As of yesterday, Starbucks is promoting their bold brews. I want to enjoy every minute of it: All 80,640 minutes of the bold brewed promotion. It is 8 weeks of showcasing the bold coffee line-up with a chance to get a free pound of coffee at the end, so long as you complied with the rules! The clock is already ticking and there is no intermission and no Tivo option here either.

It has been too long since we’ve seen bold brewed coffee take the front stage at Starbucks.  Since April 2008, Starbucks has promoted and showcased their everyday brew, Pike Place Roast.  Yes, Pike Place Roast has its fans, but Starbucks was built on dark, rich, coffee.

Here is the deal:

- Go to a Starbucks.

- Order a tall or larger “bold coffee of the week.”

- Enjoy your boldly roasted coffee.

- Be sure to smell it.

- You can even slurp a little. I don’t recommend spilling it on your suit though.

- Notice the heavy weight of the coffee in your mouth and deep caramelized notes. Now that is bold.

- Ask your barista, ‘hey can I have one of those tri-fold coffee tour sheets that look like a Reader’s Digest version of a coffee passport.  And oh by the way, I need a sticker too.’

- Repeat the above steps 8 times.

- At the end of the 8 weeks, return to Starbucks with all 8 stickers on your sticker-collecting sheet, and turn it in for a free pound of coffee!

There are a few variations on the above theme:  At any time, you may make ONE substitution of Pike Place Roast instead of the “bold pick of the week” coffee.  If you really want to just buy a pound of the coffee of the week rather than a tall beverage, you may do that instead and receive a sticker.

I was thinking that the most enthusiastic bold coffee drinkers could stick their  face right into the circular cut-out window signage that says, “something bold is brewing” and have a really funny picture taken of them. ‘This is the face of a hard-core bold coffee drinker,’ would read the caption.  It would be reminiscent of the previous (Red) pictures.  So in the image above that goes with this blog post, just mentally imagine yourself or some bold coffee drinker that you know smiling big, nose pressed against the glass, with a happy face right under “something bold is brewing.”  Preferably, this person you know should have a bold personality too, though that is not a requirement here.

Here is the line up of bold brewed coffee over the next 8 weeks, errr, I mean 80,640 minutes! (Somewhere, some 24-hour Starbucks really is having 80,640 minutes of this promotion).

March 9 – 14 – Yukon Blend

March 15 – 21 – Italian Roast

March 22 – 28 – East African Blend (the coffee blend formerly known as (Red))

March 29 – April 4 – Komodo Dragon

April 5 – 11 - Caffè Verona

April 12 – 18 – Cafè Estima

April 19 – 25 – Gold Coast Blend

April 26 – May 3 – Sumatra

How is everyone’s coffee sticker collecting and bold coffee adventure going? We’re only on day two but has anyone else already gotten their Yukon sticker?

Also, I definitely challenge people to take fun pics of smiling faces in the classic Starbucks cup circular cut out and email to me (if you have any such interest). If I get more than handful of them, I’ll be glad to feature the fun pics as a blog post! My email address is Sbux206@StarbucksMelody.com

Starting today, Starbucks is offering a Conservation International card! I love it. Starbucks has been in partnership with Conservation International since 1998.  This partnership has always made enormous sense because of the shared goals of preserving the fragile environment in coffee growing regions of the world.  With the new Conservation International card, Starbucks will donate five cents with every purchase made with this card from now through December 31, 2010.

While I totally support Starbucks’ collaboration with (Red), I think that the Conservation International card is far more compelling.  The partnership with Conservation International led to the launch of Shade Grown Mexico coffee after working with farmers to preserve the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve region of Chiapas, Mexico and ultimately C.I. worked with Starbucks to create the coffee sourcing standards known as C.A.F.E. practices.

