Starbucks Sweet Enough To Sue?

Complaining about Starbucks has been a favorite Seattle activity since they blew up on the international scene and became almost synonymous with espresso around the country. Their roasts are too bitter, their drinks are too sweet and fattening, their baristas too mechanical. We'd complain about Microsoft more, but we just don't know enough about software to really care that much. Coffee we know. It's too damn sweet/bitter/milky/ expensive/small-coffee- farmer-unfriendly.

There not being a whole lot we can do besides complain, and there existing plenty of options in town, we end up just not going to Starbucks. Or saying we don't. Or if we do, we have them build a confection in our travel mug. Oh, we're so sly. No, this is a monastic Americano we made at home from beans bought directly from a guy farming three acres we met on our last trip to Columbia. There's whipped cream on my face, you say? A consumer group is taking action above and beyond publicly disavowing Starbucks, though. The same guys who sued KFC last week over their high-fat oils are threatening to bring suit against Starbucks for similar crimes.

Can we get a coffee-themed quote up in here, courtesy of Reuters? Oh yeah:

"Regular consumers of Starbucks products could face Venti-sized health problems," Jacobson said, referring to Starbucks' use of the 'Venti' designation for 'large.'

Wow, good thing they explained what a Venti is. How about another quote, this one mentioning the miniscule IWW presence at Starbucks:

The group is primarily funded by newsletter subscribers and individual donors. It has support in the campaign from the small IWW Starbucks Workers Union, which has members in three stores, all in New York.

They would like Starbucks to list nutrition information -- which is currently available online and in store brochures -- on its menu boards.

"Customers can ask for nutrition information, but when you're talking about a transparent business in a busy world, that's not enough," union organizer and Starbucks "barista" staff member Daniel Gross said in an interview.

And one final quote describing what sounds like a seriously disgusting drink:

A 20-ounce Venti banana mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream contains 720 calories and 11 grams of saturated fat, and a banana cream crunch bar weighs in at 630 calories and 25 grams of saturated fat. By comparison, a McDonald's Corp. Big Mac has 560 calories and 11 grams of saturated fat.