Today I visited the Starbucks headquarters for a little tasting of the new Galapagos Islands Coffee. This was a roasting event, which is a regular event at the headquarters. I have only rarely been to this kind of event, but some of you may remember a similar event that I attended in this blog post here:
At the roasting event, Starbucks corporate partners talk about the coffee that is being roasted during the event, and coffee is roasted freshly from a small oven and the sounds of beans popping are amplified throughout the Starbucks event meeting area. Partners taste the coffee being roasted up, and leave with a half-pound of beans (usually, but not always). Because the Galapagos Island coffee is so rare, and the supply is so limited, at this event the corporate partners only left with a small sample bag of the beans. I actually felt so guilty leaving with a half pound bag of the beans, knowing that there really wasn’t enough for all the corporate partners.
The gathering area for this event is a big open area with natural sunlight streaming in, and monitors in a few key places to make it easier to accommodate large groups. I wandered around the open area, running into a few familiar faces now and then, always accompanied by the person hosting me at the event. These roasting events, as far as I know, are not open to the general public. So far each and every time I’ve been lucky enough to be inside the headquarters, I’ve had a Starbucks corporate partner with me.
I heard some interesting information about Galapagos Island coffee that I thought I would pass on to you. The roast profile is fairly light. When it is pulled out of the coffee roasters, the second popping continues even in the cooling/collecting tray of the coffee roaster. I assume the roast profile is similar to Organic Shade Grown Mexico, though I don’t know that for a fact. Starbucks purchased about 400 bags of the Galapagos Island coffee, and each bag is roughly 50 kilos. In the pictures below, there are some photos of the beans as they came out of the coffee roaster at various roasting points … meaning at 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 9 minutes, and 11 minutes. I don’t think I have the minutes in the roaster coordinated exactly with the photos, but it is a nice progression to watch the browning of a bean. Also included below is a photo of the bag that the coffee beans came in green from Galapagos Island. After roasting, it will work out to be about 30,000 pounds of roasted beans.
The stores selected to sell this rare coffee all performed much higher than average in whole bean sales. Many of the stores selected sell close to 115 pounds of coffee per week, more than double the average store’s sales. All of the Clover Starbucks are receiving the Galapagos Island coffee too.
Enjoy the photos! (By the way, one of my favorite of the pics below is labeled “having fun” and is number 1474 and it’s a great spur of the moment pose by a partner who saw me pointing a camera at her).
Starbucks sent me a housewarming gift! I received a box from them with some Fusions literature, and a bag of each flavored coffee, and a French press!
Okay, it wasn’t really a housewarming gift, but that’s a nice thought. And it did arrive, coincidentally, at roughly about the time that I closed on my little condo. The real story is that I emailed a contact person at the Starbucks headquarters, inquiring if there were any events coming up related to Fusions, and received a promotional Fusions box in response to my inquiry. It’s much more fun to think of it as a housewarming gift.
Since I received this box of goodies free, the FTC requires that I disclose that “Melody received free product in conjunction with this blog post.” Inside the free goody box was a bag of each Fusions coffee, a French press, and some marketing-type flyers. For those who don’t recall, Starbucks Fusions are available in three flavors: Vanilla, Caramel and Cinnamon.
This blog post is long overdue, but here is my review of the Vanilla flavor Starbucks Fusions coffee:
Taking a big sniff of the coffee from the bag, I definitely was able to smell some sweetness to the coffee, but it was mild and not overwhelming. It was almost herbally sweet. I followed the instructions provided, and used the French press to make the coffee. The directions called for 3 scoops of coffee, though I might have added just a little more, had I not been following the directions.
Once brewed, I noticed it still had a slightly sweet aroma. The body of the coffee was light, and it’s definitely a mild coffee. The flavor is subtle and doesn’t overpower the the coffee. I drank my Vanilla Fusions black, but I think it is easily possible that a little milk and sugar would overpower the vanilla flavor to the coffee. The vanilla flavor tastes like sweetened vanilla to me. The flavor was even throughout drinking it, and did not end with any particular unusual flavors. Definitely NOT a crisp, palate cleansing coffee, but rather this coffee flavor lingered slightly in the mouth.
