you. Pay attention to the conversation starters...I bet there will be someone asking what you are drinking, "is that the new white hot chocolate" or "is that French vanilla or hazelnut coffee, it smells so good"? Then there will be those who will state their claim on why they have to have Dunkin Donuts coffee and nothing else, or those who hate Dunkin Donuts coffee and like only Starbuck, and vise versa.

It's as if these two multi million dollar companies gave these drinks out for free, in exchange for the free advertising...Not! So why are we so willing to pay a premium for designer coffee and give them free advertising as well? Meanwhile, we have allowed ourselves to be brainwashed in thinking these coffees in the pink and white cups or the green and white cups are worth every cent we spend on them plus the free endorsements we subconsciously give them.

Again, I love my French vanilla coffee and could drink it all day long, but will I really? I can't help but notice these people with these huge obnoxious Dunkin Donut or Starbucks cups walk in the door and sit on people's desk all day long. Is the taste really the same if you have to nuke the coffee to warm it up 8 times a day if you work 8 hours? No it's not the same, but people do it and I see it every day. Not only is this extra large coffee cup obnoxious, it's really over kill, no one really needs to drink that much coffee at one time. Do they? I have been guilty of buying the large coffee once or twice and nuking it all day long as it gets cold and it then tastes still tastes good, but so would coffee from my kitchen or a deli for that matter.

So size does matter. The small coffee is for the discrete person who wants that taste of coffee in a fast way. The medium is for the heavy coffee drinker (like me) who needs to nurse that cup or two or three. The large coffee cups are just obnoxious and in my opinion a waste of $3.00-4.00, I don't care how much you like coffee, very very few people can actually drink it in one sitting if they even need to drink that much at all.

I have actually been trying to wean myself from stopping and buying a Dunkin Donuts coffee everyday because if you do it long enough, it becomes a very expensive habit. I do treat myself, usually if I feel like having one around 3:00 or so as a pick me up, but not a steady diet of it. I did some simple calculations and foud that just one medium French vanilla coffee every day cost me $730.00 per year. If I stopped for coffee twice each day, like many people do, its $1,469.00 per year. That's an expensive habit. If I want Dunkin Donuts coffee and just bought the coffee beans at the establishment, I would save at least ½ of that that I would have spent at the drive thru. I even went to BJ's and bought the styro disposable cups with lids so I can brew it at home whenever I want and not advertise for anyone, throw the cup away when I am done. Do you feel a little left out that you aren't drinking the coffee from the pink and white or the green and white cups? A little, but you get over it, once you get out of that habit you have formed for yourself. And when you do treat yourself and stop once in a while, it tastes that much better than before. Trust me.