Bryan & College Station, Texas

There are 9 Starbuck’s in town, and about as many non-Starbuck’s Coffee Shops.

As far as other “chains”, there’s an “It’s a Grind” on University (which have a great “perks” program where you get deep discounts at least once a month - like $1 specialty drinks, buy one get one free, and free drink on your birthday), the standard coffee shop in the Barnes & Noble, and the Hastings on Texas and Holleman has a nice cafe too.

Our favorite Coffee Shop is Sweet Eugene’s. Couches everywhere, free Wi-Fi, Great Coffee, an outside patio area, a drive thru, good prices, and a donut shop inside the store. The staff is very nice and very calm considering how crowded it gets.

Their Mocha drinks have chocolate sprinkles in them…yum.

There’s a place called “Coffee Station” on Harvey, but I’ve not been there. There’s also another called “Java Joy” way over on the other side of town by the Wal-Mart that has a couple of meeting rooms and good coffee as well. There’s a little Shack called “Java Jitters” behind the IHOP on University, but we didn’t like their Iced Mocha so much. We know people who say this is the best place in town, so don’t take my word for it.

Our favorite Starbuck’s is on Texas and Villa Maria. The servers there seems like they know what they are doing better than the others, and it’s fairly convenient with it’s drive thru. They once accidentally gave us caffinated coffees instead of the decaf we ordered (it was 10:30 at night…and a Venti) and early in the morning, we called and told them that their mistake had made it so that we didn’t sleep all night, so they gave us a free (decaf) coffee. Very nice of them.

The Starbuck’s in Northgate (on University right across from the campus) made the best Mocha Frappuccino I’ve ever had. Apparently I was what they called a “Once-A-Week Decaf Frap”, so instead of making a mix they would have to throw out at the end of each day, they have to make them special. They brewed a strong cup of decaf, and blended the most wonderful icy cold beverage. I also met a homeless man who said his name was Alfred, and he was named after Albert Einstein. I had to wait for the coffee to brew so I asked Alfred to sit down and talk with me. He knew all about the weather and how cold it was going to get…and he was right. He told me he doesn’t get much sleep, but he was very proud of his coat. He was sweet, but I kept losing his attention.

Coffee shops are almost always packed, well, not during the summer and the Winter break, but that makes them more interesting. There’s almost always a study group or Bible study going on, and almost everyone has a laptop and ear buds.

Oh, something cool about the Starbuck’s in the Kroger’s. Get a Kroger’s card (which they scan in for discounts throughout the store) and make sure you give it to the Starbuck’s clerk. After 10 drinks, you get one free.

Oh, and if you wanted to, you could always load my Starbuck’s card using these instructions. I’ve contacted Starbuck’s with a request to make a widget or something that would make it easy for people to load Starbuck’s cards, but no news yet.

Enjoy

Jorge