Houston man spends 17 years trying to visit every Starbucks on the planet





Photos: Check out just some of the Starbucks he has visited in the past 17 years from around the world ... less The Houston native has spent 17 years and $100,000 trying to visit every Starbucks in the world. Here he is at the store at I-10 & Memorial City Way.



Photos: Check out just some of the Starbucks he has ... more The Houston native has spent 17 years and $100,000 trying to visit every Starbucks in the world. Here he is at the store at I-10 & Memorial City Way. Photo: Winter/Starbuckseverywhere.net Photo: Winter/Starbuckseverywhere.net Image 1 of / 54 Caption Close Houston man spends 17 years trying to visit every Starbucks on the planet 1 / 54 Back to Gallery

When he started there were just 1,500 outlets in just four different countries, now there are well over 20,000 in 65 different countries, but that won't stop this Houston man.

In 1997, Rafael Lozano, AKA Winter (a legal name change), set a goal to visit every single Starbucks store in the world. Little did he know the then emerging coffee house was set to become the largest chain in the world with tens of thousands of locations.

"(Starbucks) is where I would go every night and hang out with my circle of friends. I would go everyday with my laptop," said Winter, "Then I got the random idea to ask the barista, would it be possible to visit every Starbucks?"

In 17 years he's not doing badly, he's made 11,773 and estimates he is around 95% through with the U.S. He says it's been an incredible journey.

"I have learned about what I'm willing to do, that I don't need all the things that I assumed I needed when I grew up: material possessions, stability. My mind has shifted to a more minimalist, purpose-oriented life," Winter said.

The 42-year-old now lives out the back of his Honda Fit traveling around the country doing contract computer programming, then in his off time working on his true life passion; Starbucking. Yes it now has its own verb.

So here's breakdown of the essentials:

Favorite Starbucks: Duddell Street, Hong Kong, which has a historically renowned staircase and gas lamps.

The lengths he will go to to get to his Starbucks: Winter said he once bought a $153 plane ticket for a flight he wasn't taking just so he could get to a Starbucks inside security at an airport in Chile.

The amount he's spent on coffee so far: $100,000 – equivalent to 57,143 tall drip coffees or just 21,053 strawberries and cream venti Frappaccinos.

Maximum number of coffees Winter has had in one day: 29. Now perhaps the most highly caffeinated man alive, he often will buy several cups in a day, but save them and drink them over the course of several days to keep from over-consuming.

Favorite Houston Starbucks: Shephard and West Gray II. That's the big one on the north side, apparently it used to have a fish tank in the wall, although we have not noticed that recently.

Does he even like Starbucks coffee? Shockingly, our starbucker actually prefers small artisan coffee houses but still admits that the consistency of customer service and setting that Starbucks offers means that it is always his first port of call wherever he his.

Over all of that though the big question has to be, will our coffee hero ever complete his quest and go down in the annals of Starbuck history?

In his own words, unlikley.

"Once I said, 'yes it's just as matter of time', that's before I realized stores were closing down at an alarming rate. In 2008, they announced 600 store closures ... then in January 2009 they closed 300," Winter said.