Okay. You asked.
The best specialty coffee I know of Seattles Best Coffee (and various local places I've encountered in Chicago, San Francisco, and Scottsdale). Yeah the name is stupid. They were originally called Stewart Brothers Coffee. They had all their cups printed up with SBC. Then the Chicago based Stewarts Coffee (in the plaid can) sued and they had to change the name. All the cups said SBC and that year they were voted Seattles best coffee. The name stuck.
There are two important things in the caliber of coffee. The beans and the roast. The only beans worth jack are arabica. Everybody knows that. The thing that can make arabica beans into great coffee, or ruin them, is the roasting. Believe it or not this is an art. I call Starbucks Charbucks because they over-roast their beans, burn them black. Then they convince their customers that this is the one correctway to roast coffee, which is BS. In fact there is a very point at which the roasting has brought the flavor of the beans out to it's fullest. Stop the roasting too soon (like most supermarket coffee) and the coffee will be bitter and acidic. Burn it like Starbucks and the roast comes through more than the flavor of the beans. Each type of coffee (country of origin, even plantation of origin) has it's own properties and needs to be hand roasted; that only means there needs to be somebody there deciding what to do and when. This can be done on a large scale, to a certain extent, and not the extent to which Starbucks does it. They are completely mechanized. No care goes into it.
A good cup of coffee should literally explode with coffee flavor in your mouth. You should be able to taste the body, the acidity, the flavor, and there needs to be a fragrant aroma. These things are unique to each coffee variety or blend. The difference is in the taste, not the company's image.
Good coffee can also be ruined in the brewing. No popular home coffee maker is capable of brewing coffee well. For my morning coffee I use a Mellita #4 filter and water boiled in a tea kettle, brewed into a stainless carafe, which I bring to work with me. Water temperature is key. Most people don't use hot enough water. It should be at least 190. When I'm feeling more liesurely or when I'm camping I use a french press/plunger pot. Some people don't like getting grounds in their mouths though. You also shouldn't ground the beans until you're ready to make coffee. And they should be ground for the brewing method you're using.
Unfortunately I can't afford to drink specialty coffee every day so I buy a brand called Don Francisco. It comes from the supermarket and is just barely good enough.
I know a lot about coffee because I used to work in the business. I roasted at a small cafe in Chicago that roasted it's own beans, and I have worked for both Starbucks and Seattles Best Coffee in a management and training capacity (yes, I taught people how to make coffee and espresso). I have toured the roasting plants of both companies and spent time at both company's corporate headquaters. Starbucks may as well be a bank. They are all about world domination. SBC was about coffee and it's perfection. The roasting plant is on Vashon island and I would love to work there.
SBC makes flavored coffee but only sells it at a few locations. I saw how they make that crap. They put the beans in a big roller and add chemicals from a 55 gallon drum over the course of a few days. It'll make your eyes water. If you must flavor your coffee use a syrup like Torani or Monin after it's brewed.
If you like Starbucks and that burnt flavor, try Peets. It's better. The only superior about Starbucks is marketing and expansion.
.... I envy you. I love *bucks' coffee.....
It smells sooo damn good, and tastes even better.👍
