The decaf version of Starbucks Casi Cielo is not lore and fiction. It exists. My understanding is that Starbucks produces extremely small quantities of this coffee for Canlis Restaurant.  I’ve talked to many a partner who are completely unaware that there is such a thing as decaffeinated Casi Cielo.  Yes, this is real.  I don’t know for sure if this coffee offering has year-round availability at Canlis, or limited availability.  The image that goes with this blog post is a bag of decaf Casi Cielo so that you can see it is real.  I have been carrying the bag around with me for eons and eons, and finally decided to use it as a blog post.

Casi Cielo is a seasonal Starbucks coffee, offered briefly at every Starbucks in January each year. Sadly, it’s already gone from the stores.  Here is the previous blog post on this coffee:

Casi Cielo Returns to Starbucks January 12th!

There is a prequel to this StarbucksMelody.com post:  I have had this bag of coffee hanging around in my car for months and months.  There are a handful of beans at the bottom, long since very stale.  Just recently I was grabbing things out of my car, and I grabbed the Starbucks paper bag it was in and brought it up to my office. I wasn’t even really thinking about whether I needed to take it out of my car.  I think I finally took this out of my car about one week ago.  A few days ago (May 19th 2010), my car was stolen.  For those who are following me on twitter, they already know that right now I am just getting by without a car, because my car completely disappeared from a surface parking lot in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle.  It was really a strange sensation to walk down to the lot where I parked, along 4th Avenue South, and see the lot empty of cars except for one newer Corvette. I thought, ‘okay, I don’t drive a Corvette. Did I take the bus in today?‘  I had to repeat all of the day’s events in my head, and mentally confirm that I did in fact drive my car into work.  I called the tow company for the lot, thinking it had been towed, but alas, that was fruitless.  My old car is still missing.  Just completely disappeared.  I had to laugh:  At least I got the decaffeinated Casi Cielo out of the car in the nick of time.  I took this as a sign that it was time to write this blog post.  Whoever has my car, amazingly, got no coffee!

So this blog post doesn’t have much to say.  It’s just for fun and to tell you that yes, there really is a decaf Casi Cielo, though it is impossible to come by as a coffee.  Getting that little bag featured in this blog post was not easy.  I have often thought that it would be an intriguing idea to offer decaf Casi Cielo seasonally in the Clover Starbucks stores.  I don’t know if the decaf drinkers feel as though they have enough options or not.

This is an open thread.  Feel free to discuss any Starbucks-related topic, or suggest a new or used car for me!  Or if you’re a decaf drinker, please weigh in whether you want to see this coffee more widely available.  Sorry that there is so little substance to this blog post! Ah well, we have to have a change of pace now and then.