McCafe Coffee review: second try

Went to the nearby McDonald (NYSE: MCD) yesterday afternoon, and tried out the Iced Latte. Personal opinion: the latte at MCD is not as good as Starbucks ( Nasdaq: SBUX). Two things:

1) McDonald makes this mostly by machine, while in Starbucks the barista used some hand;

2) McDonald serves the latte not in a full cup, this never happened to me in Starbucks.

So in summary the latte McDonald (McCafe) looks cheap, although they can argue in “blind test” their coffee tastes better. As to the regular brewed coffee in MCD, it depends: it tastes better when it was fresh brewed. The coffee beans in those stores are similar, except SBUX are usually overly roasted (looks darker and tastes bitter).

Other stores

McDonald started the war on premium coffee

Saw the McCafe (aka better coffee at McDonald) ad on TV (not on YouTube yet). But here is a Cantonese version of ad (via. YouTube).

According to ChicagoBusiness, big Mac maker poured $100 million for the ad campaign. A really chilly Summer for Starbucks is coming 😀

Discloure: no longer have MCD position.

This silly earning thing

First Quarter earning reports for the stocks I own (as of this writing, it could change without notice). This is mostly for my own benefit, I want to collect them in one place rather than go to different IR web sites. Listening to conference call is a mixed experience, sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it’s boring. The most interesting part is the Q&A session, where the analysts and management goes back and forth: and I get the most out of things there (most of time).

US Bancorp USB beat slightly
Conference call (audio and slides)

McDonald MCD (barely according to CNBC)
Conferece call (for some reason it’s not working for me).

CNBC report (link).

McDonald continues to serve

CNBC interviewed McDonald CEO Jim Skinner. My wife and I visited McDonald near my home (Creve Coeur, MO), and was very impressed by the setting of the new store (I remember about a year ago I visited it and here are some pictures).

Disclosure: