The “pour over” brew method is coming to Starbucks soon. Just yesterday, I posted a blog entry about how inconsistent a customer will find the Starbucks “brew on demand” policy.  In the comments to that blog, two Starbucks partners both hinted that their stores would be receiving pour-over brew method equipment soon!  I tried to get a sense if this was simply a regional test or everywhere, and never got a clear answer. A few partners contacted me privately through either twitter or other means of contacting me, each confirming that pour over is coming soon to their stores. Either this is going to be a test in multiple regions, or a nation-wide launch.

Is “pour over” coming to Starbucks a good thing? ABSOLUTELY YES.

The two “mercantile” non-branded Starbucks are already using the “pour over” as one of their primary means of brewing coffee.  For those who are unsure what the “mercantile” Starbucks are, please click here.  A “pour over” involves a barista grinding enough beans for a single cup of coffee, using a cone brewer with filter, and then custom brewing one single serving of coffee by pouring hot water over the beans.

This brew method produces a coffee flavor close to the flavor profile from larger drip brewers because it is a brew method that uses a filter, unlike either a French press or a Clover cup of coffee.  If one were to talk about four possible coffee brew methods, one would say that (1) “pour over” and (2) drip-brewer are very similar and (3) Clover and (4) French press have similar coffee profiles (though there is a larger difference to me between the Clover and a press, than as between the “pour over” and the drip brewer, in my humble opinion).

This is such great news that the pour over is coming to Starbucks. I remember hearing a rumor about six to eight months ago that the pour over was tested in Boston, but I never did get a chance to see it there myself.  Previous mystarbucksidea.com threads, such as this one here, have long led to me believe that Starbucks has been experimenting with the “pour over” for quite a while.  At times, customers have come to My Starbucks Idea to request that Starbucks implement a “pour over” brew method, such as with this thread here.

I believe this is absolutely the right direction for Starbucks to go because it reinforces their fabulous bean variety; it is a great move in the direction of being about the coffee; and gives the customer great choice.  My only worry for this option is that it is fairly labor intensive and slow, and I worry that customers will not want to wait and baristas will not have enough labor to make this work.  I guess time will tell.  I also have a small worry that baristas will receive inadequate training to make this really effective and premium cup of coffee for the customer.

There are a few large suppliers of “pour over” cones: Two in particular that Starbucks has experimented with are (1) Melitta brand, and the other is (2)  Hario USA brand.  I don’t know which would be used for the wide-scale “pour over” launch.

From what I know, the steps to prepare a high quality “pour over” coffee are as follows: (Caveat: I am not a barista!)

1. Place paper filter in plastic cone.
2. Pre-wet the paper, and toss out the little bit of water from pouring water all over the paper. This helps rid the coffee of any residual paper flavor!
3. Grind beans on a setting a little coarser than espresso grind.
4. Pour the ground beans into the paper filter.
5. Measure out the right amount of hot water, which should be very hot at 202 degrees.
6. Pour the water skillfully in the center of the beans.

When I posted yesterday’s blog entry on “brew on demand” I had no idea that something new would grow out of the comments.  I had been slowly writing that blog, and it sat in my drafts half-written for a month. Finally, I figured I might as well post it.  Looks like my timing wasn’t bad at all!

If any baristas have any thoughts about the “pour over” or any other brew method, please chime in!

[[Edit on 2-7-2010: From conversations with baristas, I am getting the sense that the "pour over" launch is about one month out from now.

One more thing: I wanted to provide a little more information on the "pour over" brew method, and stumbled upon this blog which gives some detailed information about brewing with the Hario cone.

Hand brewing with the Hario.

My gut intuition tells me though, if Starbucks is going to launch hand brewing nationally, they'll go with the Melitta cone brewer and not Hario. I only say that because my gut tells me that is the cheaper system to operationalize if you need to buy 10,000 cones!]]

[[Edit on 2-8-2010: Further gossip on this development that I'm hearing: Starbucks will launch this is all non-Clover stores on 3-8-2010, and will be using the Melitta cone system.]]

The difference between a request and a demand is the ability to hear ‘no’ for an answer.

This blog entry is my commentary about the experience created by Starbucks‘ “brew on demand” policy.  This blog entry mostly focuses on the experience at the register – the few short minutes between customer and barista while standing at the register.  It is not really a discussion of the underlying merits of “brew on demand”, but rather I truly want to focus on the customer’s experience of it.  Unfortunately, mostly this will be a critical discussion of “brew on demand”.  For a background story to “Brew on Demand” take a look at a previous blog entry here:

• Brew on Demand: The prequel – 1980s to April 8, 2008

First, some background on what “Brew on Demand” is, for those who do not know.  On April 8, 2008, Starbucks launched a new coffee blend, an everyday coffee brew, called “Pike Place Roast” replacing the decades long tradition of offering a variety of coffees to showcase their whole bean offerings.  This means that rather being able to have a variety of coffee offerings,  after April 8th would always be guaranteed only one coffee would on the brew and ready to go: Pike Place Roast.

