Previously on Tito World Food Blog: 🌎

Episode 1: I Hate Black Coffee

--

Today's Episode: Corporate Coffee, Burgers, and Pizza (Part 1)

Today I wanted to write about the new “Big Arch” burger from McDonalds and note that not only did I think it was tasty, well-priced, innovative, and a grand class in corporate marketing, but I also wanted to take the opportunity explain how a master chef and food critic ends up spending $12 for a whopper-sized burger at McDonald’s.

I also wanted to talk about how McDonald’s is leading in brand innovation in 2026, and how the quality of their food and products has increased noticeably as they’ve risen their prices and forced patrons to be far less dependent on deals in their app.

But forget all that. This morning, I had a horrible experience at Starbucks.

I woke up today at 4am. I’ll admit, my goal was to stay off social media and digital devices until I’ve read my books this morning, but that didn’t go as planned. Around 5:30am, ready to get up and start my day, I checked Google to see when a local coffee shop might open so I can get a good latte and treat myself on a Sunday morning.

Surprise, surprise—none of the coffee shops open until 8am, which is a terrible time for an early riser to get a morning delight to start to day. By the time 8 rolls around, the workday has already long begun.

However, I did notice this—Starbucks, as characteristic of corporate establishments who dominate the market off of pure availability—was open starting at 5am.

I had a choice to make. I could either wait hours until 8am to get a simple coffee from a local shop, or get my day started now and head to Starbucks so I don’t miss hours of my day waiting to spend money. It was a no-brainer.

Here’s where my luck took a turn for the worse. As y’all know, I’m not coffee expert yet, but when I walked into the building, I not only was not greeted by the aroma of coffee beans and love like most other coffee shops would have it so be, but the menu was frighteningly simple, but with so many options it was still hard to choose. I came for a chocolate-flavored latte (the app only offered the following flavors for a hot latte—lavender, pistachio, vanilla, toasted coconut, cinnamon, caramel, sugar free, and “blond vanilla”…. none of which sounded like chocolate), but the menu only offered one choice: “hot latte”.

Not mention of flavors, no options, and barely even a price.

I see what was happening here. Starbucks was forcing me to use my expertise to guess what might be on their menu.

I read something about a "Dubai chocolate latte" online, so I asked the barista about that and she let me know it was available, and she could have it to me right away. Great!

I sat down and whipped out my laptop to begin writing for today, and a few minutes later, the barista handed me my order. To my horror, it was the opposite of what I expected:

It was a cold latte.

Before I get into the iced latte I was handed, I want to talk about the Starbucks app and corporate apps in general that encourage you to get online for points.

Well today, I walked into Starbucks and paid $17 at the counter (a “Venti”, aka “Large” latte, a pistachio loaf slice, and a pumpkin loaf slice), not using the app, but I definitely wanted to redeem those points so I could use the rewards for a free brownie later.

Firstly, the barista didn’t print me a receipt when I ordered. This usually isn’t worth noting for me, but today I needed the receipt to be able to get the points. I had to get up from my seat to ask for a receipt.

I also had to go online to figure out how to even upload the points from the receipt to my Starbucks account.

There was no QR code, and ChatGPT, try as it might, could not give me sound directions to where I could upload my points on the app. Yes, the app of course was filled with deals and offers and this item and that item (most of which were cold drinks)… but the customer service part or the salvage rewards points section were difficult to navigate to. I Googled instructions multiple times, even hopping on Bing to figure it out, while switching between both the app and the website to find out how to upload points. This must have gone on for 15 minutes.

Eventually, I had to bypass the AI customer service and get a live agent on the line to just tell them how difficult a time it was to simply upload some damn points from my receipt.

Their solution? Take a picture of the receipt and send it to them. Great… except I was on the website.

I took a picture with my phone, sent it to my Gmail, logged into Gmail to retrieve it, was blocked by the Gmail security and had to type in a password, it told me I had the wrong passwords, I had to verify my identity using the Gmail phone app, then the Gmail site asked me to change my password, but then after submitting my choice it told me I couldn’t use an old password, then I tried to skip the process altogether, then it gave me another pop up and—DAMN IT!! CAN I JUST GET TO MY EMAIL??

