Starbucks rethinks stance on young customers

Source: MSNBC



Allison Linn
Senior writer



Kamyra L. Harding never gives her son coffee or soda, and rarely opts for treats such as chocolate cupcakes. But about twice a month, the mom does give in to her 4-year-old son Garrett David Brand’s request for a Chai tea latte from Starbucks.

“People here already know us,” Harding said on a recent visit to a Starbucks on New York's Upper West Side. “They know we want extra milk.”

Garrett has been a regular Starbucks customer since “he could hold a cup,” his mother says. Now when he passes a Starbucks he says, “I want to buy this tea.”



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20608492/

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Get 'em hooked like heroin. How can something addictive like a coffee house get away with marketing to kids when cigarette companies and beer companies cannot? Double standard.

Tea drowned in extra milk is not going to make the kid bounce off the walls much, either.

It's certainly not going to do him any damage.

She's not giving the kid heroin, you know.

Mood Altering Effects: The mood altering effects of caffeine depend on the amount of caffeine consumed and whether the individual is physically dependent on or tolerant to caffeine. In caffeine non-users or intermittent users, low dietary doses of caffeine (20-200 mg) generally produce positive mood effects such as increased well-being, happiness, energetic arousal, alertness, and sociability. Among daily caffeine consumers, much of the positive mood effect experienced with consumption of caffeine in the morning after overnight abstinence is due to suppression of a low grade withdrawal symptoms such as sleepiness and lethargy (see section on Caffeine Withdrawal). Large caffeine doses (200 mg or greater) may produce negative mood effects. Although generally mild and brief, these effects include increased anxiety, nervousness, jitteriness, and upset stomach. However, individual differences in sensitivity and tolerance affect the severity and likelihood of experiencing negative effects.

Reinforcing Effects: Drug reinforcement refers to the ability of a drug to sustain regular self-administration (i.e. drug-taking). As the most widely consumed mood altering drug in the world, it is clear that caffeine is a reinforcer. Furthermore, historical efforts to restrict or eliminate use of caffeine containing foods in various cultures have invariably met with failure. Contemporary research has shown that caffeine functions as a reinforcer when it is delivered in coffee, soft drinks, tea, or capsules. For regular caffeine users, the avoidance of low grade withdrawal symptoms, such as drowsiness after overnight abstinence, has been identified as a central mechanism underlying the reinforcing effects of caffeine.

http://www.caffeinedependence.org/caffeine_dependence.html#reinforcing_effects

which is the stimulant in tea. Then figure out how much of it is in a cup of chai with extra milk.

The kid is getting milk with a slight amount of flavoring. It is not going to hurt him.

drinks that are filled with corn syrup, additives, and dyes. In fact, I'd rather they drink tea than have soda pop or hot chocolate or other traditional kids' drinks.

I don't drink coffee, or soda, or sugary drinks of any sort, but I DO enjoy brewing a small pot of fresh loose leaf green tea in my office every day. I encourage my kids to drink it too, and they love it (especially Dragon Ball). Compared to all of the other drinks out there (except for water), tea is about as healthy as you can get. So no, I don't have a problem with Starbucks selling tea to kids.

I do have to ask though. WTF is a "Chai Tea Latte"?!?! I know that a traditional masala chai is simply a spiced tea with milk added, but doesn't Latte just mean that it has milk too? Doesn't "Chai Tea Latte" translate into "Milky Spiced Tea with Milk"? I've never been in a Starbucks in my life, so you'll have to pardon me if this is a stupid question.

I've spoken to some people from India and they found the translation amusing - "chai tea"...is that like "tea tea"?

:sarcasm:

They don't even offer kids' sizes except for milk and hot chocolate.

I grew up in south Louisiana, where kids' drank cafe au' lait as soon as they could sip out of a cup, and where we had iced tea with our meals as soon as we were old enough. (I drank meal with meals until seven or eight, I guess.) This isn't really anything to get excited about, in my opinion.

I drank coffee from the time I could hold a cup...my parents were scandanavians and claimed coffee drinking was part of the culture. :shrug: The whole extended family was the same way and it didn't seem to harm any of us...I think drinking coffee is better than all that sugary soda. My parents also let me drink wine as a kid and so alcohol was never a big deal. I learned to drink in moderation and can take it or leave it.

i drink way too much coffee, so much so that no matter how i have i don't get jittery anymore.

... with extra milk is much better for a kid, or an adult for that matter, than a hot chocolate. Would you feel the same way if this story was about a kid drinking hot chocolate? You probably wouldn't have even noticed it.

someone teach that kid the joy of doing it yourself

I'd rather my kids had Chai Tea every day than a Big Gulp Pepsi.

marketing for absolute crap that IS marketed to kids, getting cranky about Starbucks is ridiculous.

I worked there for 3 years, and the only kids drinks we had were milk or hot chocolate. :shrug:

Chai tea is redundant.

How about starbucks rethink it's anti-union policies instead?

http://www.starbucksunion.org/

I have a lot less hangups about taking my 10 year old to a Starbucks once a month (or less) for a Vanilla Bean Frappachino (no coffee in it) than I do going to a McDonalds for a salt-laden, high carb, transfat special (complete with an imported toy from China!)


Gawd.


Laura