There are numerous sort of obvious problems or challenges with a premier coffeehouse, specializing in a variety of beans, offering  just one coffee bean selection for in-store consumption.  Just to name a few obvious problems:  If the customer doesn’t like Pike Place Roast, he or she suddenly can’t get a cup of coffee.  Another problem is that even customers who genuinely like Pike Place Roast may get tired of drinking only one coffee variety. And yet another problem is that it suddenly becomes much more difficult to get customers enthusiastic about premier whole bean coffee if there is no opportunity to try other coffee offerings. And the customer who knows and understands that there are many different brew methods for coffee, will very well be unhappy to have to accept an alternate brew-method for his or her cup of coffee.  Lastly, generally speaking, many customers will be unhappy at the idea that they’ve arrived a specialty coffeehouse only to be told to accept a substitution (have an Americano instead). Many customers do not want to drink watered down espresso, but rather want to enjoy a cup of Sumatra, or Kenya, or the blends that made Starbucks famous throughout the long history of 1971 through 2008.

In response to the challenges associated with only offering one single coffee offering, Starbucks announced a policy of “brew on demand”. In June 2008, Starbucks officially announced that baristas will “Brew on Demand“.  By March of 2009, there were still complaints that Brew on Demand wasn’t effective, and Starbucks reiterated the same “Brew on Demand” policy again in their blogs, this time with even stronger wording:

• Decaf Pike Place Roast™ and Today’s Morning Pick should be continually brewed until 12 p.m. in all stores. (from 5 a.m. until 12 p.m. in 24-hour stores)
• After 12 p.m., stores should consider their customers’ preferences to judge whether they continue to brew batches of these coffees or brew when ordered.
• When a customer requests Decaf or Today’s Morning Pick and the store does not have it brewed, your barista should offer to brew a fresh batch while acknowledging the wait time.

Several obvious key points in the above language: Brew on Demand should work the same whether the customer wants the Bold Pick coffee or whether the customer wants a Decaf brew.  The analysis is the same for both coffee varieties.  Also, the intimation is that the experience should be easy at the register…the barista should “offer” to brew coffee.

What does brew on demand translate into at the store level?

So what happens at the register when a customer tries to order another coffee other than Pike Place Roast, which is not already on the brew? Fundamentally, a Starbucks customer is met with incredible inconsistency in the experience.  There is no assurances of any one particular result, and unlike the latte drinker who can demand a drink be remade if it is not  “perfect” the coffee drinker cannot demand anything.  There are a limited number of scenarios. Basically, the customer will experience one of the following, depending on the barista’s good nature or animosity towards brew on demand:

1. The barista immediately says, “Sure! I can brew you our bold pick! It’ll be about four to five minutes wait”
2. The baristas says, “No.  After noon our store only offers Pike Place Roast for drip brewed coffee.”
3. The barista says “No” and the  customer spends four to five minutes with customer trying to persuade the barista that he or she genuinely wants drip-brewed coffee and not an Americano or other substitution.
4. The barista passes the buck and asks for a manager to come speak with the customer because the barista feels that he or she does not have permission to brew bold coffee. After four to five minutes, the customer may or may not actually get any bold brewed coffee.
5. The barista says “yes” but tells a completely different story with body language that this is something that he or she does not want to do. The barista rolls their eyes, and sends the message that the customer is just a hassle.
6. The barista refuses to drip brew bold coffee but offers to do a French press, unaware that many customers really do want brewed coffee and not a press.
7. The barista says, “we have that ready – How does Gold Coast sound to you?”

The bottom line is that “Brew on Demand” creates incredible inconsistency in the experience. There is no way that a customer can demand coffee. The customer is placed in this horribly awkward position of trying to come up with the right words to persuade the barista to brew coffee. It feels like begging for coffee and most often a power game. It’s an awful experience.  I have tried every possible way to get coffee. I have experimented with this and intentionally done everything from being extremely sweet to down right demanding, and I can assure you dear readers, nothing works. Either the barista will brew you coffee or not, and the customer has no control over what happens. All the customer can do is order coffee and say, “Hi! I’d like a tall bold pick of the week coffee” and then hold on tight and hope for the best, not knowing which of the above outcomes will happen. This incredibly uncertainty in the experience cannot be good for the brand.  I have experienced everyone of the above listed possible results.