I furiously exit out and go back in, finally able to download my receipt picture and send it to the live agent, to which they verified to give me 15 rewards points… seemingly far off from redeeming for a free brownie. Whatever.

Meanwhile, the music in the damn building was so loud!!! I mean, I tried to put on my headphones and play my own audio to drown out the noise, but there was simply no escape! Mind you, I wanted to spend this morning off of my digital devices to begin with! This is no surprise, because in my attempt to record a video for a contest at Pizza Hut the other day, their singular TV was playing a kid’s show (“Caillou”) so loud that my camera couldn’t even pick up my voice.

The music at Starbucks wasn’t even good, either. In their corporate attempt to please everyone, they choose annoying music that I swear is designed to force customers out of the building.

Look, I can’t go on too much longer with this. This article is simply becoming too long and riddled with complaints. I’ll summarize the end of my visits and add more reflections to this corporate giant in a Part 2.

Adieu.

About the author

Tito94 is a creative writer and film director in Chicago, IL. His interests lie in film, food tasting, and gaming. Tito is a skilled writer and has been a member of the music website KTT since December 2008 and through entertaining content has amassed feats such as, the most posts in site history and the creation of the sports section.

@op

Other Works:

• Beyond A Reasonable Doubt: The Jay-Z Album Review

🍫🍫🍫 - Tito94 🌎

you think im gonna read this bullshit with that ai pic in op

The water is already gone brother.

This is worse than calling Jesus god tbh

5 points i have

• how have you not heard of a cappucino or a latte - also nowhere near what staight black regular coffee

• most people dont like straight black coffee, thats why creamers and sugar exist, or even fllavor blended beans like cobbler coffee - its a meme that btryhard boomers and wannabe hardcore blue colar millenials are the only ones that drink regularly and willingly straight black

• what is up with all the ai images and the ai rite up for a ktt thread

• also when the hell did you become such a worldly chef (even tho you havent heard of the 3 most popular coffee's forms in the world including usa - latte, mocha and cappu) to the point you pitching tv shows when just like 2+ years ago you were doing other things like trying to figure what to do with your own video game org startup since covid and then ended with becoming a local baseball coach like 2 years ago

• i think u a major CAPpucino for a life sxn thread

anyways, black coffee is highly unpopular for a reason ever since sugar became a normal, accessible n affordable commodity for the regular citizen

and reg ice coffee > reg hot coffee

WHERE AM I? HOW DID I END UP ON TITOWORLD? I WANT OFF OF HERE!!!!

Bros rly grifting on ktt man I done seen it all

I’ve heard of it, but never ordered it!

I’ve met a few who swear by black coffee! And the students in the class seemed to have no problem with it either…

You called this an AI write up… idk if that’s love or hate
I’m a master chef but it doesn’t mean I’m getting PAID to be one!!
idk much about cappuccino still, but AI told me Latte is the next best thing after Mocha for a chocolate lover!

A strong cup of coffee on a calm morning is one of life’s simple pleasures for me. I understand it’s not for everyone though

A well brewed espresso shouldn't be too bitter, it goes down nice. Cappuccino is the way to go, half espresso half steamed milk. The milk when properly steamed provides a very subtle sweetness Occasionally I'll add a teaspoon of cocoa powder and half a teaspoon of sugar to make it a "mocha"

About the author with a professional headshot on a KTT post is hard af, Tito innovating as to be expected

Black coffee is an acquired taste for most people. I never liked it until I needed to drink it to cut down on my dairy intake.

You shouldn't need sugar and creamer though 🤮 Creamer is a gross seed oil industry psyop, it doesn't exist outside of America

I only drink coffee when I go to Waffle House, and there I take it black

black coffee is great lol

in on a classic

real

Titoworld!!

Woke up in the middle of night.

This is f***ing weird, going back to bed.

black coffee is for when you just don't care anymore (me)

crying at op thinking a mocha is an “adult, mature” beverage

theres a very very very weird coffee obsession around my way that i despise because i do enjoy a good cup of black coffee. for some reason theyre trying to turn it into some bougie thing so that id overpay three times over for a f***ing bean juice

in on a tito classic