CPG

A fun look at Starbucks grocery products all over the world. (Open thread)

by Melody on November 18, 2011

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At the Starbucks headquarters, on the 8th floor, there is a hallway that has a number of alcoves off of it.  The alcoves display products sold at current Starbucks stores, Seattle’s Best products, Tazo tea, and a display of Consumer Packaged Goods (“CPG”) available all over the world.  My understanding is that at one time the little alcoves had doors on them and were conference rooms.  When I get the chance to visit the SSC (Starbucks calls their headquarters the “Starbucks Support Center”) I definitely tend to linger going up and down this hallway.  I always want to take everything in.

So today, I thought I’d share a number of photos that I quickly took of the CPG  alcove during a recent visit to the SSC on November 11, 2011.  A number of the products shown in these photos are international only.  I have always wondered what it would be like to try the “Discoveries” ready-to-drink products.  The Via Ready Brew in a jar appears to be still a UK only product.  In one photo you can see packages of Starbucks Origami Personal Drip coffee, which is a single-use pour over product available in Japan.  By the way, CPG includes all the ice cream products too!  I wish I had taken a close up of all the kinds of Starbucks ice cream.

Every time I visit the SSC, I am always hosted by a partner, and every visit is probably longer than they expect because they have to pull me out of these little alcove rooms.  I didn’t have a ton of time, but here are the few pics I took of the CPG alcove.

There is always something to take a picture of at the SSC.  In September this year, I snapped a few photos of classic Starbucks tea packaging dating back to the early 1990s.  Here’s the previous article on the tea: Starbucks Finest Tea.   What’s your favorite Starbucks thing available in your local grocery store?  I do really think that CPG is a fun category.   It includes bottled Frappuccinos, Via Ready Brew, Tazo Tea, coffee in grocery stores, and much more.  And Starbucks has said a number of times at investor events (quarterly investor reports and conference calls) that the CPG category is only going to grow much bigger.  So I would expect more to come to your local grocery store!

Speaking of Tazo Tea, it was recently in the news that Starbucks has decided to relocate the Tazo Tea operations from their Portland headquarters to Kent, Washington.  While it sounds like the plan is to consolidate operations, I have to assume that the employees at Tazo are disappointed to leave their beloved headquarters.  Where is the Tazo tea stone going to be relocated to? ;)

Enjoy the photos!  Talk about anything Starbucks-related.  This is an open thread.

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Starbucks buys Evolution Fresh – Melody reviews some of the new ‘coming soon’ juice offerings.

by Melody on November 11, 2011

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Starbucks announced yesterday that it has purchased the California-based juice company “Evolution Fresh,” and will begin opening juice bars in 2012.  The plan is to expand the “Health and Wellness” category by offering very freshly-produced juices.  Right now, Evolution Fresh juices are already available at some retailers like Whole Foods, but soon they will replace the Naked Juice offerings at Starbucks, and they will be available more widely in grocery stores.  Eventually, Starbucks plans to open up a number of juice bars that offer customers an experience in fresh blended juices.  News articles have described this as a chain of stores which would compete with retailers like Jamba Juice.

Glancing at the Evolution Fresh website, it looks like there are about 25 different juices (or blends of juices) that they offer.  There is everything from Pomegranate, to Watermelon, to Vanilla Chai to Magical Mango to Strawberry Lemonade, and many more.  And, from what I can see, the list of 25 juices or so on the Evolution Fresh website does not appear to be a complete list.  I had heard that there are closer to about 36 different juices offered by Evolution Fresh.  From what I understand, Starbucks will showcase six juices that you may find in the refrigerated case at your local store, and of course, many more flavors will be offered in grocery stores and in the juice bars.  My understanding is that not all Starbucks will necessarily offer all six of the highlighted juices, given that many stores are small and won’t have the demand for six bottled juices.  At least from what I know (and please be aware that at this early stage, nothing is written in stone) the six flavors to be showcased in Starbucks stores are Orange, Organic Ginger Limeade, Sweet Greens ‘n Lemon, Orange Carrot Mango, Essential Vegetable, and Apple Berry.

I had the chance to try all six showcased-flavors today!  They all really do taste very fresh, and have sweet fruit and vegetable aromas.  I found myself wanting to slurp the juices, like in a coffee tasting. ;)   I really liked the Orange Carrot Mango flavor.  You can taste a lot of the carrot, but it’s sweet and delicious still.  And I’m glad the other two juices do not overwhelm the carrot juice.  Actually, I would like to see a plain carrot juice offered in the stores.  I will say that the Sweet Greens tasted a bit too much like celery for my liking.  Also, you can definitely taste the cucumber in the Sweet Greens too.  I am not a fan of ginger as a flavor, so the limeade didn’t do anything for me.  The Apple Berry has some blueberry flavor to it, and it is really delicious. Actually, you can see what looks like pieces of blueberries in the juice itself.  It was so good!  Surprisingly, the Essential Vegetable was delicious!  Also, I liked the orange juice, but it wouldn’t be my first choice because I tend to gravitate towards the juice blends.  The orange juice had some noticeable pulp in it – I liked that quite a bit, but I imagine the pulp in the orange juice won’t appeal to some customers.

