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

This blog entry is about mini sparkle donuts. That’s it! Nothing complicated here! I like them. The vanilla one is my favorite. The frosting is wonderfully sweet and rich. I don’t even know what those sparkles are (okay, I assume sugar) but they’re wonderful little sprinkles. The donut part of the donuts is moist and yummy. And these little guys are a bargain at seventy-five cents each.  Starbucks launched the mini donuts on January 12, 2010, and I hope they stick around for a while, though I can’t count on it.  Starbucks is notorious for rapid new food launches.  One minute it’s there, the next minute it is gone.

I felt like my last two blog entries had a little intensity to them – an intriguing interview with Bryant Simon, and an intense discussion of customers making donations at the register.  When all is said and done, I felt like it was time for an easy short blog post. Here it is: I like sparkle donuts.  The photo for this blog post was taken January 16, 2010 at one of my favorite Starbucks.  I asked for for-here ware. As an aside, this store has great for-here ware.  The beverage was a whole milk chai latte. I don’t admit it often, but yes I drink a number of non-coffee beverages.

Hope that you enjoy sparkle donuts too! Has anyone here tried them?

Now is the time to talk about charitable small monetary donations at the register in Starbucks company-operated stores.  Once in a while people visit  mystarbucksidea.com and post idea threads which essentially say, “donate small Starbucks card balances to charity.”  Granted, there are not an overwhelming number of these threads, and I’m sure the dark cherry mocha lovers far outweigh the number of people who want to make small donations. Nonetheless, here are a few examples of the “donate small balances at Starbucks” threads:

• “Unused Gift Card Balances Donated to Fight Poverty“
• “Small leftover balances”
• “Donate Unused Gift Card Balances“
• “Donating card balances to charitable organizations“

In fact, I’m always a little surprised by these threads because I think many states now have laws requiring retailers to cash out small balances on cards, but it must be that many states don’t have this.  At least for in Washington and California, if a person has a card with a small balance it is possible to get cash back.

I can imagine it would be an administrative nightmare to add an infinite number of donation buttons to non-profits on the Starbucks register.  Starbucks can’t put themselves in the position of being United Way.  That is just not practical for many reasons.  However there are two donation options which are both great causes and a possible option for these small balance cards. Since most customers are unaware that they can donate to The Cup Fund and/or Ethos Water at the register, I’m creating this blog post.  (Starbucks calls their employees “partners”.  So your barista is a “partner”, for those reading the next section and confused by what is meant by “partner”.)

The Cup Fund:

The Cup Fund was created by Starbucks in 1999 to create a safety net for Starbucks partners in a time of great need.  This program is entirely funded by partner donation or other donative efforts like fundraisers or customer giving.  The Cup Fund helps Starbucks partners in times of significant and immediate need.  So if  a Starbucks partner needs immediate relief because of illness, death, or injury, this is a program that he or she can turn to.  Starbucks partners can receive small grants up to $1,000.00.

It’s common sense, but the better funded this program is, the more grants can be given out to Starbucks partners.  I occasionally find myself mildly irked when I see idea threads that say “help the poor” without any real conception of who is poor. Though we may not like to think about it, our baristas who make us smile each day sometimes are close to being working poor.  Creating a safety net for them is one way we can help. All of those tiny balances on cards will add up. Why not help those that make you smile each and every day?

Ethos Water:

Starbucks donates five cents (ten cents in Canada) from the sale of any bottle of Ethos Water to non-profit organizations working to bring clean water to Africa.  The Ethos Water website boasts that to date it has raised over 6 million dollars in funds to bring clean water to Africa. This really demonstrates the power of small change to add up. If a customer is in Starbucks, and decides to grab a water in a bottle for on-the-go, the side perk is that a small donation gets made.  Since most businesses will sell bottled water anyways, it makes sense to offer this chance to help children in developing nations get clean water.

If you have a very small balance on your card, and you’re looking for a good cause for a donation, this is a perfect opportunity.  The reality is that people like bottled water in plastic, and it continues to sell (I’m guilty of this too), but if you simply donate your small card balance to Ethos then you’ve donated sans any environmental impact.  This is a best case scenario.

