I can say that I enjoy coffees of most different roast levels up and down the spectrum, except for extremely dark, so dark that it tastes smoky.
Circa 2005 to 2007, in that era, I used to live in Memphis, and I really enjoyed riding my motorcycle to Starbucks to get a cuppa coffee.
During that time, at least, in the daytime, and sometimes, even in the evenings, most Starbucks locations would have two different coffees on tap, something like Verona, or Italian roast, Sumatra, Etc. It was great, the coffee was fresh, and freshly made. I really enjoyed it.
However, sometime, I want to say, around 2008 or 2009 they did away with that concept, perhaps because most people who go to Starbucks, do not buy regular, brewe’d coffee. Instead, they buy the coffee, flavored milkshakes, whether hot or cold.
At that time, they stopped having more than one type of brewed coffee at a time, and they switched to just having the Pike’s Place. Good grief, that is some of the worst coffee I have ever had. Harsh. Bitter. No redeeming quality about it at all.
If you do some searching about it online, it’s quite funny, you will find where actual Starbucks employees have commented on threads about how particularly bad that coffee is, and how none of them could understand Where the decision came from to have that as their featured coffee. Makes no sense at all.
Anyway, that’s pretty much when I stopped going to Starbucks.
Nowadays, the only time I find myself in a Starbucks, is when we are on a road trip, I will say, it is preferable to gas station coffee.
I do wonder, if Starbucks will hop on the third wave, coffee, bandwagon, and start offering some light roasts.