This was a good cup of coffee, but not a great cup. How do I compare it to other Starbucks coffees? Well, there is no doubt, I would far rather have a cup of Sun Dried Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, or Sumatra, or Aged Sumatra, or Sanani over this coffee. I would probably pick Fusions even over Pike Place Roast. Though in all honesty, I think I might take a cup of Via Ready Brew over Fusions!
After I made my cup of coffee, I wandered up to my building’s roof top deck and caught the last little bit of light in the sky, and sipped Vanilla Fusions, enjoying a mini city view.
Fans of flavored coffee will probably enjoy this. It’ll never be my favorite, but it was fun to try and fun to review. Here are a few pictures of the promotional box and its contents, as well as me making the coffee. (Some of the photos were taken by Molly of Seattle Custom Framing).
If anyone here has tried the Fusions coffee, do tell! I’d love to hear your two cents.
The Starbucks everyday coffee is called “Pike Place Roast.” This entire blog post is nothing but a lesson on the correct name of the current Starbucks everyday brew.
It is not called “Pike’s“.
It is not called “Pike’s Peak“.
It is not called “Pike’s Blend“.
This coffee is called “Pike Place Roast”.
The label on the bag says what it is. Starbucks doesn’t sell “Gold’s Coast” or “Verona’s” either.
As I visit Starbucks, I frequently encounter stores with chalk signage that says “Pike’s“. This is wrong. Baristas often incorrectly call it “Pike’s“. Many customers often make the same mistake.
The coffee takes its name from the Pike Place Market. It is not called “Pike’s Market”.
When in doubt about what this coffee is called, look at the bag.
For the visual learners who are reading this blog, just look at the coffee stamp image associated with this blog post.
For the auditory learners who are reading this, I’ve included a little snippet of Cliff Burrows, President of all U. S. Starbucks, talking about this coffee. For the auditory learners reading this blog, you can click the replay button and listen over and over again to Cliff correctly call the coffee “Pike Place Roast“. Cliff has got it right. Thank you Cliff for helping out the StarbucksMelody.com blog.
There is a different coffee called “Pike Place Special Reserve” that is NOT the same as “Pike Place Roast.” And if you’re selling “Pike Place Special Reserve” at your store, it is NOT called “Pike’s Place Special Reserve.”
And now here is Cliff: Thank you Cliff! (There is no requirement that baristas acquire a cute little Welsh accent when pronouncing the coffee name. )
*Edit: Previously I had called it a “British” accent but I’ve been corrected by a twitter follower that it is actually a Welsh accent. I didn’t know that. Sorry! I didn’t mean to mess that up!
Starting on August 31, 2010, Starbucks will be offering a very limited coffee called “Galapagos Island” as the first coffee branded as part of the “Starbucks Reserves”. This coffee is sourced from the Galapagos Island (more specifically, the San Cristobal island) and it is the first time that Starbucks has ever sourced coffee from that growing region.
Starbucks only has obtained a small lot of the coffee, which is part of a program to bring limited coffees to a variety of Starbucks stores. Only 1000 Starbucks have been selected to sell the new “reserve” line of coffees. There are roughly 6000 company-operated Starbucks in the United States, and about 16,000 Starbucks world-wide, yet only 1000 will get the coffee. At this time there are only roughly 70 Clover Starbucks locations, so the new “reserves” program brings coffee to many more stores than just the stores that offer the Clover “small batch” coffee offerings.
My understanding is that this will retail for $15.00 per half pound and has a juicy, medium body, and strong cocoa notes with subtle herbal flavors also.
There was a limited preview selling of the coffee through gilt.com: thus some customers have actually already tried this coffee. I am not sure if it is still available through gilt.com. It might be already sold out through that partnership. I’m also curious whether Starbucks will be continuing to offer additional coffees through the partnership with gilt.com or whether this was a one time coffee offering.
