This is one of those things that only you could answer.
A friend of mine is from Seattle. Her mother in law works for Starbucks. She swears to me that even in Japan, Starbucks is just as good.
Please settle this debate once and for all. I can't think of a single other person who could....
Em...I disagree with the premise of this debate entirely.
I believe Starbucks is not good at all. Their hot chocolate doesn't even blink next to that of Dunkin Donuts.
Well, I've been to Starbucks in Japan and Korea so far, and I can tell you that in my opinion Starbucks is ALMOST exactly the same and just as good (whatever level of good that may be). There are differences, however. There are a few drinks and treats that are country-specific (for example Japan has cherry drinks and sakura chiffon cake in the spring and no apple cider at any time, and no raspberry syrup, only vanilla, caramel and hazelnut). Drinks in America are sometimes sweeter (more pumps of syrup and chocolate) because Japanese taste are different as far as sweetness. But that can be fixed with extra pumps, and not all drinks have added sweetner. The biggest difference in taste for me is the whip cream. American whip cream has more sugar. Japanese whip cream tastes more buttery, which might taking used to though you don't have to have it. This difference is explained by the fact that in America, we're used to cool whip, either in the tub or handy squirt can. However, in Japan, whip cream is still home made and more "creamy" than sweet.
So, whether you're in a Starbucks in Shinjuku or listening to the gospel singers on a sunday morning outside the original Pike's Place market Starbucks, the base for the drinks is exactly the same. It would only be different in the level of sweetness, and the taste of the whip cream.
You happened to pick one of my favorite topics. When I taught high school, I would take an hour long lecture class on the history of Starbucks, and I still bring my Starbucks cup collection on Show and Tell days :coffee2:
To add to that as well, I'd say that drinks and food tends to have more sugar added to it than anywhere else. Pop drinks here are dryer than anything you get in the states..i.e. pepsi here tastes more like coke in the states and coke is even drier. And its the same here with cream...it's more buttery and not so sugary. I think as well, that a lot of the additives and corn suryp are not allowed in food over here like they are in the states.
Does Japan have mochi in the Starbucks?
I don't believe they have mochi in Starbucks. It would be pretty hard to keep soft. Mochi tends to go dry pretty quickly.
And I would agree about the pop. Regular coke in Japan is a lot less carbonated and not as sharp tasting, so I actually like it better here than in the States. But there are some pretty sweet soda drinks in Japan, too. Melon Fanta is really big here, and Mitsuya Cider is kind of like Sprite (though not lemon lime) but not as carbonated.
@Chelle I agree with you 100% on that topic. Dunkin Donuts Hot Chocolate is SO good. I've gotten all these expensive mixes from chocolate stores and the like, and most of them don't compare either. Ghrirardelli is the only one close.
@Eimi I know that some things in Japan (Kit Kat bars are a good example) have flavors that the American palate would find odd (Link for reference http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/kitkat/ (http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/kitkat/) although those seem to be regional so you may not get the weird ones where you are). Is their anything "odd" like soy flavored drinks or something? The lack of Apple Cider would disappoint me greatly :-( Do the Starbucks over there still sell foodstuffs? And is it sandwiches and bagels, or something more Japanese influenced? Do they have "better" tea, or is it still Tazo?
Regarding sweetness in America - the US provides government subsidies to farmers, basically because otherwise farming would be completely non-profitable. Something like 35% of that goes to corn farmers. As a result, they want to find ways to utilize said corn, and one of the better ways they found was High Fructose Corn Syrup, a heavily debated sugar substitute. HFCS tastes sweeter than sugar, and as a result, American palates are more adjusted to sweeter things. I've nearly eliminated it from my diet (we either buy Mexican Coke at the Costco, or we make soda ourselves) and I can't properly enjoy many store-bought sweets anymore. My tongue has gotten too used to the less sweet real sugar. That said, the UK (especially in chocolate) tends to use Lactose more as a sweetener... and I'm lactose intolerant.
The most ironic thing about all this is that I haven't had coffee since I was a teenager because my body can't handle it.
melon fanta rocks
Melon Fanta hm? That sounds like something I'd really like to try and would probably enjoy. Though it's been a long while since I've been overseas I do remember that the food was rather unsweet and a lot of the things we eat here in the US every day would seem weird to other people in other countries. I would imagine that Southern sweet tea would send some into a diabetic coma of sorts. :drunken:
I've been to Starbucks in quite a few countries. The hot chocolate in Prague was excellent - nicer than Basel.
And the idea of High Fructose Corn syrup in things sounds pretty nasty - I tend to drink mainly diet coke/fanta etc (my Dad is diabetic so we never had the regular sort and I now find it too sweet and I find any sort of Pepsi really sweet). I could see me living on bottled water if I ever went to the States again!
