Best of the Beach 2016, Best Chain Coffeehouse: Starbucks
The place that won as favorite chain coffeehouse has changed the language of coffee around the world. Thanks to Starbucks, people order macchiato which means “spotty” or “stained” and was obscure coffee slang in Italy before the Seattle company got hold of it. Words like venti and trenta, signifying the number of ounces in a cup, are now used to order coffee even in countries where the metric system is in use. Italians will have to learn these terms too, since the company is about to open their first locations there. If you go to Milan and decide to have coffee you can order using Italian terms thanks to your experiences in the South Bay. How’s that for an example of globalization?
(Various locations.)