Winter (born March 20, 1972, as Rafael Antonio Lozano Jr.) is a freelance software programmer and consultant.[1] He was previously known as John Winter Smith, but reported having legally changed his name to the mononym "Winter" in 2006.[2] He is best known for his goal to visit every Starbucks location in the world,[3] visiting as many as 29 locations in one day.[4]

Winter
Born
Rafael Antonio Lozano Jr.

(1972-03-20) March 20, 1972 (age 52)
Other namesJohn Winter Smith
OccupationSoftware programmer
WebsiteStarbucks Everywhere

Background

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Winter was born in Chicago, Illinois, with his family later moving to Houston, Texas.[5] He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with a double major in philosophy and computer science.[6] Winter works as a freelance programmer.[7]

Winter also is a competitive Scrabble player, with over 7,000 tournament games under his belt.[8]

Starbucks

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In 1997 Winter began visiting various Starbucks locations, expressing the intent to visit every Starbucks location in the world.[5] To minimize the amount of Starbucks locations, he eliminated any licensed stores to focus solely on those owned by the company.[9] For each location to "count" he would drink "at least one four-ounce sample of caffeinated coffee from each store."[4] He would also take a picture and post it on his website.[10]

Winter has estimated that he has spent over $100,000 on the project,[11] drinking an average of 10 cups of coffee a day and once spending $1,400 on a plane ticket to purchase a cup of coffee from a Starbucks in British Columbia before it closed.[12] As of November 2021, Winter reported having visited over 16,000 global locations, including over 13,000 in the United States and Canada.[13]

Documentary

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In 2006 Winter was the focus of the documentary Starbucking.[14][15] Starbucking was directed by Bill Tangeman and premiered at the 2006 Omaha Film Festival,[16] with the DVD released in April 2007.[17] Tangeman filmed about 40 hours of footage over a one-year period of Winter traveling to various Starbucks locations and interacting with people,[18] including a woman with whom he had been romantically involved.[19] Critical reception for the film was mostly positive,[20] with DVD Talk writing that although the film "doesn't offer much repeat viewing value", it was "highly watchable".[21]

References

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  1. ^ Rem, Kathryn (Sep 10, 2008). "Closures kick Starbucks quest into high gear". Seattle Post Intelligencer.
  2. ^ "IN A RACE AGAINST TIME, HE'S FUELED BY CAFFEINE". The Tribune. April 7, 2006. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  3. ^ Donahue, Bill (August 29, 2004). "Chain Reaction". Washington Post. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  4. ^ a b Parrott, Les (2008). 3 Seconds: The Power of Thinking Twice. Zondervan. pp. 165–166. ISBN 978-0310272496. starbucking winter.
  5. ^ a b "Winter 14 yıldır Starbuck'lıyor bu hafta sonu 10 bin rekoru kıracak". Hurriyet. January 15, 2011. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  6. ^ Roth, Daniel (July 12, 2004). "Seeing The World On Ten Coffees A Day". CNN Money. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  7. ^ "Skurrile Rekordjagd Auf Kaffeefahrt im Starbucks-Reich". Spiegel. 2009-07-28. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  8. ^ "Winter - Career Tourneys - cross-tables". cross-tables.com. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  9. ^ JARGON, JULIE (May 23, 2009). "A Fan Hits a Roadblock on Drive to See Every Starbucks". Wall Street Journal.
  10. ^ "Man on a mission to visit every Starbucks in the world". London: Telegraph. May 29, 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  11. ^ "Caffeine High: Texan on Road to Visit Every Starbucks". Fox News. August 7, 2002. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  12. ^ "First Person: Winter". Financial Times. May 15, 2009.
  13. ^ "Starbucks Everywhere". Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  14. ^ "'Starbucking' star aims to visit every Starbucks". Las Cruces Sun-News. March 29, 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  15. ^ "Documentary captures man's quest for caffeine". Tampa Bay Times. August 14, 2005. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  16. ^ "That's a lot of lattes Man who's been to more than 5,500". Daily Herald. January 12, 2006. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  17. ^ "Collecting Starbucks visits, one cup at a time". Star-Telegram. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  18. ^ "WHICH RAISES THE QUESTION: IS HE OFF HIS BEAN?". Palm Beach Post. January 21, 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  19. ^ Gibson, Caitlin (October 25, 2009). "Whatever Happened To ... Starbucks Guy?". Washington Post. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  20. ^ "Review: Starbucking". DVD Verdict. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  21. ^ "Review: Starbucking". DVD Talk. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
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