In many ways, it seems like there will be close to zero disruption to Starbucks stores because the only significant initial change is new offerings in the refrigerated case.  There is a part of me that wonders if we will ever see new Vivanno Smoothie flavors out of this, but it’s far too soon to speculate about that!

I like the idea of new juices in the ready-to-drink cold case, and hopefully the new juice bars will be a hit.

By the way, the juices are all pasteurized using a “high pressure pasteurization” process which means that they are never heated.  My understanding is that this is the best way to pasteurize juices to get the freshest flavor, though I’m definitely not an expert on pasteurization, so I don’t have much to say about that.

So what do you think of the new juices and plans to expand?  It seems like the Starbucks family of brands is growing in grocery stores.  The acquisition of Tazo gave Starbucks the chance to have a number of tea products in grocery stores, and now this will allow for a number of juice products in your local grocery.  By the way, this is a United States (and maybe Canada?) product only at this time.

Here are a few more photos from my juice tasting at Starbucks:

 

 

 

 

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Since Starbucks supplied the juices that I tried, I think I legally have to disclose that in conjunction with this blog post.  All of the juices were supplied by Starbucks for me to try.

 

 

 

 

 

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Blonde roast: Veranda and Willow Blend coffees coming soon to Starbucks.

by Melody on October 18, 2011

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Starbucks is making big changes to their whole bean coffee  lineup.  They’re introducing two new blends, both of which are roasted using a  “blonde” roast.  This, of course, is basically a very light roast, which a number of coffee purveyors now regularly offer.

There appears to be a definite demand for a very light roast coffee.  Some people like the thin mouth-feel.  Some people want a coffee where they can’t taste any of the roast profile – very little caramelization of the beans.  And some people like the high acidity which is typically present in a lighter roast coffee.  For me, I’m always going to love the darker roast coffees.  I like the full body, the smoother and low acidity profile, and sweet caramelization flavor in a coffee like Espresso Roast or Verona.  The darker coffees will always be my first choice for my personal cup or tumbler.

So what are the two new coffees?  The two new “blonde”-roasted coffees are Veranda Blend and Willow Blend.  These coffees are even lighter than Starbucks’ Breakfast Blend, which at one time was considered the mildest and lightest coffee in the Starbucks whole bean lineup.  The blonde roast profile is not the same roast profile as the current Breakfast Blend, or the LiteNote Blend of yesteryear, and represents the science of a shorter roast duration and likely not the same temperature scale also  (though I don’t know that for a fact).  Veranda Blend is a blend of Latin American beans, and Willow Blend is a blend of Latin American and Kenya coffee beans, as I recall.

Last month I had the chance to try these two new coffees at a small coffee tasting event at the Starbucks headquarters.  We tasted the two new coffees, and compared and contrasted them with two other coffees:  Italian Roast and Pike Place Roast.  It has been a while since that event, and I realize that I should have been taking notes back then!  The Willow Blend was definitely the winner of the two coffees for me.  As I recall, the Willow Blend had a tremendous amount of origin flavor, and so the citrus-y notes African beans are known for were quite pronounced.  I suspect that the Willow Blend would also be absolutely wonderful iced!  Despite my insistence on drinking a bold roast coffee, I would not turn this down, and in fact, I would choose Willow Blend over Pike Place Roast.  And in all seriousness, I will definitely look forward to giving this a try as an iced coffee from the Clover in the summer months.

Sadly, I thought the Veranda Blend was a little boring.  It reminded me a bit of drinking a Level 1 or Level 2 Seattle’s Best Coffee.  Nonetheless, I have a feeling that Veranda is going to have its big fans.  It is a taste profile that many Americans know and love: the distinctive acidity and bright flavor of a washed Latin American coffee.

With the launch of the two new coffees, Starbucks is updating all of their packaging.  Here’s the new look:

I definitely have some mixed feelings about this packaging.  It looks incredibly simplified.  I have to wonder what is on the sides of the packaging.  I have always enjoyed seeing packaging that provides a wealth of information combined with some romance in its feel.  These doesn’t scream romance and mystique to me.  Maybe it will look better when I see all the packages side by side.  Ah well, somehow when I think of Italian Roast, I still think of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, for those of you who remember that era of Starbucks coffee packaging.

