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
I have not had much Dunkin Donuts (no store in St. Louis?), but I had a lot coffee at Panera (St. Louis) Bread, I think their coffee is not as bitter as SBUX. The regular coffee at Borders is also bitter (overly roasted as SBUX). Actually Borders serves Seattle Best Coffee, which is a subsidiary of Starbucks, maybe the coffee beans are roasted in some place?
Also sometimes I felt it’s hard to tell the difference between good and bad coffee in iced coffee. Because it’s mostly ice. It’s more about ice than coffee.