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As between the two suggested ideas above, I am more attached to the idea of donating to The Cup Fund.  I suppose this is because this safety net is critical for the well-being of partners in great need, and at any time, the next person in need might be the person standing right in front of me working hard to remember my drink, and all my quirks.

If a customer would like to make a register donation to Ethos Water or The Cup Fund, I do not know if these transactions count towards “stars” under the new My Starbucks Rewards program.  It would be wonderful to hear from Starbucks.  Out of curiosity, I’d like to know if a Cup Fund donation earns a “star”.

In addition, I have heard partners tell me that there are a few other donation buttons already in place on the register, but I don’t know what they are.  As always, I open the floor up for your discussion, and I’d love to know if any stores are already doing this: donating small balances to the Cup Fund.  If not, I hope this is helpful idea for someone out there…

I also feel as though this is a timely thread because right now there is great discussion and ideas about Starbucks’ donation to Haiti happening at Mystarbucksidea.com.   I don’t know if Starbucks could set up some sort of register donation to Haiti, or whether this is again best left to professional non-profit organizations like the Red Cross or other relief organizations.

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[[EDIT:  MAJOR UPDATE on JANUARY 18, 2010:

Starbucks has officially announced that a donation to Haiti can be made at the register at Starbucks.  Money goes to the Red Cross for relief efforts.  Take a look at the official Starbucks blogs here:

• Donate to the Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort at Participating Starbucks Stores

The maximum amount that can be donated at the register is $249.99 and no tax deduction receipt can be provided.  Great cause and a easy way to make small donations!  I also want to comment, that baristas who want to know what to do with small balances on cards can still use the Ethos water donation button long after the "Red Cross" donation button is long gone.]]

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[[Edit on January 16, 2010 - I am now hearing several baristas tell me that a button has been added at the register so that a donation can be made for Haiti relief via a Red Cross donation.  From what I understand, this new donation option has just popped up within the past day on the register.  Someone please tell me if I have this correct!

Also, if you read the comments, one person states that customer donations to the Cup Fund are prohibited (which seems very odd since it appears to have a button with all these other donation buttons). However, I want to make it very clear that I do NOT want to encourage baristas to do prohibited things.  I hope that I can get further clarification on from an SSC partner about this issue. I feel so bad for even suggesting baristas do something that might not be kosher at the register.  I would have assumed that if this was intended strictly for partners, that there would be some mechanism in place to alert partners to this.  For example, the register could require the entry of a partner number to make a donation to the Cup Fund.  Whatever the case may be, I do NOT want to encourage partners to do any prohibited transactions, and I will soon be seeking a definite answer on this.]]

Bryant Simon at Roy Street Coffee on Jan., 13, 2010

Bryant Simon is currently in town visiting Seattle on his book tour, and StarbucksMelody got a chance to catch up with him at Roy Street Coffee and Tea and ask him a few questions.  Again, I am reminded that I am hardly a professional journalist and I need more practice at this, but here are some highlights from our conversation this evening:

We started the evening with him mentioning that just before meeting with me, he had met with an SSC partner (a partner at the corporate headquarters) who had contacted him to chat with him.  I recognized the name of the SSC partner as someone fairly highly placed, and so I began with a question regarding that:

StarbucksMelody: You just had told me that you had met with a particular Starbucks person, who is fairly high level…having had a chance to speak face to face with someone like that, does it change any of your opinions of Starbucks? Did it get any serious questions answered for you?

Bryant Simon: No.  I would never doubt that there aren’t people within the company who are really committed to an expansive vision for this company – That this company play positive role in the world.  But that doesn’t mean that is actually how the policy plays out all the time. And the fact that it does play out sometimes, that doesn’t negate one of the larger points I want to make in the book is that Starbucks wants to insist at times that it’s different than other companies but I would say that more often it operates in a way that is similar to most companies.

StarbucksMelody:  What’s your favorite drink at Starbucks?

Bryant Simon: My favorite drink really all I drink at Starbucks is coffee. I actually like Starbucks coffee.

StarbucksMelody: So which coffee do you like Verona, Sumatra, Komodo Dragon?

Bryant Simon: I actually only half the time pay attention.

StarbucksMelody: That’s very strange, if you like coffee?

Bryant Simon: I do like coffee but I don’t pay a ton of attention to what I’m drinking. The drinks were never the thing for me. When I first discovered Starbucks I drank Mistos.