In 2008, at the annual meeting of shareholders, Starbucks announced a renewed commitment to Conservation International and promised deepened collaboration with the organization.  At one point, I had actually toyed with the idea at this year’s meeting of asking (during the Q & A session of the meeting) “In 2008 we heard about a renewed commitment to Conservation International, but what undertakings has Starbucks done with them lately?” In light of the new C.I. card, that question loses much of its steam.  This leaves me again trying to figure out what I might ask at this year’s meeting.  If anyone has ideas of what would be good question to ask the leadership at Starbucks during this year’s annual meeting, please do tell: I’m all ears.

As a reminder, you can use ANY card to participate in My Starbucks Rewards.  You can earn “stars” towards free beverages and coupons with your new Conservation International card.  Just be sure to register your card, load some money on it, and pay for your purchases with your card, and then you’re well on your way. If you have another card you’re using, just add the Conservation International card to your existing Starbucks.Com card profile and you can transfer funds online from one card to the next.  You are not bound to use a black card, or a gold card to earn stars in the My Starbucks Rewards program. The My Starbucks Rewards program where you earn “stars” towards free beverages is for the United States only.

If you like this blog entry, you might also enjoy…

• Shared Planet: An introductory lesson
• (Red) – The year in review

On February 11, 2010, I announced a contest to find Starbucks barista art.  See previous blog entry:

Barista Art Contest

Anyone could enter, though I listed quite a few rules.  You could just find barista art, snap a pic, follow the rules and enter.  Here are the entries. Keep in mind that I have listed the name of the person who submitted the photo (who may or may not be a partner), and the store information (store number where possible) where the art is found.  I realize in hindsight that I was pretty vague as to when the art had to be hanging up in the store. It absolutely must have been hanging in a Starbucks at some point, and what I intended is that it has to be fairly current – within the last 90 days of this blog contest.  Some of the artwork seems a little dated to me, but mostly I’m giving people the benefit of the doubt, since I was pretty vague.

Just as a reminder, the art contest was inspired by me finding this in a Starbucks:

Beautiful barista art

Here are the four winners – it was NOT easy to pick!:

#1 - This entry was submitted by Christopher and currently is on display at Starbucks store 2640, located in Milford, Ohio. It is chalk art for Caffe Verona, inspired by Romeo and Juliette.

#2 – This entry was submitted by Larissa who thought my art contest timing was remarkable: how “strange it is that you post a contest the day after my store does an epic collage of time and chalk markers. And the one time I actually brought my camera in!”  This chalk art is on display at a Chapters Starbucks in Alberta, Canada, Starbucks store 4337.  This is just incredibly unique, and from what I hear, five baristas pitched in to make this art display.  If I were to walk into a Starbucks as see this chalkboard art, I might think that a graffiti artist was let loose in their store, but after a momentary skip of the heartbeat, I’d be able to appreciate the effort, the uniqueness, and the store’s personality all poured into one large massive piece of art.

#3 – This entry is Via paired with TCHO chocolates and is a recent chalkboard art at Starbucks store 7776 in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania. How incredibly beautiful that heart is. The coloring in it comes to life. It’s hard to believe that that is really just some chalk art pens.  Thank you Ken for entering this! And this is what Via looks like when it pours its heart into chalkboard art:

#4 – From Eureka, California, I received a pic of a fabulous pumpkin spice latte chalkboard art, though I wish there had been another photo of it without the pen in the way. But I can still see the uniqueness to it, and it looks professional! I love the steam-lady with the pumpkin hair barrette. Great detail in this one:

There were too many entries for me put a caption underneath each one of them; it would have made displaying all the pics messy.  I saved each entry with the name of the person who submitted it, the store location, and some identifier of what it is. Somewhere in the mix of the pics below is included my photo from the store at 1912 Pike Place – obviously I am not entering my own contest but including it just for fun. One thing I hadn’t thought about when I started the chalkboard art contest is exactly how much chalk art space a Starbucks might have. I realize that a tiny kiosk store might not have any, but it never occurred to me that any store would be remodeled to have an entire wall of chalkboard. Store 2363 in Wisconsin is phenomenal.  From what I hear, when store design gave it a refresh, in order to make it more integrated with its surroundings and the theme of its surroundings (Marquette University) it was designed with an entire wall for chalk board art.  Well, it most certainly fits with it being near a university.   Below, there is a Casi Cielo drawing submitted from store 2363.

