Only a few months after replacing their “bolder” (some would say “burnt”) varieties of brewed coffee with the more “mild” (some would say “dunkin donuts-esque”) Pike Place Roast, Starbucks has announced that due to popular demand, they’ll be brewing some of the old stuff too.
The Wall Street Journal tells us:
“Because of your many requests for a bolder coffee choice throughout the day at Starbucks, we are bringing it back in the afternoon to many of those stores that sell lots of freshly brewed coffee all day long,” Starbucks said in a message posted on its customer feedback Web site Tuesday. The company said it will brew a bolder variety for customers when they ask for it. “This will sometimes mean a small wait, but it will also give you the absolute freshest cup of coffee possible,” the company said on the site.
Starbucks Restores Bold Blend, Yielding to Its Customers [WSJ]
(Photo: satosphere )
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AWESOME! Pike Place SUCKS!
How does anyone drink that burnt swill? I’ll admit that I’m spoiled when it comes to Java, as my local coffee place (Bongo Java-Nashville) roasts their own beans on the premises.
But even without that hook up, I couldn’t see why people would pay extra for coffee that tastes like someone doesn’t know the difference between “roasted” and “burnt”.
Hm, this reminds me of the New Coke v. Classic Coke strategy, bringing back a “customer favorite” to up your sales.
In before all the pretentious coffee nerds!
I don’t like Dunkin’ Donuts coffee unless it’s iced and mixed with so much sugar and cream it is arguably milk with a hint of coffee residue.
I tend to like dark pacific roasts, bordering on the burnt flavors of Starbucks.
One thing I don’t get is why Starbucks is now trying to pitch itself as a place to get fresh roasted coffee. The chalkboard usually lists coffee roasted a month ago two states away, while the independant coffee shop I go to when in town serves coffee roasted in store less than a week ago. I think coffee dogma states that coffee peaks after 4 hours from roasting, and then sharply declines after 4 days.
I roast my own in a popcorn popper.
@consumersaur: Too late.
Some people take their beverages way too seriously.
I think that D&D coffee tastes burnt, except when it’s iced. Never drank anything from StarBucks that I can remember, except maybe some hot chocolate.
@camman68:
Amen to that.
@crabbyman6: Nooo kidding. Especially the non-alcoholic ones.
@Git Em SteveDave has a crush on the Swedes: Why in god’s name do people abbreviate “Dunkin Donuts” as “D&D”? Do you see an “AND” in the name?
Cut it out before I get stabby.
Stabucks?
They need to bring back the Skinny Mocha’s BASTARDS
Hmmmmm. I’ve always suspected that Starbucks over-roasted their regular coffee to promote sales of the espresso based drinks with higher profit margins. Maybe the Pikes Place has been too successful and people are drinking that instead of lattes and frapucinos.
@sean77: Sorry. From now on, I will say “D-in D”. Better?
@sean77: I was wondering if Dungeons and Dragons had their own coffees now. I was a little excited and a little confused at the same time.
I buy store coffee and drink it at home. There’s no reason to go to any coffee place when you can buy their coffee, or even better coffee, online.
Pike, Pike, Pike. My local Starbucks stores used to have a bigger selection but now all they have is Pike …and are reluctant to brew-to-order. Service with a scowl.
How about DnD?
@consumersaur: Surely you’ve seen the beer snobbery around here.. Alcoholic beverages are not immune from the self-righteous.
@Farquar: For some reason alcohol snobbery is slightly less annoying, because it at least gets you drunk. The best is watching people snob out over what is essentially fast food beverages like starbucks.
@IfThenElvis: How about Double-D
I’ll admit that I love my coffee, but if I am headed to $tarbuck$ then I’m no going for anything other than an espresso based drink. If I want drip, I’ll do it myself.
darker roast has less caffeine. I love pike place roast in my espresso machine (my mom got me a free sampling). If you want a richer drink get more espresso shots or stop getting ultra grande size that just waters the shots down. Starbucks should just start randomly serving pure unsweetened pike place espresso to people that complain it’s not dark enough.
Not a coffee drinker myself, but I do follows these stories because I’m a Seattle native.
Interesting that so “many” people complained about the burnt taste of the coffee only to have it brought back.
Consumers sure know what they want.
Another example of the “negative” crowd being the loudest voice.
Starbucks? feh. The coffee at the hole in the wall pizza place near me, I mean the credit union I belong to is way better.
Good. After lunch on Saturday we like to walk over to Starbucks and splurge on a grande bold coffee (normally we brew our own) and split a toffee almond bar. After they introduced Pike Place, suddenly they no longer had any bold coffee, ever, even though it was still on the menu. Got to the point we were just heading further down to the Coffee Bean.
I wrote and complained, got back some stupid corporate-ese form letter, but apparently they were keeping track.
@B:
Heh I grow my own coffee and it is pennies per serving
If people prefer lighter roasts to darker ones, fine. Great!
But calling darker roasts “burnt” is whiny. Coming from people who probably couldn’t tell the difference btn freeze-dried and freshly-ground. Or who frequent Dunkin’ Doughnuts over local cafes (or Peet’s or Starbucks). Yet loathe those that can for having taste buds or like the social atmosphere of cafes.
Yeesh.
(Uh oh. Am I whining about whining? That can’t be good…)
@floyderdc: And no HFCS I bet.
@B: I’m with you on the delicious credit union coffee. Why is anyone still shopping at Starbucks anyway?
Oh great, the place reeks now, the burnt coffee smells even worse.
@floyderdc: Hey maybe we could start a coffee coop. You grow it, I roast it and B brews it. I think we might really be on to something here.
@sean77:
Why do people who are whining about spelling leave the apostrophe out of “Dunkin’ Donuts”?
