Polls agree.

Survey says

A national poll of 26,000 coffee drinkers conducted by the Brand Keys firm found Dunkin Donuts leading the pack, 8 percentage points ahead of McDonald's and 10 percentage points ahead of Starbucks.

Dunkin Donuts' own survey in 10 cities compared its brew with Starbucks' and claimed 54 percent of the polled subjects liked its coffee best, while 39 percent preferred Starbucks. The remaining 7 percent had no preference.

"We have our loyal customers," Aeillo said. "Half our customers come in here every day. Some of them go to three or four of our stores every day. Some of them start coming in at 4 a.m. They meet different friends at each one and have a coffee. They know our crews, about their families.

"And we know about them."

That's because unlike the competition, Dunkin Donuts is the only coffee shop open 24 hours a day. That enabled the chain to sell 1.5 billion cups of coffee last year, according to an Oct. 22 report in Advertising Age. Dunkin Donuts spent $107 million on advertising compared with Starbucks' $38 million.

Figures on the number of cups of coffee Starbucks sold in 2007 were unavailable.

A Starbucks fan drinks up

A self-described Starbucks fanatic, Jeremy Hummel, of Selinsgrove, is excited at the prospect of not one, but two of the coffee shops frequented by the beautiful and the hip in Central Pennsylvania.

"Their coffee is much better than the others," he said as he waited for his pumpkin spice latte to be created at the small Starbucks inside the Target store in Monroe Marketplace. A second, free-standing Starbucks is slated to open Nov. 5 at the entrance to the Monroe Township strip mall.

"I make Starbucks coffee at home," Hummel said, "but I like to come out to have the specialties."

Hummel, a professional musician, said he became a fan of Starbucks when he was on the road. In cities like New York and Los Angeles, there are often Starbucks coffee shops on every block, and he was a regular customer.

"I was elated when it came here," he said as he sipped his drink. "I like the seasonal specialty coffees, like the pumpkin spice in the fall and cinnamon in the winter."

Too many choices?