The entries:

This month, tens of thousands of Starbucks partners (Starbucks employees are called ‘partners’) will take a survey about the current quality of the partner experience. The feedback will be used to shape the future (I assume). At the end of the survey, Howard Schultz speaks, promising a brighter future for Starbucks partners. He sounds absolutely committed to it.

In listening to him, I am reminded of his message to shareholder’s in the 1992 annual report. (For complete 1992 annual report message click here.):

To Our Shareholders:

Every successful business has its competitive advantage.  At Starbucks we have two: Our coffee and our people. …

Our “employees” are called partners, and this is literally true, since every individual is offered stock options.  We seek to seamlessly interweave variables that ensure quality for the customer with literal ownership in the company.  We want to be the employer of choice in each market in which we do business.  In order to achieve this goal we pay fairly, provide benefits to all whether part-time or full-time, and encourage individuality and open communication. …

Howard Schultz

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This isn’t one of those exercises of compare and contrast, but in comparing the two, his commitment to Starbucks partners is unwavering.  And here is the March 2010 message to partners about the state of the Starbucks experience at this time and his commitment to improve it:

Hello partners,

First and foremost thank you so much for taking this important survey.  You know it is hard for me to express to you what the company has been through the last year and a half.  And we certainly have asked a lot of you during this period.  The truth of the matter is that we had to make very tough decisions, emotional decisions to manage through the very tough cataclysmic financial crisis that we were experiencing.  But as we go forward, my number one commitment of myself and our leadership team is to reaffirm our commitment to our partners and reinvent the partner experience at Starbucks.  Now this isn’t going to happen overnight just like the transformation agenda didn’t happen overnight. It’s going to take some time.  The survey you just completed is going to give us a lot of insight and a lot of information.  And my words, and the words of others, are not going to be good enough.  We have to be measured on deeds and our actions.

I’ve always said from day one that we can’t exceed the expectations of our customers unless we exceed the expectations of our people. And that’s exactly what we’re going to start doing.  And my promise to you is that we will do all that we can to really create the kind of partner engagement, respect and dignity, and raise the level of insight and ultimately the experience and the commitment that we have to our people. And we will exceed your expectations. Give us some time but you have my promise that it will take place.

Thank you for taking the survey.  I appreciate all you do and wish you the very best. Thank you very much.

I don’t expect a lot of comments in response to this. I only post it because I’ve personally heard the sad tone of voice from long-term partners who say their work environment has changed a lot in the past few years.  At one time, people would say that working at Starbucks was the best job of their lives.  In my office, there is an attorney who at one time worked at the University Village Starbucks in the very early 1990s.  And I’ve heard her say, on more than one occasion, “hands down that was the best job of my life.  We scooped coffee out of bins and we had fun.”

But now, in 2010, changes have lead to dis-empowered baristas which in turn diminishes the customer experience.  The barista who is worried about whether a DM will bark at him or her over speed of service isn’t likely to extend any extra effort to the customer.  Of course at my core I’m an eternally optimistic person. I find Howard’s message above, especially in combination with the idea of a confidential survey, to be a healthy and bright sign for the future.

This is the second of three blog entries where we briefly take StarbucksMelody to international places.  This episode is Mexico.  Again, there will be no in-depth analysis here, just dipping the big toe into the shallow end of the pool.  This beautiful coffee menu comes from a friend who took a vacation to Mexico about one year ago.  Notice that the whole bean coffee offerings offer a true variety and far more decaf options than what is available in North America.  Really, I’m writing this blog entry to share with all of you this cool menu from Mexico.

