Good Coffee, Pepsi and the Tea Menace

It was about 3 years ago that I got hooked on Starbucks’s coffee while at Vanguard. One of us would call the office on the way to work and take an order from everyone present. Not only did the coffee help us get through the day, it was an incentive to come in early enough to get our order in.

That routine eventually stopped when somehow Starbucks dropped out of all of our routes to work and when we moved office. I could still have coffee almost anywhere else though. Even forgetting the Starbucks shop on almost every corner, there is no shortage of cafes in Tokyo. My Italian friends are also responsible for exposing me to some of the best Expresso in the world.

Forward a few thousand kilometers to Pakistan, a whole country addicted to milk Tea. Finding your caffeine intake can be quite a feat, unless you happen to enjoy Pepsi (which I don’t btw). Coffee (as well as Coke) is as alien to Pakistanis as well, ice to Saharan’s. One of the first things people do when you meet them is order tea (something I hate much more than Pepsi, though I really love simple fruit, mint or herb tea). If you happen to refuse you’ll get a puzzled (or shocked) expression, followed by an offer of Pepsi at which point you are forced to lay down your weapons and accept the “generosity”.

You could make your own coffee, but it’s just not the same as enjoying it with others. There are Cafes around, but they are usually rare, expensive and mediocre. I tried some coffee at a fast food joint recently time ago and it really sucked, though the Cappucino last night at “Cafe Grind” was great.

My point is that this might be a good chance for a coffee vendor to come in and liberate us coffee lovers while at the same time making a profit off of the 140 million+ potential customers. Starbucks, are you there?