The “something big” tomorrow at Starbucks is a new “everyday” drip coffee blend called “Pikes Place Roast.” If you’re feeling curious, free samples of the coffee will be handed out tomorrow at all Starbucks locations. Supposedly, the coffee will feature “subtle, rich flavors of cocoa and toasted nuts.” Sexy.
BusinessWeek says:
Consistently, customers kept saying: “Give us a coffee we can count on every day, all day, all week,” Andrew Linnemann, Starbucks master coffee blender said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters.
Starbucks says it will begin changing the coffee every 30 minutes, rather than letting it sit around, and that locations will also begin grinding the beans in-store (rather than using pre-ground vacuum packed beans,) thus taking Starbucks one tiny step closer to achieving the same quality I get in my kitchen for a fraction of the price.
New At Starbucks: An ‘everyday’ brew [BusinessWeek]
(Photo:Maulleigh)
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“Andrew Linnemann, Starbucks master coffee blender”
you are on The List.
Had they not just built a Dunkin Donuts across from my office, I’d go in and get a free cup of coffee. But I was in love with DD before I moved down south, and now that they’ve followed me, DD and I continue our scandalous affair. Don’t tell my wife.
I will say that though I dislike the regular coffee in Starbucks, they make a great White Mocha. So they got that going for them, which is nice.
@Tejas: Wow, really? You’re going to base your opinion on an entire company with over 11K stores that each serves over a thousand drinks a day on your one drink?
@chucklebuck: You’re thinking of Pike’s Place BLEND. The name’s very familiar but this one is suppose to be milder.
New name, same burnt overpriced crap. Think I will stick to Mcdonald’s that I already KNOW tastes good rather than paying too much to be disappointed….again, and again, and again. It there any question why Starbuck’s stocks and profits are falling?
@Shmonkmonk:
Can I base my experience on having Starbucks in over 20 states and 3 countries (and having worked at 2 as a teenager)???
The brewed coffee sucks balls. The espresso and related drinks are pretty good.
@evilhapposai: SB’s profits are fail because you can no longer take out an ARM re-fi on your house to pay for a frappuccino.
@shmonkmonk
i related my one experience from starbucks in the USA – i have also had starbucks in Canada, China, UK and Australia, and every coffee was mediocre at best.
I prefer gloria jeans caramel lattes than star bucks caramel lattes, however the best purchise i made was a nespresso (www.nespresso.com) machine. great coffee at home.
Burned beans are burned beans. All Charbucks tastes the same.
I’d rather drive 5 miles for a Dunkin Donuts then go to the corner Fourbucks for a coffee.
@Tejas: Years ago at a mall in Mishawaka, Indiana, there was a coffee store called Gloria Jean’s Coffee Bean. Maybe it’s still there; I dunno.
this seems like a poor marketing attempt.
are there really people out there that won’t drink “breakfast blend” at times other then in the morning?
“subtle, rich flavors of cocoa and toasted nuts.”
That sounds suspiciuosly like Dunkin Donuts coffee.
Now if they would just institute a coffee-by-the-ounce pricing, people will be able to walk in with mugs and get coffee just like home. Perfect for the college student on the go.
I’m hit or miss with Starbucks’ coffee. I appreciate the drinkability, caffeine content and opacity a helluva lot more than the free coffee here at work (Folgers’ freeze-dried, vacuum packed “single pot serving”, my ass.) However, between Starbucks and the stuff I make, I go for the home team. I don’t always have enough time to make it before running out the door, hence the Bux. Also, it varies whether or not I get a really tasty cup, or if there’s the slight “burnt” taste. It’s still better than the crap in the breakroom.
I’m wondering if what they mean by “everyday coffee” is that it will be “on tap” every day, instead of being switched out on a schedule like their other varieties. That might be nice, if I like this new stuff. I’m still trying to get up earlier so that it won’t matter.
Oh, also, what’s the big deal with Dunkin’ Donuts’ coffee? Every time I have gotten some, it has tasted metallic. Do not want.
@ElPresidente408:
“The coffee is also to be sold within two weeks of being roasted instead of sitting in a warehouse for months which I think will make a difference. “
HUZZAH!!!!!!! That right there will make me drink it. Fresh Coffee = Pure Win
@wachen: it means coffee that you can consistently count on to taste like ass.
@firesign: Yeah I’m drinking some right now and I would say that is an accurate description.
@tdogg241: Thank you! Whenever I see or hear “Pike’s Place” I want to rip my hair out.
Pike. Place. SINGULAR. It’s the name of a street, so it’s like the “First Avenue Market”– the “PIKE PLACE Market.” You wouldn’t say the “First’s Avenue Market” so why would you say the “Pike’s Place Market.”
That’s right. You wouldn’t.
/rant
I went this morning at 9:05 and was rudely told that the samples were only from noon to noon-thirty not nine to nine-thirty as advertised on the radio and other news outlets.
Rude baristas (coffee schlepers)= my business going somewhere else!
.
I’ve been down on Starbucks for months now because of their brewed coffee. I have to say that freshly-brewed and recently-roasted are going to make me a believer again in Starbucks brewed coffee.
Welcome Aboard Pike’s Peak blend, my new friend
A couple hours after the “event” I stopped by SB to see what’s tricks with the coffee and all. At this location, the Pike’s Place Blend is $1.25 for a tall, rather than the $1.60-something for their other drip coffees.
They charged me the $1.60-something anyway, because their registers aren’t programmed with the new price. The coffee, IMO, is worse than their others. It seems just like SB coffee, but weaker. It smells weaker, it tastes watery. It doesn’t taste like a full-bodied, lighter roast, it tastes like a dark roast brewed in more water. I prefer lighter roasts, and this wasn’t it.
It is acid and bitter with little aroma and a watery texture. What aroma there was reminded me of the 70′s percolator my parents drank coffee out of all day.
This location still doesn’t have any free Wi-Fi, just the same-old overpriced T-Mobile subscriptions, and free roaming if you have certain AT&T accounts. I was the only customer in the place until a middle-aged couple drove up in a Mercedes SUV and walked in, wearing matching warm-up suits. I felt like I was in Boca, except all the Cubans are Mexican.
@ChuckECheese: I agree 100% with your description of the taste.
Starbucks built their business on finding a way to provide a consistent taste at a minimum cost: buy inexpensive Arabica beans and roast them until they smoke. This treatment masks variations in taste very well.
If you compare their product to your typical grocery store canned coffee made from Robusta beans then it is far superior. But if you compare Starbucks’ product to a well roasted and quality Arabica blend you’ll find that Starbucks coffee isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Yes, Starbucks coffee tastes burnt – it’s that “special” roasting process. But canned Robusta coffee; nasty stuff, it tastes like burning rubber smells.
Go ahead and drink the coffee that suits your taste. Just be aware that if you’ve chosen Starbucks because it’s the best then you’re missing out on what good coffee is all about.
@ConsumptionJunkie: Thank ya kindly!
@chucklebuck: What do you think of all of these comments?