hah. I don't like Starbucks but I could care less about their evil empire. The coffee just doesn't taste good. We have two in my town in Germany but they are ridiculously expensive for one and that really dark roast tastes and smells horrible. But coffee in the US is often strange.. either the tap water is full of chlorine so that you think you swallowed poolwater or the coffee has some weird flavour mixed in like "french vanilla" or "hazelnut", that's just gross. Or the coffee tastes like used dishwater, usually found in gasstations. I am spoiled that way because I grew up near a huge lake with really high quality drinking water, so coffee and tea always tasted good.

I don't care for Starbucks coffee either. I also don't like flavored coffee. Due to my line of work most of my coffee comes from truck stops. The Pilot fuel stops have the best coffee of them all and that's where I try to get my morning coffee when possible. Their Sumatra coffee is very good.

I would hazard a guess that truck stops are way better than gasstations. When I was in the US I never stopped at a truckstop because I wasn't really traveling around that much, but we did stop for gas and coffee when we took small trips. One cool thing is that gasstations sell jerky lol we don't have that at all in Germany. It sort of made me feel like primitive caveperson, chewing on dried meat - or like a dog, because some of the hide chewtoys look eerily alike.

Yes, jerky is very popular here. Whenever I went backpacking I always carried some along as it's portable, light, and provides the protein one needs.

Utemia, I like a lot of different kinds of coffee but I must say, the best coffee I've ever had was in Germany.  I like Starbucks Mochas but don't like their coffee as a stand alone brew.  I drove my hubby crazy when we were in NYC one time and I kept saying "Oh look, a Starbucks!" Every couple of minutes....they were everywhere!  Every corner we turned had one!

Even worse! Did you know that in NYC there is actually a Starbucks inside of another Starbucks? It's crazy.

Maybe the prices are normal for the US.. but Germany is generally very very cheap for foodstuffs - a lot cheaper than the US and most of Europe. I just won't pay 3-4 bucks for a cup of coffee.

I noticed in many posts that people like to go out eating in the US alot, or it seems to be more common to go out eating. How does the price compare - buying all the ingredients for a meal vs going out and eating the same in a restaurant?