My McCafe Moment

Last week, I went to McDonald's for breakfast. This is not a common occurrence for several reasons. One reason is that I am not in the financial position to blow money on "food" that is honestly not worth its price. The other major reason is already stated within the first reason, the food is bad. However, I made an exception for some reason. I may have gone temporarily unconscious, I don't know, but the result of this action was my purchase of a "EXTRA-value" meal from this fine establishment. What I realized while at the counter was that I now had a problem: what to drink?

In retrospect, I'm thinking the extra fifty-some odd cents would have been worth abandoning the sinking ship of McCafe for the life raft of reconstituted from concentrate orange flavored water (juice). But, like I have said, I had some sort of mental faculty go on summer vacation a few months too early. I chose the "included" small coffee to accompany me in my delicious dining experience.

I started out by taking the lid off and documenting the wonders that are McDonald's gourmet coffee. I'm not sure if it is visible from the photo, but there is a nice watery line around the surface of the coffee where it meets the cup. Fantastic. I knew initially that this coffee was going to be weak, both in taste and in body. Honestly, I cannot believe that I'm even using proper coffee analysis lingo on this. It was in fact, weak. The taste wasn't horrendous, like that of the pre-ground anciently old office coffee, but it wasn't much better either. The finish was bland and stale. I didn't finish it.

How about that styrofoam cup covered in printed paper to replicate Starbucks' paper cups? How do you like that? McDonald's is trying to imitate bad coffee as well as cover up the fact that they use the world's worst (exaggeration, but still) substance for the environment as their cup. Great. This shouldn't be surprising- the similarity between McCafe and McStarbucks- because McDonald's has made Starbucks its prime target for expansion into the coffee scene. What IS surprising is that Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, said his "model for expanding Starbucks IS McDonald's." I guess the mimicking goes both ways. Bottom line: I'm not lovin' it.

Lord, thank you for the ability to go and to do and to try. I pray I don't take that for granted. Keep my head deflated and on straight. Here we go.