More Mundane Meanderings.

First off, at either place I would order the same thing: a grande drip coffee with room for cream. I also like the fancier drinks, but at between $3.00 and $4.00, it's not something I want to buy every morning. Plus, an order for drip coffee get fufilled much more quickly, reducing the likelyhood that I'd miss my ride to work. It's too bad the free coffee at work is rather subpar; since its taste is lacking, I'm willing to spend my hard-earned money on a decent cup of coffee.

What, then, will I use to make the decision? Here are some factors:

• Taste: Taste-wise, the coffee from Starbucks and Tully's is fairly similar. The both vary the particular roast from day to day, but overall, a cup of coffee from either would be fine with me.
• Price: With tax, Tully's is $1.64 and Starbucks is $1.75. That's 11 cents a day. Over a year (minus weekends and vacation) it works out to a savings of about $26 if I stick with Tully's. It's not a budget-breaking amount, but why pay more for a fairly equivalent product?
• Location: To get to my shuttle, I have to walk across a pedestrian area between a few large office buildings. Both stores are right along this walkway, Starbucks to the left and Tully's to the right. Location is a non-factor.
• Service: Starbucks tends to be a little busier than Tully's, but at either place, I can get my cup of coffee and mix in my half-and-half and Sugar In The Raw in be out the door in two to three minutes.
• Ergonomics: I have found that a standard Starbuck's grande coffee cup and lid can tend to leak and is very prone to splashing coffee out of the drinking hole when full. I have had a number of cups that allow drops of coffee to leak out where the lid meets the cup at the cup's vertical seam. The bump on the lip of the cup at the seam is big enough to create a small gap between the cup and the rigid Starbucks lid to allow coffee to dribble out onto a drinker's hand, pants or shoes. Also, the top of the lid is low enough to allow minor movements to cause the coffee to splash out of the drinking hole quite easily. This is a big problem for me, since the shuttle ride to work tends to be quite rough.

  Tully's coffee cups and lids, in particular, seem to be less prone to spillage. The lids seem to be made of a softer plastic, perhaps allowing them to fit tighter around a cup's seam. I've never experienced seam dribbling with a Tully's coffee. Also, the top of the lid seems to be positioned higher from the surface of the coffee, making splashing less of an issue. It still happens; however, the quantity of coffee spilled is much less than with a Starbucks cup and can be easily minimized by placing a napkin or two over the cup for the duration of my ride.

So, Tully's coffee it is, thanks mainly to the better design of their lids.