Some readers may ask, “Melody, why are you still a Starbucks customer despite that only Pike Place Roast is available after noon in the stores?”

Pike Place Roast was launched April 8, 2008, and the worst of the brew on demand experiences, for me, were 2008, and into very early 2009. For me, the experience began to slowly change in August 2008. In August 2008, Starbucks completed the first wave of Clover expansion, and suddenly I found my work location perfectly and evenly distanced from two Clover brewers.  By late 2008, at least Monday through Friday during normal business hours, I didn’t really worry about brew on demand. I simply did not make an afternoon visit Starbucks unless I was going to a store with a Clover brewer.

In honesty, it took a long time for me to figure out which Starbucks (outside of downtown Seattle) will brew on demand, and which will refuse. After a while, I slowly created a very tiny mental list of only three Starbucks north of the ship canal that consistently brew on demand.  Still to this day, I rarely go in a Starbucks in the weekends any more that isn’t one of these three locations. In July 2009, Starbucks opened up 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, which uses both the ‘pour over’ and Clover brew methods for coffee, and basically I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I have to thank @Brendan206 who tipped me off at the one location in Seattle (north of the ship canal) that always brews bold, open to close. It’s wonderful. I go out of my way to go to this store on weekends.  To all of you readers, this may seem ridiculous but finding one Starbucks brewing bold in Seattle is like looking for a needle in a haystack given the huge number of Starbucks this city has.  Now, between 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, and one particular Starbucks that always brews bold, I always have a weekend coffeehouse for bold Starbucks coffee.  And truthfully, if the weather is nice and warm, I’ll often get a cold drink anyway.

My problem is simply that if I leave this Seattle-bubble, I’m pretty lost and basically now expect that I will hear “no” for answer, or that a barista will spend longer trying to persuade me that an Americano and/or a French Press is the same thing as filter-brewed coffee than it would take to actually brew it. The result: I don’t go to a normal Starbucks in the afternoon.

Even today, on MyStarbucksIdea, there are still people who come on to the site complaining that their local stores told them that ‘they’re not allowed to brew bold in the afternoon’.  That’s not a true statement per the Starbucks policy clearly announced by Starbucks to customers but it still is happening.

At this point, I question whether anything *can* ever change. Twenty months of being a specialty coffeehouse featuring just one single coffee has certainly caused some shifting and transition in the customer base. No doubt, there is a self-selection of customers happening, where bold brew customers simply don’t return, to be replaced by customers who like something else.

Where is all this going?

It’s not going anywhere.  There is not enough coffee education in the stores these days for most baristas to get excited by Italian Roast or explain why it has sweet notes to it, or to explain why Sidamo pairs well with a lemon loaf.  Many modern baristas believe, “have an Americano, it’s the same thing.”  The brew method IS important. Drip-brewed Espresso Roast is not the same thing as a shot of espresso. And frankly, I would be happy if a barista said to me, “if you’ve got five minutes to wait, I can brew a quarter-batch of Espresso Roast.”  It makes a fine drip coffee.

However, as I’ve said before, I don’t think anything will change now because the status quo has gone on so long.  I will say my favorite store manager has told me many times, “Melody, Starbucks should rename it ‘Brew by Request’ because even the harsh tone of the policy sets the customer-barista off on the wrong foot. Request is a much nice word than ‘demand‘”. I agree.

I try very hard to keep this blog positive. I don’t just repeat the latest lawsuit/scandal story in the news about Starbucks and report here. Rather I create my own content, through the Starbucks lens as I see it, as very imperfect as that might be.  It would be really disingenuous of me if I never admitted that Starbucks had a few policies that get underneath my skin. I have to be honest.  This is one of them here.  But we will return to your happier Starbucks content soon!

If you like this blog entry, you may also like the following:

• Commentary: Recyclable Cups and Starbucks
• Commentary: Critical Discussion of MyStarbucksIdea

And now, your thoughts on “Brew on Demand”…

Verona and chocolate

Some people have comfort food. I have comfort coffee. It’s Starbucks Caffè Verona. I go back to this coffee over and over again, as a staple, thinking, ‘yes, this is what coffee is supposed to taste like.’

Verona is famous for being perfect for pairing with chocolates and lovely sweet desserts, and since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, no better time than now to talk about Verona.  This coffee is bold and roasty sweet, and blends Latin America and Asia Pacific coffees, blended with twenty percent Italian Roast.  I have heard it said that this is one of only a few coffees blended post-roasting.  The 80% Latin America and Asia Pacific coffees are roasted especially for Verona, and then the remaining 20% Italian Roast, creating a unique sweetness to the coffee, gets blended in at the finish.