StarbucksMelody: Back to the book. Did you have anyone proof it who actually is a Starbucks employee for factual accuracy? I notice some minor factual inaccuracies especially in the first half of the book.

Bryant Simon: Uh. No.  And if I am wrong, probably, then I’m relying on some bad journalism and then my own fault, probably equally to blame.

StarbucksMelody: When you finally get to read my book review you’ll get to see the places I point out bad information.

Bryant Simon: Oh good. No but it would’ve been great to have that person. I would say that Starbucks, this is one of criticism… Starbucks held me … was not eager to help. So if I asked questions then they often went unanswered… You might be right…I went through the sources were offered to me.  I had kinda a lot of people who worked there and left. Give me one factual error and I will tell you if it was my mistake.

StarbucksMelody: So somewhere in here you actually talk about the dress code.  I think in the chapter on uniformity. And you give a description of it that is inaccurate.  For example, you say that baristas can only wear khaki pants which is not true – they can wear black or khaki.  You describe that they can wear ‘not too much perfume’ but even today, perfume is forbidden.

Bryant Simon: I got that directly from someone who worked at Starbucks.

StarbucksMelody: Then you also say that they have to wear a Starbucks shirt. They don’t have to wear a Starbucks-branded shirt, but they do have to wear white or black, and then there is some funny rule where if they wear a white button-down shirt, they have to have the same colored undershirt underneath. Like, you can’t wear, apparently, a black button-down shirt with a white undershirt.

Bryant Simon: I can live with that mistake! It doesn’t argue against the point.

StarbucksMelody: No, that’s actually what I’m writing for the book review …you’re getting a taste of it… That you make a lot of minor factual errors but they don’t really change the weight of your argument.

Byrant Simon: I can live with that. It’s a hard book to back check. In some sense…

StarbucksMelody: (interrupted! Bad Melody!) …you needed me…

Bryant Simon:..yeah I did!

StarbucksMelody: Okay, so on the point of authenticity…Something that had popped in my head: You talk about the interior of a Starbucks as “props”. The whole bean wall is a “prop”.  The espresso machines as props, that this sort of creates the coffeehouse atmosphere, but one of the thing that popped into my head coming originally from California, seems like Californians never get out of their cars. The drive-thru is incredibly popular and in California you’ll meet people who have no idea what happens inside a Starbucks, they only use the drive-thru. How do you reconcile this incredible phenomena these people who don’t get out of the car but love Starbucks?

[[It was a rambly, badly-worded question. I was trying to ask, "How does one reconcile the success of the drive-thru in certain geographies while your book seems to suggest that customers need the props of the interior of the stores?"  Fortunately, he completely understood me.]]

Bryant Simon: You know this is a really interesting question. I struggled with it. I don’t drive.

StarbucksMelody: You don’t drive?

Bryant Simon: Not really. I can drive but I almost never drive.

StarbucksMelody:  Okay, so how do you reconcile this?

Bryant Simon: And so, I tried to get a sort of handle on the drive thru experience by sitting in stores. I’ve been through the drive thru like a couple of times. I think it is a fair comment that that is some place where the book isn’t very comprehensive. Because I thought about ‘how do I do research on this?’ ‘how does this shape commitment to community?’ ‘how did this add to sales’. I did stuff like sit in drive thru store and count …I did stuff like keep track of number of customers and taking notes. It was a way for me to get a sense of what people were doing in the stores.

StarbucksMelody: Have you visited the showcase stores like University Village and First and Pike yet?

Bryant Simon: I’ve been to First and Pike last time I was here. I have not been to University Village and I’ve been to the Pike Place Market store, I mean the original store.

[[In the next section, we kept interrupting each other a lot...]]

StarbucksMelody: Let’s talk about coffee sourcing for a second. This is one of those areas that is great fascination for me, but might not for you. In the indy coffee movement right now there is a strong movement towards “direct trade” branding and you see that at Intelligentsia on their website, and at Stumptown, at their website as well.  So “direct trade” appears to be trying to create private equitable relations with farmers. It’s a great branding, and it’s a movement away from “Fair Trade”… this could be a whole ‘nother conversation…And it seems that consumers right now are not savvy enough to understand that “Fair Trade” is a label…

Bryant Simon: …nor are they savvy enough to know the difference between C.A.F.E. practices and Fair Trade…

StarbucksMelody: …uuuummmm… I think that is a little better understood, but I think they can’t distinguish between … like when you start throwing all of these things at them like “direct trade” “fair trade” and “C.A.F.E. practices” – it starts to become very blurry because people don’t really understand..

