IMAGINE you’re walking through Worcester and suddenly you really fancy a grande, iced, sugar-free, vanilla latte with soy milk.

Or maybe a triple, venti, half sweet, non-fat, caramel macchiato.

But, alas, backward Worcester has no Starbucks.

Finally, though, that living nightmare is no more.

A new Starbucks store opened in The Cross today. And – lucky me – I got to pop along and check it out.

This is what I discovered:

• Yes, they ask you for your name and write it on the cup. Just like all Starbucks. Is it friendly and endearing? Or annoying and patronising? It’s an impossible conundrum. But in this case I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. The staff were chatty and attentive and my drink arrived quickly. No complaints there.

• The store is deceptively big. It looks small from the road but is spacious inside, boasting 91 seats. More than enough room to set up camp for the afternoon, sip on several flat whites and pretend to work on your Apple iPad.

• I know nothing about coffee. I took part in a taste test of two blends. Smell, slurp, locate (where you experience the flavours on your tongue) and describe. Those are the four steps used by a coffee connoisseur. As someone who writes for a living I was particularly bad at the describe stage. Instructor one got “dark and smoky”. Instructor two labelled it “hints of chocolate and nutty”. I came up with “er, it’s, um, better than Nescafe instant”.

• The interior – complete with an archway of green and white balloons – is slick and modern. Nothing too different. Pretty much what you’d expect from a Starbucks.

• People in Worcester seem to be loving it. When I arrived at 9am the store was busy with customers queueing up to get their morning caffeine kick. The store’s Facebook page has more than 2,000 likes and it’s only been open for a day. Although a number of vocal Worcester-based critics keep taking to social media to slam the firm’s UK tax policy.

Regrettably I couldn’t stay for long. I had to get back to the office. Stories to file. Things to do.

And as I walked through Worcester sipping on my Frappuccino feeling incredibly on-trend, I contemplated whether the arrival of Starbucks was a good thing for the city.

It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea (or should that be coffee?). It will probably divide opinion.

But, at least now, I know I can pick up a venti iced skinny hazelnut macchiato, with sugar-free syrup, extra shot, light ice and no whip when I need one.