The tribal lore that goes with coffee, which has been a part of Starbucks since 1975 (or strongly believed to be about 1975), is this intriguing story:

In the mid 1970s, Starbucks started blending and selling a coffee for a restaurant called Jake O’Shaunessey’s on lower Queen Anne (a Seattle neighborhood).  It was the very first “private label” coffee for a restaurant and it was called “Jake’s Blend,” a blend of 80% Yukon and 20% Italian Roast, and nobody else had it on their menu. customers started coming into the stores and asking for “Jake’s Blend”.  Baristas scooped out the coffees, and weighed it out on scales, and labeled it “Jake’s Blend”.  Starbucks sold enough of the coffee that they began to pre-blending and labeling the coffee, labeling it 80/20 Blend.  Starbucks added it to the whole bean menu board as “80/20″ Blend. If a customer asked for Jake’s Blend, they got 80/20 Blend, but labeled as Jake’s, otherwise they got a bag stamped 80/20 Blend!

Baristas were told that if a customer asked what Jake’s Blend was, they were told it was a proprietary blend, but a lot like the 80/20 Blend that was offered on the menu! In 1987, Howard Schultz bought the little business called Starbucks Coffee Company, and he wanted to trademark the name of the coffee.  For some reason, 80/20 Blend could not be trademarked, and so they simply renamed the coffee Caffè Verona Blend.  So the blend dates to about 1975 with the inception of Jake O’Shaunessey’s (long since gone), hand mixed in the stores, and then pre-mixed under a different name on the whole bean menu board, but sold under two names, and finally trademarked with the enduring name of Caffè Verona.

In preparation for this blog entry, I ran to a favorite Starbucks and looked at what chocolates might be in the store to pair this lovely coffee with.  At my local Starbucks, I discovered the intense chocolate wonderfulness of TCHO Chocolates, but only recently realized that these lovely chocolates are not wide-spread in every Starbucks store.  Even in downtown Seattle, not all Starbucks carry these wonderful chocolates.  Hopefully you will find the TCHO chocolates at your local Starbucks.  I grabbed a pound of Verona, and had a Clover cup of it made. The beans were beautiful. I looked at the back of the bag and figured out (since I know exactly the pull dates from roast dates) that the beans had probably been roasted within the past two to three weeks. I took a close up picture of the Verona beans just to show off the beautiful oils which you can nearly feel and smell just by looking at the picture.  Of course, if your local Starbucks does not have TCHO chocolates, I recommend buying the standard chocolate bars often available near the register.

Any other Verona fans here or suggestions of favorite pairings with this coffee?

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also enjoy these as well:

• Casi Cielo returns to Starbucks
• The magic of Sumatra and Aged Sumatra

Verona coffee stamp

Decaf Verona coffee stamp

Close up of Verona beans

Starbucks chocolates

Many of my readers will recognize the name Juan Valdez from a different Starbucks blog, namely, Starbucks Gossip. The famed store reviewer saddled up his burro and traveled all over the country rating and reviewing various Starbucks stores. He recently went into retirement, but the burro wanted to stretch his legs, and the beacon of the green siren called.  Thank you Juan Valdez for sharing your store review with StarbucksMelody.com. He stopped into a store in Silverdale, Washington, and here is his review:

Starbucks
2238 Bucklin Hill Road
Silverdale, Wa.

Greetings from the land of “I haven’t done a SBUX column in quite a while”.  Actually, I thought it might be a while longer before I once again darkened the doors of a Starbucks however, one morning last week, the burro began making weird grunting noises. At first I thought he’d eaten a bad batch of carrots but then, as I listened more closely, I realized he was asking if we could go visit the Space Needle.  Over the years, I’ve come to learn this is his code for “let’s go to a Starbucks and you can write a column about it.”  Don’t ask me why he has a code, he’s a burro for gosh sakes, who the hell knows why they do what they do.  And, of course, I had to do it because when you don’t do what a burro wants, they are prone to sudden and unexpected attacks of diarrhea which, as you can imagine, is not fun to be around.

So we visited the Starbucks on Bucklin Hill Road, just down by the water in Silverdale.  The store is located in a little strip mall (what a shock, a Starbucks in a strip mall) and the large windows offered a stunning view of a parking lot for as far as the eye can see.  This is a nice sized cafe store with lots of seating including several comfy chairs which, as you all know, are my favorite.  I got my drink in two minutes, selected a comfy chair and sat down to watch the action play out.

