HOUSTONIAN SPENDS 25 YEARS ON QUEST TO VISIT EVERY STARBUCKS

In the spring of 1997, a Texan named Winter dreamed up the idea of trying to visit every Starbucks in the world, a quest that came to be known as Starbucking. This year, Winter (his full legal name) will celebrate his 50th birthday alongside 25 years of Starbucking, which means that he has been pursuing this seemingly-impossible goal for half of his life.

This quest would be difficult under any circumstance, but Winter makes the project even more challenging by requiring himself to drink coffee from every store he visits. Winter also restricts the project to Starbucks locations that are operated by the company itself or their primary partner or licensee in a given country, a rule that forces him to undertake considerable research before embarking upon a Starbucking tour. Winter prides himself in maintaining the most extensive website dedicated to Starbucks, and he spends almost as much time researching Starbucks as he does traveling.

"Starbucking is about the journey, not the destination," is Winter's mantra, and he values the experience of Starbucking even more than the stores themselves. In 25 years of Starbucking, Winter has traveled to 57 countries and racked up nearly 17,000 Starbucks visits. Winter's efforts have earned worldwide recognition, including hundreds of interviews, several short-form documentaries and even a feature-length documentary, appropriately titled "Starbucking". Winter's hobby has proven so popular, in fact, that at least a half dozen fans from around the world have felt inspired to undertake their own Starbucking projects.

This year Winter plans to achieve additional milestones, including visting his 17,000th store and his 60th country. Winter also hopes to find a publisher for his recently-completed book, also titled "Starbucking". Like others faced with lockdowns, Winter used his pandemic downtime to begin writing, and after more than two years, he has completed a first draft that he hopes will pique interest among publishers and television and film producers.

Spanning the breadth of Winter's quest, "Starbucking" details every aspect of his project and dives into the psychology of why a person would spend half his life in pursuit of Starbucks. The book also explains how his extreme hobby changed Winter as a person and led to the happiness and personal satisfaction that had eluded Winter for most of his life.

To learn more about Winter and his Starbucking journey, including photos from his travels and a comprehensive list of every Starbucks that he has visited, see http://www.starbuckseverywhere.net.