One thing that is interesting is that it looks like Starbucks is adopting a strategy similiar to my previous suggestion here:
This is a very exciting new coffee offering! I’ve tried this coffee and my own personal tasting notes were that the coffee had a strong cocoa aroma, and the flavor profile was cocoa notes with deep berries like blackberry or cherry. I think the “juicy” body of the coffee is how I picked up the cherry notes. Notice that this is very opposite to Jamaica Blue Mountain which has a lot of citrus flavor to it.
And here is the logo for the new “reserves” line up of coffees:
What does everyone think of the new partnership with gilt.com or the new coffee or the new “reserves” program? It seems like this is a sophisticated re-launch of Black Apron exclusives coffees.
Talk about this or ANY other Starbucks topic. As some people might know, my home computer is still sick with a virus which is slowing down my ability to write blog posts, and I’m swamped with work, so I apologize as the pace of new blog entries isn’t quite as fast as it used to be.
Recently, in a twitter conversation, I was asked the question, “what are all the organic coffees produced by Starbucks?” (not verbatim). That one question has inspired this blog post. Since Starbucks owns Seattle’s Best Coffee, which offers several organic coffee choices, I have included their information too in this blog post. It’s possible that some [...]
Summer is here. The hot weather means that it is time for some iced coffee. Here’s the recipe for cooling off this summer: you’re going to need a big drinking cup, lots of ice, and Gazebo Blend from Starbucks. It is perfect iced! Gazebo Blend has appeared in the summer line-up every year since 1991. [...]
What rare Starbucks whole bean coffee shows up only about once a decade at Starbucks? It’s Jamaica Blue Mountain. This coffee launched at all the Clover designated Starbucks stores on June 29, 2010 and is available until the supplies run out. I went to a mini-tasting event for it on the 28th, held at the [...]
DailyShotOfCoffee.com blogger reviews Starbucks Organic Shade Grown Mexico: Recently I was talking to coffee blogger Mike Crimmins who produces DailyShotOfCoffee blog and I asked him if he would like to do one of his famous coffee “reviews” for my site. Mike produces a coffee blog where he features a true variety of coffee blends, and [...]
Now available in limited international markets, Starbucks is offering Sumatra Lake Toba coffee. It is from the Lake Toba region of Sumatra and is described as “earthy and woody”. Some interesting facts about this coffee and its growing region: This coffee comes from three select villages perched on the shores of Lake Toba, a volcanic [...]
Have you ever wondered where every single Starbucks with a Clover brewer is located? This blog post attempts to answer that question. Once upon a time, Starbucks maintained a web site called www.CloverCrafted.com which listed every Clover Starbucks location. That site has changed into a blog type site, and now no longer has its own [...]
Melody: @Jrmy – Only recently a former partner! She was both passionate about great espresso beverages and the whole bean coffee wall. As you know, she went from a normal...
JRMY: I love the guy in…umm…is it a banana costume? Also, Alex is a /former/ partner???
HogwartsBarista: Love these photos! I think we can all agree that we love what we do! It may be stressful at times, but these captured good times make you grin through any rush...
JRMY: The booklet is amazing. I kinda wish we had more stuff like that these days. But not entirely…I’m very complicated sometimes. I unfortunately don’t...
French Bean: I really loved that Christmas merch from 2006! It reminds me of the early mornings I would drag my behind to work and buy a hot chocolate from the Starbucks near my...
CABarista: whoa! you have yogurt smoothies too!! and it IS a machiatto! Interesting! What great pictures
Melody: @bkpkgene – Thank you for the kind words. I salute you!
bkpkgene: From a Lt. Col., (ret.) 23rd STS, to Melody aka Airman O, thank you for sharing your USAF experiences in such a candid and enlightening post. You are an exemplary...
Mike Crimmins: I know that’s it not likely that any of the Starbucks in my area will get this coffee, but I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for it. It sounds...
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Today I visited the Starbucks headquarters for a little tasting of the new Galapagos Islands Coffee. This was a roasting event, which is a regular event at the headquarters. I have only rarely been to this kind of event, but some of you may remember a similar event that I attended in this blog post here:
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