by Melody on June 1, 2010
I’ll be honest, I struggled to write this blog post. My problem mostly is that I don’t have precise information about Tea That’s Not Afraid To Mingle at your local Starbucks. A few years ago, there was a very small test of a couple of unique tea beverages. My faded memory suggests to me that it was four drinks (I could be wrong). Two drinks were called the Zen Mango Sunrise and Zen Melon Drop . Another was the Passion Citrus Bliss. I’m not even sure the names of the others. These test-Teas fell into two categories of beverages: One was blended, and the other was not. The versions of the tea drinks that were NOT blended were all created with sparkling carbonated water, and to me seemed to be Zen Tea meets soda water with a few other things mixed in. The marketing signage described these teas as “bubbly or brrrr” and that is indeed what these were: If you ordered the versions with sparkling water, you got the “bubbly” teas, and if you got the versions blended, it was “brrrr”. Of course, all the teas were produced by Tazo Tea Company.
By the way, in a previous blog post I wrote a little bit about the Tazo Tea headquarters and introduced my readers to the “Tazo Tea Stone” – Here’s the link to that blog, should you want to revisit it:
A blog for the tea drinkers at Starbucks: Take a tour of Tazo
The thing that makes me crazy is that one of the teas in this test run used cranberry juice in the recipe, and I don’t remember what that one was called.
As I recall, the frozen Passion Citrus Bliss was a rebranded blended Passion Tea Lemonade, with some special passion powder on top. I remember that the red powder on top was very cool but don’t even know exactly what it was.
The sparkling Zen Melon Drop was Tazo Zen Tea, sparkling water, and a splash of a melon juice, shaken, with matcha powder on top.
The frozen Zen Mango Sunrise was blended Tazo Zen Tea with a mango juice, and with a candied papaya topping. (By the way, I think Starbucks is the master of figuring out really cool toppings to go on top of drinks. One could do an entire blog entry just on that. Case in point, the candied caramel brulee topping last December was fabulous).
There was one more sparkling drink, and the name totally escapes me what it was called. The last sparkling drink included Passion Tea, with sparkling water, cranberry juice, and had also a sprinkled topping. I wish I could remember the name of this drink because I can remember clearly thinking that oddly bubbly water, cranberry juice, and passion tea were a great combination.
These were delicious drinks. I can see why they weren’t launched though. Expensive ingredients, and carbonated water is a difficult thing to merchandise. You have to figure out whether you’re going to have big CO2 tanks, or alternatively keep a supply of big 2-liter bottles of bubbly water, but then you risk wasting quite a bit if it goes flat on you.
This was a very small test run, so it is unlikely that many of my readers had the chance to try this. Nonetheless, this blog gives you ideas of things you can do with your Zen and Passion Tea! Also, notice in one of the photos attached you can see a pitcher of tea with fresh cut lemons in it. This store tested freshly-cut real lemon for tea in the stores at the same as running the test for the “bubbly” and “brrrr” tea beverages.
by Melody on February 28, 2010
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.
by Melody on December 31, 2009
Lots of people have talked about the “test Frappuccinos” in Dallas, Texas. It’s been a long test of the new and customizable Frappuccino, offering Starbucks customers the chance to try a soy Frappuccino, whole milk, or any other milk option, with much greater power in the hands of the customer to modify the drink as desired. The test in Dallas, Texas has been ongoing long enough that there have been occasional threads on mystarbucksidea.com about it.
Of course, it makes good sense that this is a long test. If Starbucks is really going to overhaul a beverage as iconic as the Frappuccino, they have to make sure they know what they’re doing. Starbucks boasts 40 million customers a week pass through their doors. For many people – for MILLIONS of customers – when a person says the word “Starbucks” a mental image of a domed-lid plastic cup, whip cream, and a Frappuccino comes to mind, not a cup of Verona. This is the reality. It is what it is. Starbucks and Frappuccino are so deeply associated with each other, like McDonalds and Big Mac, or Sunkist and oranges, or Quaker and oatmeal.
Recently, StarbucksMelody heard very loose gossip that the test of customizable Frappuccinos is expanding. In just a few weeks, so I hear, Starbucks customers of Vermont (somewhere in Vermont) will get their chance to try this new-fangled Frappuccino. It doesn’t surprise me that the test is expanding. It goes back to the company being thorough in testing before launching something as dramatic as this. It does surprise me that Vermont is getting the new Frappuccinos in the middle of Winter. I guess if Vermont can sell Frappuccinos in the middle of January, they’ll sell anywhere, any time. Surely it must be cold there right now!
What do you think of the new Frappuccino? Do you like the idea of overhauling the Frappuccino?
[[ Edit on January 1, 2010 - By random luck, a barista on the east coast sent me an image of some Frappuccino syrup that his store accidentally got. He states that his store has never been part of the new customizable Frappuccinos. The syrup simply arrived with a shipment of stuff, with no sku, and was not ordered by the store. We know that the "Frappuccino syrup" is part of the new customizable Frappuccinos referenced in this blog post and so I want to share the image of the syrup with you:
]]
by Melody on December 26, 2009
Test cold case
For a few months in 2009, three Seattle area Starbucks tested some alternate food items at their stores. This was such a tiny food test it really almost is not worth mentioning on this blog. It was only 3 stores, and a few short months late summer to fall 2009. The test is over, and I already miss buying Rachel’s yogurt at Starbucks. The few test stores in this test had a tall unique cold case filled with a few alternate food and beverage options. Included in the cold case were things like hard boiled eggs in packs of two, carrots with ranch dressing, string cheese, hummus and chips, Izze’s soda in cans, and Rachel’s organic yogurt.
I have to assume that the purpose of the test was just a short experiment at looking at what other food items might sell at a Starbucks…
Of all the things listed, I freakin’ loved the Rachel’s yogurt. It was enough to bring me back to the test cold case over and over again. Starbucks, would you pretty please put Rachel’s yogurt in all your stores?? 
I’ll be honest, I struggled to write this blog post. My problem mostly is that I don’t have precise information about Tea That’s Not Afraid To Mingle at your local Starbucks. A few years ago, there was a very small test of a couple of unique tea beverages. My faded memory suggests to me that it was four drinks (I could be wrong). Two drinks were called the Zen Mango Sunrise and Zen Melon Drop . Another was the Passion Citrus Bliss. I’m not even sure the names of the others. These test-Teas fell into two categories of beverages: One was blended, and the other was not. The versions of the tea drinks that were NOT blended were all created with sparkling carbonated water, and to me seemed to be Zen Tea meets soda water with a few other things mixed in. The marketing signage described these teas as “bubbly or brrrr” and that is indeed what these were: If you ordered the versions with sparkling water, you got the “bubbly” teas, and if you got the versions blended, it was “brrrr”. Of course, all the teas were produced by Tazo Tea Company.
yes I like VIA it’s great to keep in my desk for when I can’t get away, and it’s much better than the flavia nonsense they try and...