As for a little background on the Mexico Starbucks market:  Starbucks has operated continuously in Mexico since September 2002.  Usually I can find some sort of Starbucks newsroom press release giving precise information about the history of the entry into a new market but in this case, I couldn’t find any such press-release.  One online news source cited the entry date as September 5, 2002, and another one cited September 7, 2002.  I am certain though that the first Starbucks, in the heart of Mexico City, represents Starbucks first foray into Latin America.

Despite that Starbucks has only operated coffeehouses in Mexico for less than a decade, this country has held a special significance for Starbucks for their work that has been done in partnership with Conservation International and especially in the Chiapas region of Mexico:

The Conservation International website tells of the following history with Starbucks, dating back to 1998:

Starbucks was quick to see the importance of protecting El Triunfo and similar areas worldwide that bordered prized coffee-growing farms. Together, we launched a three-year program encouraging coffee growers in Chiapas to continue their sustainable farming practices. In return, they received technical assistance from CI’s field staff and Starbucks became a dependable buyer of the farmers’ beans.

That initial collaboration quickly proved successful. Within a year, the number of farmers taking part in the Chiapas project increased by 30 percent. Some of them doubled their sales, and their average incomes jumped by 40 percent. At the same time, U.S. consumers enthusiastically embraced a new Starbucks brand: Shade Grown Mexico.

The first of the three “Around the Globe” episodes on StarbucksMelody was Japan.  Click here for the Japan episode.

And if you enjoyed this Mexico episode, you may also like the following:

• For the love of Mexico Chiapas – A coffee tasting event at First and Pike Starbucks
• Starbucks Shared Planet: An Introductory Lesson
• Starbucks Around the Globe: Japan (Episode #1 of 3)

Starbucks is introducing the dark cherry syrup into its lineup for spring. It’s wonderful. It will be in every store by March 9, 2010, and is currently being offered in limited locations now, as a soft launch.  Starbucks announced this new beverage here on February 22, 2010. Turning back to last December, I had a strong hunch that this beverage would come to North America.  With over 60 comments and for nearly three months, one of the most popular threads at StarbucksMelody.com has been this one:

Should Starbucks Bring the Dark Cherry Mocha to the US?

I’ve had the chance to try the syrup in a few things, and I can say it’s a wonderfully mild syrup that goes well in many beverages.  I have tried dark cherry with hot chai, dark cherry with Yirgacheffe from the Clover, dark cherry vanilla bean Frappuccino, dark cherry in my oatmeal … all are wonderful.  I haven’t tried a dark cherry hot chocolate but that is on my to-do list.  I drink very few espresso beverages so it will be a while before I try the dark cherry mocha.

Clicking on the photo in this blog post brings up a Starbucks workbook page announcing the dark cherry mocha.

A tip for baristas: I have been able to verify for certain that dark cherry is a “premium” syrup so it does not become a free perk with a registered card under the new My Starbucks Rewards (of course, if you have customers using the old ten percent off it’s not a perk anyway).  This might be good to know if you have confused customers adding the dark cherry syrup to everything under the sun, as I have done.

Now is your chance to rant and rave about this syrup. I bet I will hear more raving than ranting!

It’s 31 ounces of Starbucks cold thirst-quenching goodness! But what a dorky name.  I don’t like the name “Trenta” because it’s too trendy sounding.  This is a test-size currently being tested by Starbucks in the Phoenix, Arizona area.  This is definitely not the first time Starbucks has experimented with a size larger than the “Venti”.  The last round of super-sized testing was in 2008 with the “Double Grande” size. (16 ounces x 2 = 32ounces).  I have previously blogged about it here:

I’ll take a “double grande” Starbucks passion tea lemonade.

So who here wants to see the Trenta size come to a Starbucks near you?  In all honesty, I think it is terrible for the brand image because it associates Starbucks too closely to the idea of “Super Size Me” or “Super Big Gulp”.  In fact, I’m sure on a hot summer day, I could really drink 31 ounces of a Tea Lemonade, but the idea of a 32 ounce Frappuccino makes my skin crawl.  As it stands right now, I never order a size larger than a tall for a Frappuccino because that is all I can drink.  Nor can I imagine what the price point is for this beverage. Exactly how much does a Trenta Passion Tea Lemonade cost? That’s a lot of beverage.