So this is (mostly) great and exciting news!  Blonde roast opens up a huge door of opportunity to attract customers who love that roast profile, and the two new coffees are definitely going to have their fans.  Starbucks is simply expanding and growing their coffee expertise to capture a larger segment of customers, and creating greater variation in the whole bean lineup.  I know for sure that I already love the flavors of Willow Blend.  I think it is a great move to expand their existing roasting expertise into this area, and in any case, many smaller roasters already roast at a level very close to this profile.  The only real downside is that I have mixed feelings on the packaging (eeek!), and I hope that in the process of promoting these new coffees that Starbucks won’t forget their bold coffee fans. I don’t know what kind of promotions may surround the new coffees, and for those of us who love dark roast coffee … well, I just have to trust that we will not be forgotten in the fanfare of these two new coffee offerings.  The number of  Clover Starbucks is still growing, at least creating opportunties to have any coffee at  your local Starbucks.  I definitely think it would be interesting to try these two new coffees from the Clover too.

My understanding is that these two new coffee blends launch in Starbucks stores everywhere in January 2012, as well as in grocery stores, and will be available as a whole bean, a Via Ready Brew format, and K-cups.

Have you tried these two new offerings? What do you think of all this?

 

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Something new from Starbucks: Hot Chocolate in grocery stores

by Melody on October 16, 2011

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Starbucks has just recently launched four flavors of hot chocolate, available in grocery stores only.  I’ve never seen this packaging/ product available in the retail stores, so it appears to be a grocery store only item.  (Someone please correct me if I am wrong!) The four flavors are as follows:

  • Salted Caramel
  • Toasted Marshmallow
  • Peppermint
  • Double Chocolate

I definitely like hot chocolate during the colder fall and winter months, and this seems like a great seasonal idea!  I grabbed a box of the Toasted Marshmallow flavor to try at home.  I think the packaging is a little plain though!  I’m not sure I like seeing that much solid white on the box.  The image on the Peppermint Hot Chocolate flavor appears to be the Peppermint bark which is sometimes available as a seasonal treat at Starbucks.  I have a photo of it in this old December 2010 blog article.  Notice that it was not in the pastry case, but rather packaged in a green box.  I decided not to buy all four boxes at once, but I plan on eventually trying all the flavors, and Peppermint might be next.

Each package makes 8 ounces, and the instructions simply are to add hot milk, and stir.

So here’s my review of the Toasted Marshmallow flavor:

First off, there are not enough marshmallows in it!  This is not going to be an “A” or 5-star review!  The flavor is very good, but I was disappointed to realize that there was like one or two marshmallows in my cup.  I used a big 16 ounce cup, so I only filled it about half full of hot milk.  Of course, this is super easy to make.

Here’s what it looks like mixed.  I think it would have looked much more appealing if I had used the right size cup. Sorry about that!

There you have it!  It was very chocolately and flavorful.  I would give 3 and a half stars out of five.  Not enough marshmallows!  But the chocolate flavor is very rich and delicious.  I can’t wait to try some of the other flavors.  I have a feeling the peppermint is going to be the best!

Have you tried these? What do you think?  – This is an open thread.

 

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Now available: Starbucks Via Ready Brew in a jar!

April 6, 2011

Starbucks has begun selling Via Ready Brew in a jar.  As far as I know, only Colombia Via and Italian Roast Via are available in a jar, but I assume that soon more varieties will become available.  The jar is a fairly small size and on the lid it states that there are 24 servings [...]

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Coffee giveaway: Seattle’s Best Coffee introduces canned coffee drinks!

February 7, 2011

Seattle’s Best Coffee has launched three different flavors of canned iced coffee beverages and they generously sent me some to try.  The three flavors are Iced Vanilla Latte, Iced Mocha, and Iced Latte.  You should be able to easily find them at your local grocery store.  You may be wondering, ‘I bought these canned drinks.  [...]

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Win a coupon for a free pint of @Starbucks ice cream (@SbuxMel)

October 24, 2010
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A new Starbucks ice cream is here! Starbucks has added a seasonal ice cream offering to their current line up of ice cream. It is Peppermint Mocha and it’s described as “a creamy swirl of mocha and peppermint ice creams adorned with rich dark chocolaty chunks.”  The inspiration for this ice cream comes from the [...]

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A Starbucks history lesson: Bottled Starbucks Mazagran

August 7, 2010

Fifteen to sixteen years ago, Starbucks launched a bottled beverage called Mazagran.  Through a partnership with Pepsi, they sold a bottled coffee soda in grocery stores.  The “Mazagran Spice Blend” soda was the very first attempt at a joint venture between Pepsi and Starbucks, and, it was a complete failure.  One interesting note: in many ways it was [...]

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Starbucks adds flavored coffee to grocery stores June 2010

May 16, 2010

Starbucks has announced that in June, you will soon be able to find flavored, pre-ground coffee in your local grocery store.  The three flavors are vanilla, caramel, and cinnamon, and the new coffee offering is called “Starbucks Natural Fusions.” I’m not one to usually put up a blog post based on just an annoucement without [...]

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