There were four partners on the floor and while they were polite and helpful, they weren’t particularly friendly. There were no real attempts to connect with either myself or any other customers that I saw (or heard).   Business was steady but not overly busy.  The lobby looked pretty good and, better yet, someone kept doing quick spins to keep it that way.

Too bad they didnt go in the bathroom.   There was the same paper debris on the floor when I left as when I came in.   There was a partial roll of toilet paper in the holder and another partial roll sitting on top of the holder.  Nice.  And, of course, the ever ready toilet brush sat in the corner, ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.

My drink was the proper weight and temp and tasted quite good.

All in all, it was an average visit.  The partners could have definitely been more outgoing but at least they weren’t rude.  It was basically a strip mall experience for a strip mall store.

Rating:  C+

************************************

If you enjoy reading store reviews, here are a few previous store reviews from this site (my own reviews):

• Store review: 1301 Madison, in Seattle, WA (and a licensed store)
• Store review: Towne Center, Southlake, Texas
• Store review: Tigard, Oregon
• Store review: Drive through store at North Bend, WA

Today we have another series in our continuing pursuit of Starbucks coffee education.  In a previous blog post,  I talked at length about the experience of cupping coffees at 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. A coffee cupping is the industry standard to analyze the flavors of the pure coffee bean. Note that a coffee cupping is NOT the same thing as a coffee tasting.

By random good luck, today I brought with me to 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea two rare Starbucks international coffees. The first is Mexico Blend sold only in Mexico, and the other is Organic Ethiopia Yirgacheffe.  In a previous blog post, I explained that Starbucks markets certain coffees just for certain regions. The Mexico coffee is yet another example of this.  As good luck would have it, a friend took a vacation to Mexico and surprised me by bringing back a pound of this rare coffee only sold in Starbucks in Mexico. Please note, this is not the same coffee as the Mexican Chiapas currently available as a seasonal offering at Starbucks.  The Organic Yirgacheffe coffee is commonly sold in international Starbucks markets such as the UK, Ireland, and Europe but not available in the United States. A UK Starbucks partner completely surprised me and delighted me by sending me a bag of Organic Yirgacheffe.

This particular cupping blog entry is closely tied to a number of previous blog posts here at StarbucksMelody.com, so before I jump into today’s post, here are some important related previous blog entries:

• Starbucks International Whole Bean – A previous blog entry explaining about the Starbucks international coffee offerings, and that many markets have their own special coffee blend.
• There are two mercantile Starbucks – A previous blog entry explaining that 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea and Roy Street Coffee are two unique non-branded stores operated by Starbucks.
• Your introduction to a cupping – A previous blog entry explaining what a cupping is and with some information on Starbucks Arabian Mocha Sanani coffee.
• Casi Cielo Coffee – Casi Cielo returned to Starbucks as a seasonal coffee January 2010.

Today we cupped the following coffees:

* Starbucks El Salvador Estate Pacamara Coffee

* Mexico Chiapas (Currently a seasonal offering at all Starbucks stores)

* Mexico Blend (available in Mexico)

* Guatemala Antigua Medina

* Casi Cielo – (Currently a seasonal coffee)

* Organic Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (Sold in UK, Ireland, Europe. Note that this is a “washed” processed coffee).

* Sun Dried Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (available as a small batch coffee in all Clover Starbucks locations)

Jay, a barista who came to 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea from the 23rd and Jackson Starbucks, prepared the cupping today. As always, 14 grams of coffee were weighed out, ground, and placed into coffee cupping cups.  A small group of customers participated.  I had brought a friend with me who particularly liked the Mexico Chiapas coffee.  The Mexico coffee from Mexico is labelled as “clean and smooth” on the packaging and those words describe it well.  It is a fairly light-bodied nice clean coffee. I definitely enjoyed it.

The enjoyable surprise for the cupping was getting a chance to compare a washed Yirgacheffe side by side with a sun-dried coffee. For those who don’t know, the terms “washed” and “sun-dried” here refer to how the coffee bean is processed, and how the coffee cherry is removed from the coffee bean. A sun-dried coffee bean is processed by a dry method with the coffee cherries laid out on tarps often on the coffee farm, with the whole coffee cherry drying in the sunshine.  Because of this processing method, the beans take on distinct flavors from the long duration of having the cherry on the bean before removal. A “washed” coffee is one where the coffee cherry is removed fairly early in the process through large mechanical water removal methods.