I find US chocolate doesn't taste good to me. A Hershey bar is something I'd run from! Give me Dairy Milk any day.
Emma, Hershey's is by far NOT the best chocolate you can get in America. However, there is a nostalgia factor to it. When I went to Tokyo a few weeks ago, I bought a bag of mini Hershey bars and as soon as I opened it, I could smell that Hershey smell and it was like memories of Halloween and s'mores while camping were washing over me. But I think Dove Promises was my favorite American chocolate.
I've gotten used to the less sweet taste myself. And the size difference! Now if I go to Starbucks, I usually get a tall. I'll only get grande if I REALLY need caffeine or if it's an iced drink (since ice takes up half of it). And I certainly couldn't get a super-sized meal anymore! That being said, there are some things in Japan, though, that are sweet and shouldn't be, like kimchi or bread. But as sweet as America makes their food, I think Japan does the same with salt. People eat so much salt on a daily basis here, it's rather frightening (though it's never on the table...)
Erin, the kit kat bars are a seasonal thing, so I get all the funky flavors, but they change every month or so and then you never see them again for the most part. One year for Christmas I gave my grandmother an assortment I'd collected over the year. It went from green tea, to milk tea, to yogurt, to apple, to even miso flavored kit kats. We're always keeping an eye out to see what flavor they'll come out with next! And I wouldn't call their usual flavors odd, but I have seen green tea coke and shiso pepsi (shiso is a leaf that has a very strong taste to it, similar to plum but much stronger).
In Starbucks they have a lot of the same food and drinks as you can get in the states. There's always chiffon cake here, though, and very little with cinnamon in it. Thankfully, around Christmas you can still get the cranberry bliss bars which have always been my favorite! You can find more of the American foodstuff in Tokyo, like apple fritters and cinnamon scones, but in smaller areas, they don't carry those. They do carry the chocolate scones, though. I'm pretty sure they use the same tea as in the states. For a long time, though, you could only get green tea frappacinnos in Japan. I used to have to make my own when I went back to the states. Do they have black tea latte's in America? It's basically just like Chai - a very milky tea but with regular black tea.
I will admit Eimi has a point - Hershey is good for nostalgia, and honestly, I think it's the best chocolate bar for a S'more.
Green tea coke sounds good. Seagram's makes a Green Tea Ginger Ale that is AMAZING.
What things from the US do you miss the most?
I've lived here so long, there really isn't a lot I miss anymore. When I'm back in the States I suddenly remember I miss something. I'll be walking through the candy aisle in the supermarket and think "Wow! Black licorice jellybeans! I forgot about those!" or down the cookie aisle and see the chocolate mint keebler cookies. I always have to buy bread and lunch meat and cheese to make sandwiches every day. And I love the puffy cheetos. I'll get Vanilla Coke because they don't have it here, and diet coke because it just tastes different. I'll buy Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Life cereal with 1% milk for breakfast, and eat all the button mushrooms I can get my hands on. But when I'm here, I don't really miss those things. They're kind of "out of sight, out of mind". I think if there's anything I miss, it would be micro-brews from the Northwest. I miss the variety of beer available. But there's a micro-brew a couple hours away from, where I live, and it's pretty decent, so even that I don't miss all that often.
What I miss is more the things you can't buy. Family and friends, of course, but what makes me homesick is a picture of Mt. Rainier off in the distance, or a picture of a road that just stretches on straight for miles. A field of wheat turning golden in the fall. People lying out on the grass. A pick-up game of softball or basketball in a park. I miss BBQs with hotdogs and hamburgers. I miss insulated houses. And I miss the smell of frost on a cold morning, and the smell of lilacs in the spring. Those are more the things I miss.
Quote from: "Eimi"I miss insulated houses.
Wait... how do you survive the winter?!
Well, I wouldn't call it surviving. I'd call it hiding under a heated table. The summer's even worse, though. At least in the winter can put more layers on :geek:
At least you probably get a summer - up till yesterday the weather has been lousy here, struggling to get past 15c (59f) and wet and cloudy. Yesterday it was sunny and got to 25, today they think it'll be around 22, then back to the cold and wet....
We had summer, Emma, it was that hot spell back in April ;-)
On the suject of Japanese foods, what do pickled plums taste like? And sweet lemons?
And Erin, you are right about milk being used an place of a sweetner. You haven't lived 'til you're forced to drink 'milky tea' or 'vomit in a cup' >.<
Well, pickled plums are not pickled in the way we typically think. Pickles in the west usually have some kind of vinegar involved in the process, but UMEBOSHI are made using the natural juices within the fruit and a whole lot of salt. And it's not a true plum, either. It's a pretty sour fruit that looks more like a green apricot. So they come out tasting very sour and very salty. Personally, I like the flavor in a lot of things, but many people find it too strong. It goes good with rice and in OCHAZUKE, which is green tea over rice.