Coffee wasteland

Starbucks. That's not coffee.

Having been spoilt by those wonderful Italian and Greek immigrants in AUS, I find myself in a coffee wasteland where Starbucks is considered as amongst the best on offer.

Of course there are the 'other' chains... Coffee Bean Genie, Martha & Bros etc etc... it just isn't the same. For starters I wouldn't waltz into Gloria Jeans to buy coffee in Syd unless its dire.

An example - I was en route from OAK to BUR for Christmas. There are a few options available at Oakland Airport but since I have a cumulative $35 worth of SB gift cards (approx. 10 cups of coffee)... SB was the cheapest option.

I ordered a cappuccino - the staple in any barista education course. I picked up my cup on the pick-up line and immediately knew something was wrong.

The cup had no weight. So i opened the lid to check... one shot of coffee and foamed milk. Nothing else. WTF.

It was 9:30am, Monday morning. I got back from a hardcore weekend at Tahoe night before. Got on a shuttle at 7:30am... I was exhausted. I would have fought back hard if they didn't give me my coffee correctly.

I went back and asked whether they can give me more liquid - after slight bit of resistance (my blood shot eyes probably hinted to how much I was prepared to escalate matters)... i got an extra shot of coffee.

Though it still wasn't GOOD. I mean, I still had to 'fix' the coffee and add more milk... but it was better.

Yet on the same note - I did find a totally out of the way place (24th & Folsom) that serves KICKASS coffee - Philz is highly recommended if you happen to be in SF.