Both of the Yirgacheffe’s had very distinctive berry flavors to them, which is characteristic of that region’s coffee. The washed Yirgacheffe (the organic version) was much lighter bodied in the mouth than the Sun-Dried Yirgacheffe.  Given the lighter body but strong berry tones to the organic Yirgacheffe, I would imagine it would make an amazing iced coffee. The washed Yirgacheffe’s flavor was a little flat in comparison to the Sun Dried Yirgacheffe’s flavor. Though the side by side comparison of these two coffees was a little skewed by the dramatic difference in when they had been roasted. The Sun Dried Yirgacheffee came from the Kent Roasting Plant and had been roasted on January 24, 2010 (one unique aspect of the two mercantile stores is that they receive coffees faster than the regular Starbucks, thus a little freshly roasted than at a Starbucks). The Organic Yirgacheffe was roasted at the Amsterdam roasting plant.  The coffee probably spent a couple of weeks in transit to me from the UK and by my estimate, had been roasted likely in October 2009.

After the cupping was over, I sat down with my friend, and we somehow ended up striking up a conversation with a young man sitting near by who had also participated in the cupping.  For me, this was another one of those Starbucks moments that makes the experience of being there, and being a part of it, especially fun. The young man “John” had recently relocated to Seattle, moving here from Florida. He said that he had almost stopped going to Starbucks because it seemed so divorced from being a coffeehouse experience. He came to Seattle and stumbled upon the Clover and the two mercantile Starbucks which completely re-ignited his passion for coffee. Perhaps I’m too much of a coffee enthusiast, but I relish in these kinds of testimonials.

And here are a few pics from today’s cupping:

Cupping table with brewing coffee

Organic Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

Mexico Coffee from Mexico

A typical morning inside 15th Ave Coffee

A barista weighs out coffee for the cupping

Meanwhile 15thAveCoffee is busy

CuppingTable being set up

Customers joining in the cupping

Starbucks has announced that the next annual meeting of shareholders will be March 24, 2010, to be held in McCaw Hall, in Seattle.  I will be there. For those that do not know, the first part of the event is Howard Schultz delivering a prepared announcement about the health of the business and what’s happening at Starbucks, and the last segment is a question and answer period.  Usually there is some live entertainment also.  The Q & A segment is great fun because anyone can get into the line and ask the executive team a question. Some of the questions have been quite interesting!

During the 2009 annual meeting of shareholders, my question was about the success of My Starbucks Idea which had been launched at the 2008 annual meeting.  Howard Schultz directed the question to Chris Bruzzo, VP of Brand Content and Online, who stated that it had been a success, launching an average of about two ideas per month.  When talking about the volume of posts on MSI, he joked that “40,000 of the posts are from you Melody!“.  That, of course, gave me a slight heart attack, but it was clear he was joking.

I have not yet decided what my 2010 question will be to the leadership, or even if I will ask one at all.

In years past, shareholders received in the mail an annual shareholder report, and in a number of years, included a special shareholders’ edition Starbucks card.  I’ve uploaded 3 of those to this post because they’re so great to look at. I have a confession to make though. These are not my cards displayed in this post. They belong to my best friend who has been a shareholder since the IPO. We’ve been visiting Starbucks together since the very early 1990s.  Some of you might think of a little less of me knowing this, but mostly, StarbucksMelody has spent most of her life very broke living off very little income. Okay I’m a little embarrassed now. It wasn’t until after law school that I had the means to become a shareholder, thus my own participation at the annual meetings is fairly recent.

At some point in the future, I will be writing a blog post just on collecting Starbucks cards because so many do collect these cards.  In the meantime, please enjoy these really beautiful shareholder cards.

It is time to talk about something that nearly every single person loves! Saving money at Starbucks! Coupons, discounts, and promotions at Starbucks! Starbucks has become very creative with discounts and coupons since early 2008.  Since April 2008, Starbucks adopted certain rewards to save customers money with a registered card, and periodically Starbucks has offered various kinds of discount cards.  We have another episode of that happening right now.

A little background:

Before I talk about the current Perfect Oatmeal promotion, I want to mention two prior discount cards in Starbucks past.

First discount card:  In April 2008, baristas at Starbucks stores passed out Pike Place Roast cards which were small little cards exactly the size and shape of this Oatmeal card.  The Pike Place Roast cards were brightly colored and featured the new 2008 version of the Starbucks siren.  The holder of the Pike Place discount card received a free tall drip brewed Pike Place Roast on Wednesdays.  As I recall, the promotion ran for about eight weeks.

Second discount card: In late December 2008, Starbucks launched several new tea beverages, including a tea-infusion, vanilla rooibos latte, and London fog latte.  In conjunction with this launch, Starbucks customers could pick up tea discount cards available at participating Starbucks.  These cards offered the card holder one dollar off of a Tazo tea beverage after two in the afternoon.  Again, the promotional card was valid for about two months.