Sorry, that should read coffee co-op not coop. Coffee coops are evil. I only drink free range coffee.
@Jenng: You liked the sugar-free chocolate cleanser they put in those? Yikes.
As for Starbucks coffee tasting “burnt”, I suppose it’s just an acquired taste. I’ve been drinking Starbucks for years and other than the extremes (French, Gold Coast, Christmas) I don’t get even a hint of “burnt”. Try some Ethiopia Sidamo with no cream or sugar and some sort of lemon pastry…delicious. To me, after all this time, just about all other coffee tastes like truck stop coffee.
Weird that people would have different tastes in beverages instead of everyone liking the same thing. I mean, who would have thought?
One of the SBUX shops near me was actually serving drip espresso the other day. It was a lot better than I expected it to be and I would probably order it again.
It’s a good thing that Starbucks is listening to their customers.But in a sense that is the problem.Starbucks has been running off a really loyal & obessed customer base.In other words Starbucks hasn’t done enough expansion into the lower priced less extravigant coffees ie:NEW customers.You can only do so much before you run the well dry.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
If Starbucks kept their “nothing but Pike Place after noon” policy going, the streets would have run red with the blood of baristas. Some of us work nights, ya know…
@mexmexmex2000: That’s the whole reason I’d get plain ol’ coffee from Starbucks. If I wanted just coffee, I’d go to Dunkin’ Donuts, but Starbucks had the different blends, so I could at least feel like I was drinking something different.
@Chris Walters: I think you’d see broad-based support here for Double-D…s.
@Farquar: Snobbery, maybe, but at least beer brings everyone here to the table.
@B: I’m not sure if you actually think there’s corn syrup in starbucks coffee or if you’re referencing some sort of dialog with floyderc you’ve had before. If you’re talking about the syrups, I’m pretty sure they’re just torani-made syrups with starbucks written on the bottle. There is not any corn syrup in those syrups.
Anyways, I’m always amazed at the blanketing of starbucks coffee as burnt. There’definitely some swill there. Their French Roast, supposed to taste “smoky”, just tastes like ash. Sumatra, supposed to taste “earthy”, tastes like mud. However, there are plenty of decent roasts there. Like someone said earlier, the roast used for starbucks espresso is actually very good brewed, though I’ve always found the espresso there to be watery and weak (strange that some of you hate their “burnt” coffee but will drink their 24 oz. of milk with a hint of espresso lattes). Kenya, out of a french press, is one of my favorite coffees.
Honestly, it’s hard to make an opinion out of any bean unless its brewed in a french press. Which requires nothing but a kettle and 4 minutes hard labor waiting. I doubt anyone who claims “STarBUCKS BURNS ALL COFFEE LOL” has sat down with a french press and brewed any of their coffees, much less all of them, to really validate their opinion that all coffee coming out of a white bag with a starbucks sticker on it is burnt.
I live in Chicago so a lot of independent shops are loaded with intellegensia. I don’t find the need for starbucks too often. But you will all be shocked to hear that I’ve had bad coffee at both Starbucks and local shops. I’ve had foamless cappuccinos made at starbucks and places using superior beans.
I haven’t tried but have heard that you can roast your own in a hot-air popcorn popper.
am I the only one who doesn’t get any energy from coffee? No matter how much I drink, It seems to not phase me. I had a quad grande white mocha (4 shots of esspresso)(sp) and slept right after I drank it. In fact, I think it made things worse. If four shots of esspresso(sp) isn’t enough to wake someone up then screw it, give me a monster so I can “Monster Up!”
@IfThenElvis: I travel quite a bit and there’s been tons of Starbuck baristas and managers who’ve told me they’re suppose to brew if someone requests it.
Anyone know why they chose Pike’s Place as the coffee to serve after 11 am? Was it cost?
@snoop-blog: It can do that to me, too, if I sit around. Seems like an amplifier of whatever I’m doing. If I drink a bunch and keep busy it’s like warp engines, but if I sit around waiting for a boost I’m just as likely to nod off.
Don’t recall this happening 20yrs ago. That’s bad. I don’t know if it’s my memory or just my body rebelling.
I got a sample pack of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee in the mail early this year. After sampling it, I decided that I would rather drink diarrhea.
I like Maxwell House. Does that mean I’m a low-brow coffee drinker?
That’s the story of the internet. Millions of people like something, but you like something else. That makes them idiots and you brilliant. 20 years ago they would have been happy and you would have been a crank.
Darkness and bitterness prevails, and I’m not talking about the coffee.
@Mike8813:
Maxwell House is swill; you probably drink Coors Light, too.
The “burnt” coffees are better although I certainly prefer Peet’s to Starbucks. Light roasted coffees generally taste like “sock juice”, the water used to clean dirty socks.
@TVarmy: wow you seriously roast your own coffee? and i thought i was being fancy by grinding them every day!
@deserthiker: Ironic that the unwashed drink sock washwater. True sock juice afficianados use only socks from organic Free Trade football players (that’s “soccer” to you heathens). The socks aren’t washed, as the detergent lowers the acidity that’s so essential to true gourmet sock juice. Rather, they are soaked for 23 minutes in 98.6 degree spring water. True afficianados let the socks soak for days, allowing a degree of fermentation that truly brings out the earthier tones. But the most important part is that the temperature never fall below 98.4 or rise above 98.9, otherwise it’s undrinkable swill.
Never liked the Pike Place… I was seriously hurt when they stopped brewing the bold coffee after 12:00 in my area. I stop at Sbucks on the route back to work from lunch and I’ve never liked the Pike Place.
OK. Now reality has become “The Onion”, or “The Onion” has become reality. The headline on this could not be better than any of “The Onion’s” fabricated stories. Really, who cares if it’s true?
And why do people spend upwards of $120 a month on coffee?