Now, I know Starbucks coffee is burnt, Pike's Place is the worst imho. Yet, I still want to work at a Starbucks Reserve Cafe, and I love their Sumatra Dark Roast. I have started Cold Brew as I like sweet coffee, I am going to move onto Lattes (Drip Coffee Version) as I learn to be a "home barista" and eventually do espressos later. I just wanted to know, how much am I missing out by drinking Starbucks Sumatra? Keep in mind that I need decaf, so my options are limited.

Regardless of my negative impression of Starbucks, I am pretty sure if you apply at Starbucks reserve and they test your knowledge of coffees and you say "I have only ever drank Starbucks Sumatra decaf" that would be an indication of lacking sufficient experience for the job. The reserve is supposed to be premium stuff with the best baristas and roasters. I may disagree but I would put money that the staff is very highly qualified. You seem to have a long road ahead of you.

I haven't only drank their Sumatra, in fact I only started drinking it almost exclusively because I started to taste the burntness in their medium roasts, and while their light roasts imo don't taste that bad, they have high caffeine. How would I go about learning more about coffee, and would even a limited budget be enough to learn skills?

Budget isn't a huge problem. The best way to learn about coffee is by tasting, and all you need for that is beans, a grinder and a way to boil water. Barista skills are another matter, that takes training and can be costly. However, if you can't tolerate caffeine it's a moot point, because success in the coffee industry is based on ingesting a fair amount of it. For the same reason, you don't see any teetotal wine critics.

Alan

I guess I could try to reduce my intake of coffee products, and try to taste with 6 - 8 oz cups. Is there any thoughts on how to wean myself off of sugar? Milk should be easy, but I reduced it down to 2 packets of sweetner...should I try 1 sweetner for a week then 3 sugars and keep going down from there to acquire a taste for real coffee?

Thanks so far guys!

Perhaps checking out the site sponsors thread or a member in your area might be able to help you find a specialty decaf that may be of interest?
Apparently some of the US roasters have pretty good postage rates, so that might be an option, too.

I found that it depends on the decaf method used by Starbucks. Most of their coffee utilizes the methylene chloride method. I find methylene chloride or ethyl acetate decaf lacking in flavour.
If drinking decaf I tend to buy only Swiss Water Decaf or the harder to find CO2 (carbon dioxide decaf) which I find slightly better tasting than the S.W. method. Starbucks Decaf Sumatra is a CO2 method decaf and the only decaf from Starbucks that I like.
That being said I tend to buy local roasted Swiss Water decaf coffee. Local CO2 decaf is hard to come by or I would be leaning towards that purchase based on taste.

Kamatta wrote:I guess I could try to reduce my intake of coffee products, and try to taste with 6 - 8 oz cups. Is there any thoughts on how to wean myself off of sugar? Milk should be easy, but I reduced it down to 2 packets of sweetner...should I try 1 sweetner for a week then 3 sugars and keep going down from there to acquire a taste for real coffee?

I used two or three little sugar spoons in a 2 OZ cups. I'm talking about espressos or mokas.
I did start reducing sugar intake because of health concerns. so i cut it down in half, to just one spoon.
Months later we ran out of sugar and for some days I had to drink coffee without it. It wasn't bad, so I got rid of the sugar altogether. I don't miss it.

That explains why I like Sumatra decaf and cant stand other cheap decaf alternatives. Thanks for the information guys, I really appreciate it!

Klatch has two decaf Espresso blends that may be good choices for someone used to Starbucks.