So let’s work together and come up with a fine name to tame this beastly size.  Here are a few of my wild ideas – Tell me if you like any of them:

• Double Grande (previous test size name)
• Triginta (Latin for 30)
• Sirenta (The Siren’s size)
• Trente (sounds only slightly better – French for 30)
• Pequod (hahahah – Moby Dick’s ship)
• Welle (pronounced Vella – It’s the German word for “wave”. Doesn’t really fit with the Italian themed sizing but sounds intriguing).
• Onda (Latin for “wave” – I actually kind of like this a little)
• Wave (well, one can kind of drown in that big of a drink).
• Corsa (Italian, run, race)
• Corso (flow, stream, tide in Italian)
• Sonata (I like this one, but too bad it’s already taken for a car.  Beethoven wrote 32 piano sonatas, and the number 32 comes up oddly in music often.  I think that Beethoven wrote 32 variations in C Minor, and I think Bach wrote 32 Goldberg Variations. I don’t know why but it seems like the number 32 comes up often in music.)
• Forte (Another music inspired idea – Meaning robust, or strong.  I love this idea too but think this is also a car already.  Though it still sounds good. I’ll order a “forte” Passion Tea Lemonade.)

Those are all the ideas I can come up with! Maybe trendy Trenta isn’t so bad after all.

Undercover Boss is a CBS reality tv show where CEOs or high level executives are placed at the lowest totem pole positions within their own companies. The execs are in stealth mode.  In the blogosphere,  others have thought that maybe Howard Schultz should go Undercover Boss as a Starbucks barista.  The obvious problem with this idea is that he is an incredibly recognizable CEO.  Even if baristas do not immediately recognize him, many customers will pick him out of a crowd easily.  Also, he is nearly two generations older than the typical barista, and frankly, it’s not all that believable to see a baby-boomer in a green apron.

On the other hand, Michelle Gass is a long-time Starbucks partner who is the current president of Seattle’s Best Coffee, and previously was the Executive Vice President of Marketing and Category at Starbucks.  She’s a generation- X partner (I don’t really know at all, but I guess that she and I are about the same age) who could easily go undercover at either an SBC or Starbucks.  Very few partners will recognize her, and even fewer customers.

She’s perfect for the job.  However, I cannot claim credit for this blog idea.  This blog was inspired by a conversation I had with “Boston Starbucks Rebel” who is the originator of this idea.  She could go undercover at a couple of different kinds of stores.  Here are four store-type ideas worth exploring: An urban coffee opportunities partnership with Magic Johnson stores, a Starbucks in suburbia, busy bottom of tall downtown office-tower store, and a busy drive-through.

Though, theoretically speaking she has done something like this before.  Most Starbucks executives have indeed spent some time working at the store-level, though it may have been simply the corporate executive immersion that Starbucks is known for.  If a new VP or managing director comes to Starbucks, he or she must spend a period of time (I think it is like one week) being immersed: This means working in the store, spending time on the register, on the bar, and simply being a barista.  I’ve heard these stories, and once in a while the news will pick up on it too.  For example, Stephen Gillett’s (Starbucks Chief Information Officer) one week immersion at a drive-thru Starbucks is mentioned here. If you want to follow Stephen Gillett on twitter, click here.

Hopefully Michelle has a good sense of humor about this, and if she is reading this, I hope she’s having a good laugh.  She’s probably thinking, “that Melody!” ((And if Michelle Gass is not up for this, I can start recommending other Starbucks leadership for this task! heeheehee))

So who else wants to see a Starbucks executive UnderCover?

