Supersaturated. . . Solution?

If you’ve ever taken a high school chemistry course or even a general science course in junior high you are familiar with the term “supersaturated solution”.  Who hasn’t done the experiment with dissolving loads and loads of salt or sugar in water and then dropping in a string to watch crystals form from the excess solid still floating in the water?  It seems that these days we are getting strings covered in Starbucks!!!

Just last week we read a newspaper article about Starbucks closing 600 locations.  This affects 2 stores within 70 miles of us and one of them is less than six months old.  I like coffee as much as the next person, but it did seem ridiculous to me to have identical stores with identical offerings on every street corner.  Yes, it’s convenient for the coffee junkie, but didn’t Starbucks think that they would eventually “supersaturate” their market.

With gasoline and other fuel prices in the U.S.A. topping $4 a gallon it’s no wonder that the coffee giant is hurting.  Granted you may need your cup-a-jo to get your motor going in the morning, but if your only way to work is your vehicle where are you going to drop your $4?  Probably, not on a venti mocha double espresso latte with skim milk :-).  Taking the time to get up a few minutes early in the morning to brew your own cup of coffee starts sounding even better.  It just makes economical sense.  If you can pay $10 for a pound of decent tasting gourmet coffee beans (if you like to ground your own coffee like we do) and take 5 extra minutes in the morning to brew your own caffeine juice, why not?

There are a plethora of offerings out there for flavoring your morning (afternoon and evening) coffee fix.  My personal favorite is good ole half and half and sugar.  It’s not the most fat friendly option, but yummy, yummy, yummy.  Next comes a creme brulee syrup that I’ve had at a local coffee shop.  Last on my list are the artificially flavored non-dairy creamers that you can get in the refrigerated section of your local grocery store.  All told, you’ll spend significantly less than driving to the nearest Starbucks to get your morning latte or cappuccino.  So don’t fret you Starbucks lovers out there, it’s not the end of the world. 🙂

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