Bryant Simon: … except that I think that… well, I’ll wait for the question…

StarbucksMelody: ..well in some ways …

Bryant Simon: …this is a really thorny issue as you know…

StarbucksMelody: …well, I actually find it ironic because as the movement is in the direction of “direct trade,” it is actually moving closer and closer to what Starbucks has already been doing for well over a decade… and that is “private equitable relations with farmers”…

Bryant Simon: …Fair trade is still “private equitable relations with farmers” the state is not involved…

StarbucksMelody:… well it’s a license though, and that’s very very different…

Bryant Simon: …it is just a certificate run by a quasi-non-prof…there is no state involved…

StarbucksMelody:…but having a multinational, large profit with association fees is part of the reason that smaller businesses like Intelligentsia – I don’t know how small it is – are moving away from Fair Trade…

Bryant Simon: …no it’s not entirely the reason why Intelligentsia and Stumptown are moving away from what they don’t particularly like about Fair Trade is that they can’t control the quality of the bean… what they want to do is identify excellence …reward excellence…but Fair Trade wants to create equity. And it’s not that it’s not that they’re concerned with quality …

StarbucksMelody:..but every description I hear of “direct trade” sounds like fabulous re-branding of C.A.F.E. practices is all about… all about quality beans and responsible farmer relations…It is amazing to me, you probably know this, but in 2008 Starbucks had 24,000 C.A.F.E. practices farmers in Sumatra…

Bryant Simon: …I didn’t know that, that’s sort of staggering…

StarbucksMelody:…those are all little tiny farmers. It’s amazing that they could get that many farms to work with them cooperatively.

[[This part of the interview I did I really poor job of trying to get out what I wanted to say. I essentially was trying to say that his book's description of C.A.F.E. practices being primarily large farms isn't really right, and that Starbucks is in fact many of the same practices as indy houses, but indy houses have much better sounding lingo with "direct trade".]]

Bryant Simon: …it’s amazing that they could get that many to fill out the paperwork…Direct trade is all about the quality of the coffee…The problem at base, where they’re getting criticized is that they’re pulling people out of the cooperative…And this is for people who are concerned with the political issues involved, the fact that they’re pulling people out of the co-ops is a real issue…

StarbucksMelody:… oh, I don’t think most consumers understand that…

Bryant Simon: …I’m talking at source, at origin… if you go talk to people in Nicaragua there is a real big debate whether Intelligentsia is doing a bad thing or a good thing to Nicaragua coffee farmers and small farmers…but by singling out the ones who give them better beans and giving them long term contracts that is really the key here…

StarbucksMelody:…but this is exactly what … “long term contracts” is a Starbucks phrase…

Bryant Simon: …the thing about C.A.F.E. practices… the characterization I made about C.A.F.E. practices…I actually didn’t know what I was going to find…when I went to Nicaragua and went to talk to people, that was almost entirely based on interviews of two people who explained it to me, and talking to exporters, and then talking to Dub Hay as well who readily acknowledged that they weren’t buying from small farmers because they couldn’t  get enough beans from them…When I talked to him, he didn’t say anything about Sumatra…he talked mostly about Africa and Central America…

StarbucksMelody: okay, next question…comes from me browsing John Moore’s website, and he has a blog entry that ‘there is no such thing as authenticity, only varying degrees of inauthenticity’ and so do you think that is what any major corporation has going on… because your criticism of Starbucks essentially is that it is not an authentic experience…

Bryant Simon: …yeah well I’d definitely agree that there is no platonic, no objective form of authenticity.  It’s a search, a chase but also that there is a continuum in that there are things closer than what we represent as authentic.

StarbucksMelody: Do you think that Starbucks is authentic as it can be for its size?

Bryant Simon: I actually think that …  I think you’re misrepresenting the way I say this … I think they set themselves as up quite frequently as the seller of authenticity and they’re on this tight rope where, it’s very important to them, they need to have enough authenticity to seem as though they have coffee knowledge…

StarbucksMelody:  Starbucks has a big red cape, and carries with it the ability to make more people successful than just itself… isn’t it true that you’re trading on Starbucks success just to sell your book?

