Winter (born March 20, 1972, as Rafael Antonio Lozano Jr.) is a freelance software programmer and consultant.
He was previously known as John Winter Smith, but reported having
legally changed his name to the
mononym
A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...
"Winter" in 2006. He is best known for his goal to visit every
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain.
As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 ...
location in the world, visiting as many as 29 locations in one day.
Background
Winter was born in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
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, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...
, with his family later moving to
Houston, Texas.
He attended the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, where he graduated with a double major in philosophy and computer science. Winter works as a freelance programmer.
Winter also is a competitive
Scrabble
''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left ...
player, with over 7,000 tournament games under his belt.
Starbucks
In 1997 Winter began visiting various Starbucks locations, expressing the intent to visit every Starbucks location in the world.
To minimize the amount of Starbucks locations, he eliminated any licensed stores to focus solely on those owned by the company.
For each location to "count" he would drink "at least one four-ounce sample of caffeinated coffee from each store."
He would also take a picture and post it on his website.
Winter has estimated that he has spent over $100,000 on the project, 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
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...
before it closed. As of November 2021, Winter reported having visited over 16,000 global locations, including over 13,000 in the United States and Canada.
Documentary
In 2006 Winter was the focus of the documentary ''Starbucking''. ''Starbucking'' was directed by Bill Tangeman and premiered at the 2006 Omaha Film Festival, with the DVD released in April 2007. Tangeman filmed about 40 hours of footage over a one-year period of Winter traveling to various Starbucks locations and interacting with people, including a woman with whom he had been romantically involved. Critical reception for the film was mostly positive, with
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman.
History
Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...
writing that although the film "doesn't offer much repeat viewing value", it was "highly watchable".
References
External links
*
Starbucking movie*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winter
Starbucks people
Living people
1972 births