If you are a Starbucks fan, you will have to go without while you are in Israel. The chain lasted for a brief two years in Israel, from 2001-2003.
Interestingly, the CEO and chairman of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, whose self-made net worth is nearly 3 billion dollars, says that he does not support Israel financially, even though he is Jewish. It is difficult to determine why Starbucks did not make it in Israel, but the Newsroom page on Starbucks' website insists that their decision was not politically based.
Although Starbucks is conspicuously absent in Israel, it has opened many stores in the Middle Eastern countries of Turkey, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.
I am not a Starbucks fan because I hate coffee. I have tried their chai tea a few times and found it way too sweet, not to mention overpriced.
Israel has a few coffee shop chains of its own. Of course, I don't drink their coffee either, but I do like the chai tea at Aroma Espresso Bar. It is flavorful without being overwhelmingly sweet. You can find Aromas all throughout Israel. If you are a coffee lover, this is the place to go, I suppose.
I'm not much for the bitter taste of coffee; however I can tolerate one shot of coffee. As a kid I always thought if I drank coffee I would've been shorter and so I'd try putting milk in it and once I even tried squeezing juice from an orange in it and so it would be a little coffee with my milk. I do like chai tea especially raspberry chai tea. A close friend says she'd never spend money on Starbucks because it costs more than a tank of gas.
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