Now, we have a third discount card, and it is the $1 off Perfect Oatmeal or Panani card, as shown in this blog.  This card wasn’t passed out in stores, but rather found in the newspapers in some cities.

I wish I had saved my old discount cards, but since in 2008 and early 2009, I really had no idea I would later be writing a blog, I tossed out many things that I now wish I had saved.  I googled to come up with images of the prior discount cards. (Two images are below). The images are not mine!

My Starbucks Rewards Coupons

In addition to the oatmeal discount card, My Starbucks Rewards members are beginning to receive a flurry of coupons in the mail.  So far there has been a coupon for a free tall “skinny” beverage as a coupon to promote their skinny line of beverages. Also earlier this month, I received a free Perfect oatmeal coupon.  And of course, under the new My Starbucks Rewards, a “gold” level participants receives a free drink coupon after 15 “stars” have been earned and I have begun receiving these in my mail box too. An image of these three My Starbucks Rewards coupons is attached.

Yes, I do like oatmeal:

Back on the topic of oatmeal: It’s delicious! A wonderful warm breakfast at Starbucks on a cold winter day.  A customer can have a variety of toppings including brown sugar, dried fruit, or nuts.  This winter I also discovered that a couple pumps of Gingerbread Sauce in the Perfect Oatmeal is delicious!  As you can see, I am a little more enthusiastic about the oatmeal discount than the Panani. The $1 off discount card is valid until March 8, 2010.

And now I open the floor for all of you to talk about what coupons, discounts you’ve received, and what you’re still wishing for…

Thank you again to Larry Aldrich of Seattle Custom Framing for his help with many of the photos in this blog post.

MyStarbucksRewards coupons

Pike Place Roast promotional card

Tazo tea promotional card

Let me just say that I never went out of my way to try and collect Starbucks city mugs. It just happened.  I have a very small collection of them. Too small to even be called a “collection”.  However, I know these mugs are a big deal to many folks and that lots of people collect them. So here is the story of my city mug collection:

**Pike Place Market – I bought this mug at the store at 1912 Pike Place, in Seattle’s Pike Place Market.  Because I still like the original store, I thought I should have this mug.  I have found myself visiting this store increasingly less often because close by is another great Starbucks on the corner of First and Pike Street. (Please note that Pike Place and Pike Street are different streets, running opposite directions).  I need to get back to 1912 Pike Place soon. It is still a Starbucks with a La Marzocco espresso machine.  Every drink is handcrafted just for you.

**Boston – Last summer, I took a trip to Boston to visit my sister in that area.  I figured that since I was in Boston, I might as well buy a mug. I grabbed a city mug.

**Portland – In November last year I drove to Tigard, Oregon to do a store review for this blog.  Click here for the store review.  I was just outside of the city of Portland, in Tigard, and figured since I had driven that far, I might as well pick up a mug.

**Vancouver – I was at one of my favorite Starbucks at First and Pike Street in downtown Seattle and I saw this mug.  I had actually made a trip into the store knowing that it would be a wonderful place to take pictures of sparkly donuts because of its beautiful store design, and the store has really lovely for-here ware.  My previous blog episode on the mini sparkle donut is here.  This unique store sometimes receives unusual merchandising because it is dubbed the “heritage” store design, and it is still considered one of the Starbucks showcase design stores.

I was at First and Pike, saw the Vancouver mug and thought, ‘where have I seen that bridge before?‘  Then I remembered the Via Ready Brew road trip episode with Brad Nelson walking over a suspension bridge in Vancouver, Canada!  I asked a barista about the merchandising and was told their store received a very limited number of exclusive items for Canada because of the Olympics.  If you would like to watch Brad Nelson walk over the Capilano suspension bridge in Vancouver, click here.  For those readers who do not know, Brad Nelson’s claim to fame is that he is the official voice of the Starbucks twitter profile.  Who knows, he may be famous for other things, but that I wouldn’t know! Notice that in the YouTube video, Brad is using a Starbucks Vancouver city mug to drink his Via Ready Brew.

**Seattle – I bought the Seattle mug at the same time as the Vancouver mug.  I figured why buy just one mug?

**Ohio, Dallas, Houston – All of these mugs were unexpected wonderful surprise gifts to me.  As at times I have given coffee away to people, or connected with other Starbucks enthusiasts through social media, and at times I have been surprised by an unexpected package or gift of a city mug. I’m touched by thoughtfulness of the people around me. You see, this is part of the beauty of Starbucks: It has this odd power to connect people with really big hearts.

