He goes by just one name, Winter, and is driven by just one goal: to visit every single Starbucks location in the world. Over the past decade, he's hit almost 6,000, including eight on a zip through metro Atlanta one day last week.

"When I'm in a bigger city, the New Yorks or the San Franciscos, I'll get up to 15-20 a day, easy," said Winter, 34, a freelance computer programmer based in Houston.

Special (ENLARGE)

His name is Winter, but he loves Starbucks in all seasons. A visit here gave him the energy to take this photo of himself.

ELISSA EUBANKS / Staff (ENLARGE)

Somer Daniels of Atlanta fixes her morning coffee at the Starbucks on Sidney Marcus Boulevard, the company's 100th location in the metro area. Starbucks is planning 200 more stores in Atlanta in the next few years.

WINTER BIO Method: Sips one 4 oz. regular coffee at each location Web site: www.starbuckseverywhere.net Personal best: 29 on one day in Southern California. On film: Documentary “Starbucking” has played a few festivals. Three trailers are available at www.starbuckingmovie.com. INSIDE THE FAMOUS LOGO • What's in a name: Keeping with a nautical theme based on its initial location on the Seattle waterfront, the company is named in honor of the first mate in "Moby-Dick." • Who's the woman in the logo? It's a close-up of a siren, a mythological sea creature. According to the Greeks, sirens would lure sailors to their deaths with the sounds of their intoxicating songs. • Key dates for Starbucks • Slugging it out: Starbucks vs. Waffle House

One of Winter's Atlanta stops was the newest location at Sidney Marcus Boulevard and Piedmont Avenue. It's the 100th free-standing Starbucks in metro Atlanta. That's not counting the 36 in locations like Target, Barnes & Noble and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the ones Winter skips to keep his mission pure.

That distinction is understandable to Elliot Carter.

Carter, 22, a recording engineer and self-described coffee addict, doesn't understand Winter's need to see all the world's Starbucks — but he does share that disdain for getting his fix in, say, a Kroger.

"The solo stores are consistent in quality," said Carter at the Starbucks on Moreland Avenue in Little Five Points (which Winter visited in December 2004).

"The individual ones in the Targets and the Krogers, not so much," he says. "And you just can't make this stuff at home." At least not the iced caramel macchiato he was sipping.

Even more Starbucks are on the way. Metro Atlanta, recently named the country's "chain-restaurant capital" by Nation's Restaurant News, is below average only for the number of gourmet coffee restaurants. So Starbucks is planning 200 more over the next few years.

"In this market, there is incredible room to grow," says Alan Richardson, Starbucks' Southeast region marketing manager.

He said Starbucks is planning to expand from 10,500 worldwide to more than 30,000.

Americans are drinking more specialty coffee than ever, says the National Coffee Association, with two-thirds of American adults having at least one gourmet coffee beverage last year.

And more than 80 percent of adults say they are coffee drinkers, with the vast majority having at least one cup a day.

Dale Adams, 38, a frozen coffee beverage man himself, pondered Winter's chosen calling while at the Moreland spot.

He said he doesn't identify with it anymore than Carter does, but, after taking a long pull from his banana coconut frappacino, added: "Really I didn't even like coffee until I came to Starbucks. I guess they get you in and keep you."

NEXT UP?

Hear Music, free-standing music stores, is the next venture on the Starbucks plan. Instead of a coffee shop where a customer can buy music, Hear Music is a music store where a customer can buy coffee.

Three test locations are open in Berkeley, Calif.; Santa Monica, Calif; and Miami. A few locations also are testing music mixing machines that let customers mix and burn a custom CD while waiting for coffee.