Bryant Simon: No, I’m not… no I mean, it allowed me to take a reasonably recognized company and try to use it as a way to interrogate the company and the culture; it happened to be that I am interested in coffee and I’m interested in coffee shops as…

StarbucksMelody: I don’t believe that you’re interested in coffee otherwise you’d be paying attention to whether you’re drinking Verona or Komodo Dragon or Sumatra …

Bryant Simon: I’m more interested in coffee shops…

StarbucksMelody: …you are interested in coffee shops, you are not interested in coffee sir!

Bryant Simon: That’s fair.  [[Insert lots of laughter here]] And I never represent myself as a coffee expert. But I could have done this by writing about Target, any number of sort of recognizeable brands that are involved in… I could have done Eddie Bauer, The Body Shop….

StarbucksMelody:  What can Starbucks do better?

Bryant Simon: I think there is a really easy answer. And that is to push in-store ceramic cups.

I want to say that throughout the interview, there was a jovial tone of voice. Bryant Simon is quite a pleasant guy who smiles and doesn’t get irritated when you argue with him.  Very pleasant interview!  Those were the highlights!  I should probably explain that we talked much longer than what is given above, and I have provided some of the more interesting conversations above.  When all is said and done, I would say that Bryant Simon and I can agree that the corporation faces certain challenges, due to size and growth, but fundamentally I believe that it is still able to deliver a relevant and meaningful experience, where as Simon would be more critical of this view.  In my own view, Starbucks still offers a true respite between home and office, where as Simon focuses more on lost cachet and that customers are not having a genuine experience, with Starbucks unable to live up to its promises to the customer.  Obviously, I understand that mistakes are made and there is no perfect company, but I also disagree with his claim that the experience lacks authenticity.

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If you like this blog post, you might also like my interview of Winter:

• Catching up with Winter: In conversation with a guy on a journey to visit every company-operated Starbucks

Casi Cielo coffee stamp

Casi Cielo whole bean coffee returns to Starbucks on January 12, 2010! This annual seasonal offering was first created by Starbucks for the Seattle restaurant, Canlis, and other fine dining establishments.  Introduced and unveiled officially in October 2004, this blend is now in its fifth year.

It is only offered in Starbucks stores during the Winter season each year, and it’s an amazing blend of Latin American beans with a medium body to it.  Canlis, a luxurious dining experience, offers its customers Casi Cielo coffee year-round, and I’ve frequently been told that Canlis has a Clover brewer too.

This coffee was blended to be experienced with fine dining, whether through a Clover, in a press, or drip-brewed. The beans come from four farms in the Antigua region of Guatemala, and the beans are grown at altitudes above 5000 feet.

The Antigua Valley is arguably the most world-renowned area in the world for quality coffee production and it is surrounded by three volcanoes (Agua, Acatenango, and Fuego).  Two of the farms that continually produced beans for Casi Cielo have medical facilities on them built by Starbucks funding. (Finca San Miguel and Finca Santa Clara).

My own love affair with Casi Cielo was solidified in January 2008.  On a Winter’s day in Seattle, I stepped into the Starbucks store number 3289 at 6th and Union in downtown Seattle. By good luck, I found the Clover brewer, and my very first cup of coffee brewed on a Clover was a tall cup of Casi Cielo. I loved it. That was it. Hook, line, and sinker, Casi Cielo  and the Clover had me.  The Canlis website boasts that this is Starbucks’ second most popular whole bean coffee, following only Christmas Blend!

A little known fact about Casi Cielo is that Starbucks does roast a very small quantity of decaf Casi Cielo coffee for Canlis and a handful of other restaurants only.  Decaf Casi Cielo is not available at Starbucks stores.

Just for fun, in this blog entry I am including a YouTube video produced by the legendary Jason Coffee of  Coffee Cup News – In this video he is doing a tasting of a 2009 bag of Casi Cielo:  Enjoy your Casi Cielo!!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also enjoy some of StarbucksMelody’s other whole bean coffee focused blog posts:

• The magic of Aged Sumatra and Sumatra
• Your introduction to a cupping and Arabian Mocha Sanani