For the Ohio mug, I have been told that the boat featured on the mug is this riverboat featured here: http://www.bbriverboats.com/

Anyone else here collecting these mugs, and if so, which is your prize mug?

This is also an open thread. I welcome any Starbucks related conversation in the comments.

Thank you again to Larry of Seattle Custom Framing for his assistance with the photography in this blog entry.

Remember GOOD sheets at Starbucks?  Before I talk about the GOOD Sheets, I have talk about the background story to them.  The background story to Starbucks launching them is as follows:

In March 2008, Starbucks launched My Starbucks Idea.  I wrote a previous blog entry talking about some of the problems that My Starbucks Idea has had. One distinct past problem (long since fixed) was that when someone signed into MyStarbucksIdea.com, he or she would be directed to “top all time” ideas.  This was the design and programing of My Starbucks Idea for at least about the first seven or eight months of its existence.

The problem with this, though not inherently obvious, is that the “top all time ideas” page is, even today, the most stagnant My Starbucks Idea page.  As a result, people would log in, and consistently see a thread called “Great Conversations at Starbucks.”  In addition, this thread is incredibly innocuous and not prone to controversy.  Easy to vote up “Great Conversations.”  Even today, as I write this, Great Conversations is still the top all-time My Starbucks Idea thread.  During this era where “top all time ideas” was the default landing page for My Starbucks Idea participants as they logged in, there was no way to vote a thread down.  What this added up to was that “Great Conversations” sat at the top of the heap, easily gathering a lot of points.  It’s probably the best example that I can think of to say that point totals does not necessarily correlate with what people really value at Starbucks.

Nonetheless, based on the great success of “Great Conversations” Starbucks launched GOOD sheets in their stores to inspire conversations.  I do not remember the total number of issues published.  I stopped picking them up towards their end.  GOOD sheets were free, and generally located near the beverage pick up area of the bar, as I recall.  The GOOD sheets came, and went, never to be heard of again.  Does anyone else here remember them?

As I look back on the issues touched upon in GOOD sheets, no doubt that nearly a year to a year and a half later, these topics are still very relevant conversation points.  Definitely health care has not faded away as hot topic since the September 2008 GOOD sheets.  In hindsight, I liked the GOOD sheets. Though I never sparked conversation with strangers about gasoline prices, they always gave me something interesting to read as I waited for a beverage to be made, or even – gasp – a fresh quarter-batch of the bold pick of the day to brew.  I give them two thumbs up.

My Starbucks Idea officially announced the GOOD sheets in their blogs on September 11, 2008.  Here is the link to that announcement:

• Great Conversations at Starbucks with GOOD Sheets

My Starbucks Idea also posted a related thread asking what kind of conversations people wanted to have at Starbucks:

• Poll Results: What Kind Of Great Conversations?

Following the launch of GOOD sheets, people came on to My Starbucks Idea to both complain that the topics were too highly politicized for Starbucks, and to praise Starbucks for bring great topics into the stores. The response on My Starbucks Idea was definitely a mixed-bag of response, though in my own recollection of the threads, it appeared to me that more people liked GOOD sheets than not.

Once again, thank you to Larry Aldrich of Seattle Custom Framing for his assistance in the photography of the GOOD sheet images.

And now, the real question is, what kind of “Great Conversations” do you want to see at Starbucks?

Dorothy Kim, a Starbucks partner since 1995, leaves Starbucks. And here, so I hear, is Starbucks’ goodbye letter to her:

Dear Partners,

I would like to let you know that Dorothy Kim is resigning from the company, effective February 5.

Dorothy is a 14-year Starbucks partner who most recently led the company’s Global Strategy and Office of the CEO, reporting to me.  In this role she was responsible for operationalizing the company’s global business strategy and acting as a strategic liason with the Board of Directors.

She spent the majority of her career in Supply Chain Operations, where she held the roles of vice president, senior vice president, and executive vice president over the course of nine years. She was instrumental in building and leading the global SCO function, responsible for manufacturing, engineering, purchasing, distributing, planning, transportation, supply chain integrated systems, inventory management, and worldwide sourcing of coffee.  

As a result of her departure, Global Strategy directors Catherine Cheung and Chanda Beppu will move into the Marketing and Strategy organization under the direction of Anne Young-Scrivner.  Leslie Pringle, administrative assistant, will also be moving into the Marketing and Strategy organization.

Please join me in thanking Dorothy for her many contributions to Starbucks over the years, and wishing her all the very best in her future endeavors.

Regards,

Howard