On February 26, 2008, Starbucks closed all company-operated Starbucks for a massive “hard reset” of baristas by retraining them on the perfect espresso beverage.  For about three and a half hours, all Starbucks closed, perhaps causing the largest corporate-induced caffeine withdrawals in America’s history.   Soon, brewed coffee will go through the same zenith level transformation, and it is only a shame that they wait until March 9, 2010 to officially have all stores up-to-speed with the Pour Over brew method.  If they had launched the Pour Over nationally on February 26, 2010, they could have drawn the parallel that now brewed coffee gets its revitalization finally: Bold coffee offered as a single-crafted cup of coffee for each customer.

Starbucks provided the stores with training materials, including one item with this following message (below) from Howard Schultz to Starbucks employees (employees are called “partners”).  I’ve transcribed the Howard Schultz message, almost in its entirety below.  Keep mind, that the excerpted message below was spoken, so all the punctuation and emphasis is my interpretation of what I listened to.

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Message from Howard Schultz

Hello Partners:

You know over the years I’ve made countless videos to share with you one message after another and when I think about all the things that I’ve talked to you in the past about,  I can’t think of a more important message than the one I’m about to share with you.  And that is that you are in the midst of going through the transformation of the company in terms of our passion and commitment to ensure the fact that you have all the tools and the resources to not only make the perfect shot of espresso in every espresso-based beverage but to really understand what’s behind this and why it is so vitally important.

….

And if I’m really honest with myself, I think that over the years we have not as consistent and as committed to ensuring the fact that the quality of the beverage was compatible and matched the quality of the coffee that we sourced and roasted.  And what I want to make sure you understand is that this is not just about training; this is about the love and the passion and the commitment that we all need to have to the customer.

Our customers are coming into Starbucks because they have a level of trust and confidence that we are sourcing and roasting the highest quality coffee in the world and they are going to get a perfect beverage.  I think over the years we’ve kind of lost our way a little bit and talked about speed of service, USDs,  and all the things that are important for the business but I think they’re out of whack.  What’s really important – the most important – is that we exceed the expectations of our customers.  And I’ve always believed the only way we can exceed the expectations of our customers is that if we could exceed your expectations and that is why we are investing in you, investing in this transformation so that we really get back to the core, to our roots, to the heritage, and to the tradition, and the romance of coffee: The love of coffee.

And what I’d like you to do when you go through this is really not just go through the motions: Really embrace this moment and realize that that it is not about 100,000 partners. It is about one partner, one customer, one cup of fantastic coffee at a time.  The business that we are in, and always have been, is that we are the leading roaster of coffee in the world in terms of quality, the precision, excellence, and that all comes to life when you hand that cup of coffee to the customer.

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

So it’s been two years. Who remembers this, and what is their take on this now? Did it work?  I think if nothing else, I think it re-connected baristas to the notion that “if your drink isn’t perfect, we will remake it for you.“  I think that Starbucks had started to fall asleep at the wheel with respect to this message, and that this training session was the cornerstone to a larger piece of barista education: Yes, the drink IS important.  It is each baristas’ individual responsibility to make the shot great, steam beautiful foam, and hand it to the customer with a smile.

Discussion is welcome… This is an open thread. Feel free to comment on ANY Starbucks topic or this topic.  On February 25, 2010, Starbucks.Com went through a complete site redesign – Store hours are now on the store locator, and the look and feel of the site is very different than before.  That’s one more possible conversation topic!

This is also a good chance to look back at some prior threads here at StarbucksMelody. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Street level 101: There are two non-branded Starbucks
• No better time than winter in Vermont for a soy Frappuccino
• Barista Art Contest (Still open right now! Contest is open until March 1st!!)
• Passion for the Coffee: The ultimate Starbucks book
• The 1992 Shareholders’ Annual Report – The very first Starbucks annual report
• 15 pieces of Barista Flair

