Whether you've been to Miami Beach 100 times or this is your first trip, here's our guide to a relaxed, three-day getaway including beloved favorites, new hangouts, and some local secrets you don't want to miss.I was a little surprised to see some random Nestlé promotion as part of their plan.
Coffee Break: As you walk into Nestlé's Nespresso Club Boutique, a greeter in a three-piece suit (the most dressed-up person you'll see all day!) will offer a seat at the coffee bar or along the wavy, Art Deco couch. Sip the always fresh Nespresso, made from capsules of coffee, and feel good about your caffeine fix - the capsules are recyclable, and Nestlé has started a sustainable-coffee program to improve conditions for farmers and help protect the environment.My first thought is that this is kind of a sucky travel tip. I'm not that jazzed about the idea of going to a place owned by a huge food corporation to sip generic Nespresso as a unique vacation experience. Are there no good independent coffee houses in Miami? I mean, I go to Starbucks a lot, but I probably wouldn't recommend one to someone who asked my about the best coffee places in New York.
Of course, that's not the biggest issue here. Personally, I can't put "Nestlé-owned establishment" and "feel good about your caffeine fix" in the same sentence no matter how many coffee capsules they recycle. If you're unfamiliar with the backstory, Nestlé has been boycotted for decades and frequently finds itself on lists of most unethical and most boycotted companies due to its many questionable and harmful practices.
To learn more about the various Nestlé protests and criticisms:
- The Boycott Nestle blog
- Why I Protest Nestlé’s Unethical Business Practices from PhD in Parenting
- Corporate Watch
- Stop the Traffik
- Nespressure (See this recent article about Nestle's coffee business.)
- NestleCritics.org
- BabyMilkAction.org/NestleFree
- The Updated Nestle Product Boycott List from Crunchy Domestic Goddess
It's disappointing that Coastal Living chose to promote a Nestlé-owned coffee house when it would have been just as easy to find a place with coffee that's just as good or better, and pretty hard to find one with business practices that are worse. An independent coffee house also would have benefited a lot more from the mention than one owned by a huge corporation with plenty of advertising dollars. If you'd like to contact Coastal Living about this, you can email letters@coastalliving.com or write to editor Sara Peterson directly at sara@coastalliving.com.
3 comments:
If you're in Miami Beach go to the News Cafe and order a Cafe Cubano (Cuban coffee.) It's a sweet espresso with milk that's so good and strong that it will melt your taste buds off. Really. I was a confirmed tea drinker until I drank a Cuban Coffee on Miami Beach.
oh no! nestle is bad? add them to my growing list of things to boycott? they make the only chocolate syrup i can find that doesn't have high-fructose corn syrup in it. crap. my 'victory garden' will now have to include cocoa bean plants.
anyone else feel trapped on a hamster exercise wheel thing?
I've never liked Nespresso to begin with. We have a Keurig machine at our house and I love it, but the main difference between Keurig and Nespresso is that if I want, I can swap in a filter for whatever coffee I want; I don't have to use K-cups (which are, on a good day, about $.60 a piece). In fact, even most pod-based espresso machines let you swap out for your own coffee, and the ESE pod, unlike Nespresso, is something of an industry standard.
Vendor lockin for the fail.
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