I'm sort of all over the place on this. Growing up in Portland, I was started on good (but not great) coffee by middle school. I went through a period of absolutely hating Starbucks, but then later came around when I realized that there is consistency in Starbucks that just doesn't exist with a lot of the little independent places. Starbucks serves its purpose there, particularly when I'm in the middle of rural Ohio and am looking for a palatable cup of coffee.

I'm think a lot of the specialty roasters are producing coffees that are getting more praise than they deserve. I despised Blue Bottle when I lived in San Francisco, which seemed to be riding on its hipster credentials and self-created lines. Now that I'm in Chicago, Intelligentsia is fine (I'm drinking a cup of it as I write this), but I sometimes find the beans to be a bit too under roasted. The small independent coffee shop across the street from me roasts their own beans, and they produce a nice cup in my home coffee maker.

I guess I've gone from being very particular about my coffee, to being much less so as I've grown older. I won't drink swill (and that includes pretty much everything that comes out of one of the many varieties of single cup automatic machines that are out there), but I'm also not going to wait in line for coffee.