Mozambique

Andy is a fellow blogger in Mozambique running a bakery.  I follow his blog with great curiosity here.  I guess I have a great fascination with what he writes because every single blog post of his is like a completely different universe from the life of StarbucksMelody, who basically just works and spends an unusually large amount of time in downtown Seattle.  Andy, who originally comes from the UK, is running a bakery in Mozambique complete with a farm and paid employees.  I sent him some Starbucks coffee (Starbucks French Roast, Christmas Blend, Sun Dried Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, and Via Ready Brew) in late December (or perhaps early January, not sure exactly when it was now) and because the transit time from Seattle, Washington, to Mozambique  is rather lengthy, he only just now got to try it.  He sent me a great email (with permission to use it however I liked) about his own personal experiences with Starbucks.  Perhaps one of the interesting parts of his email is how he grew up on instant coffee, and loved the Via Ready Brew.  This blog post here is simply to share with you Andy’s coffee story and a few pictures he attached with the email:

[This is his blog here - http://mozbak.blogspot.com/ and click here to read about the Starbucks coffee finally arriving in Mozambique.]

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Andy’s coffee story:

Trying to sum up my job description is something I have often struggled with. I guess it could be broken down to two main duties which share unequal amounts of my 14 hour work days.

My primary job is helping to run a 500 Hectare community development farm in southern Mozambique and NGO in southern Mozambique. Doing everything from paying salaries to our 80 staff, harvesting maize or rice that we grow, to catching poisonous snakes, cooking meals or unblocking a drain pipe!

Every day of the first 2 years I lived in Mozambique we drove a 16km (10mile) round trip to buy bread and fetch fresh drinking water from the local town.” Why don’t we have a bakery on the farm?” I used to ask my colleagues, “great idea” they’d say “but how’s its never going to make any money” and “who’s going to take the loss?”. After pondering for some time about how I could help some of the poor people in our area, I knew that a small business start up would provide skills and jobs, but what business to do? I knew we needed a bakery but personally knew nothing of building or baking (not much help then!). So in a crazy moment I took the plunge, raised some funds, drew out a sketch of a building, looked up oven construction plans on the net and started building a bakery! That was 18 months ago and today we’ve baked our 20 000^th loaf, employ 2 people full time and provide bread both for sale to the community and as donations to its poorest members, inmates in the local prison (who are not fed by the government) and local orphans.

Having grown up in the UK, hot drinks to me always meant ‘tea’ not coffee, a cup of tea being the British peoples’ answer to everything! In Mozambique the only hot drink I initially had available to me was cheap instant coffee – stained by the addition of chicory. Avoiding the inevitable for a few weeks I succumbed and began drinking “the black stuff”. Seeing there was something to it, a taste I enjoyed there somewhere I spent my holidays back in the more first world South Africa, looking through the supermarket shelves for a better coffee. Slowly I worked my way through the instant variety’s all granulated and freeze dries, the “Gold” this, “platinum” that until I worked out it was no more expensive to try ‘real’ coffee after procuring the use of a cafetierre (French press or “plunger” as we call it here).

Soon I was Andy “the coffee nut” always arriving back from South Africa with various coffee’s and new paraphernalia, the best buy of which would have to be my Solis “scala” coffee bean grinder. Recently I helped restore a tired espresso machine to its former glory and have enjoyed coffee’s of the short intense variety. Still though, nothing beats a good filter coffee from French press for maximum flavour and enjoyment.

The last time I was in a Starbucks was probably a good five or more years ago. I have recently, through a generous gift package from Melody, been able to sample a few varieties:

Via – instant micro ground: The Italian is wonderfully dark and blows my mind as to how an ‘instant coffee’ can taste so good. I always found your classic instant ie. freeze dried, had a bland chalkiness to the aftertaste, not so with Via. Slightly acidic and perhaps too dark for my tastes, but wonderfully satisfying all the same..

French roast – Right up my avenue this one, dark with woody notes and not bitter to the taste, didn’t work so well in an espresso machine though, better enjoyed through French press.

Ethiopa sun dried Yirgacheffe – I was told to watch out for the detectable berry flavour and I can see why, a definite light fruity aftertaste make this a must for my late evening cup, enjoyed by French press with friends in my little thatch roofed bungalow! Helped no doubt by knowing this coffee has worked its way from nearby (relative to me) Ethiopia, to the states for roasting and back here by special air mail!