For What It’s Worth

Premium Italian coffee purveyor is setting up shop in existing competitors of Starbucks. I say, welcome. The country may have gone to hell in the past twenty years but our coffee has improved hugely. McDonalds makes a good cup now, Dunkin Donuts ain’t bad and Starbucks, love it or hate it, has shown that there’s profit to be gained in a decent brew. Even highway rest stops now offer something approaching palatable. I knew the revolution had occurred when a few years ago I stopped by my old stomping grounds (so to speak), Miller’s General Store in East Holden, Maine, where I used to get a cup of swill every morning. I asked for a cup and was directed not to the old Bunn pot with five-day-old sludge but a bank of pump thermoses with coffee brewed that day. Wow.

So if Illy can continue that improvement, bring it on.