On September 9, 2009, StarbucksMelody.com was born.  I started this site with a purpose: To create enthusiasm around Starbucks, to promote a community of others interested in that enthusiasm, and to be informative about the products and brand, and not just write blog content that is based on whatever is hot in the news.  I wanted to create my own stage.  Even if there were no audience, I wanted an outlet for my thoughts and ideas about Starbucks as a brand.  Hindsight is 20/20.  Since I had no idea what I was doing when I started the blog, I just named it after me, but in retrospect, not sure I would have done that.  Too late now: We’re stuck with “StarbucksMelody” as the url.

First and foremost, I need to go through a round of thank yous:

The blog would have never have happened if it hadn’t been for Kelly of Wildsagemarketing.  Shortly after labor day weekend 2009, I was summoned to Jury Duty in King County Superior Court.  I had just recently been on a Labor Day road trip to Northern California, and tried a test product called the Honey Vanilla Vivanno.  I wanted to write about it.  I wanted to blog.  I had no clue how to make a blog, and didn’t want to put together something sloppy.  I wanted to appear professional, even when I’m clearly not!  During voir dire on a civil case, I made friends with Kelly, who was a prospective juror nearly adjacent to me (one person in between us). I don’t know how it happened but I mentioned that I used twitter, and Kelly said she was using it too.  I asked Kelly what she did for a living and she said that does marketing and creates blogs and websites independently. I said, “oh I need a blog. Do you like Starbucks?” The answer was “yes,” she likes Starbucks, and very quickly out of that, a blog was born.  All I do is create content, and Kelly does everything that relates to layout, widgets, etc … There would be no blog without Kelly!  Thank you Kelly!

In addition, I have to thank Seattle Custom Framing located in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood.  They’ve helped me enormously in numerous ways.  Molly has framed things for me, taken numerous pictures for the blog, and we’ve had lots of caffeinated conversations.  On top of it all, she’s a bold coffee drinker.  Thank you Molly.

When I started this, I had no idea what I was getting in to.  I had no clue how much work this was going to be.  This is like having a part-time job on top of a full-time job.  At numerous points, I’ve nearly given up.  It earns me no money.  It does zero to improve my professional life.  However, I have a genuine joy for coffee and I really do cherish the experiences that can be had in a Starbucks.  The people here who comment are great motivators to me.  In the course of one year, I’ve managed to reach out to well over 55,000 unique readers from 144 countries.  I’m thanking all 55,000 of you right now.  The experience of being able to amplify the fun that Starbucks has to offer is quite addictive, and to see it spread like a contagious coffee zeal, is unbelievable.  I need to especially thank every single person who has left a comment, or sent me an email, or otherwise reached out to me.

Blogging future:

I can’t continue to write and maintain this blog at this pace.  When I make requests of Starbucks, I’ve also been told “no” to a number of my specific requests.  I am totally amazed that I’ve come up with a year’s worth of content.  If I continue to blog at the pace of 3 to 4 times per week, two things will happen:  I will wear out and I will run out of content.  I think in the future, after today, this blog is going to update less frequently.  My goal will be to update the blog twice a week, on Sundays, and Wednesdays. At one point I tweeted (I think) that I was going to just completely quit blogging on September 9th, but I’ve changed my mind, and now resolve to blog according to a twice a week schedule.  I hope that everyone reading this will click on the button about ‘subscribing’ to the blog so that you’ll be notified of my blog updates!

There are a few other blogs that I read, so I invite my readers to visit them too.  Just be sure to come back here when I update my site!   Please click on the subscribe button on the upper right of your screen!

• Mike Crimmins in Florida writes the Daily Shot of Coffee blog – Fun because of the wide variety of coffees he finds to review, and he sometimes does great round up posts featuring the best of the best of a variety of coffee blogs (and there really are an amazingly large number of coffee blogs).
• Melissa Allison of the Seattle Times produces the Coffee City blog – I met her in person luckily right after this blog started.  I owe her a big thank you for the encouragement, retweets, and mentions in her blog.  She has a great Seattle-focused coffee blog.
• Andrew in Canada writes the Starbucks Passion blog – He is essentially doing the exact same thing as me: A customer with a Starbucks enthusiastic blog.
• April in Florida produces the Coffee Vanilla blog – A coffee oriented blog, with a lot coffee beverage passion, and sometimes great recipes too.
• Valeria in Italy/ Pennsylvania produces Conversation Agent – It’s a blog about marketing, PR, and blogging.  I like it because she has a style of writing that when you’re done reading her content it leaves you still thinking and pondering.  Of course, she does NOT need a plug from me.  Her blog is well-established, and very active.

The best of the first year of StarbucksMelody:

At this one year review point, I hope that readers will take a look back at the best of the best of the blog entries.  I’m sure that some of these blog entries irritated Starbucks, and some gave our Siren a little joy.  Here are a few gems from the archives (by the way, including this blog entry today, there are 177 blog articles on this site.  That makes it tough to pick out a few below!):

The best of store reviews:

• The First Starbucks – 1912 Pike Place – This blog entry takes you on a virtual trip into the Pike Place Starbucks, and it’s an uplifting store visit.
• Legendary lives in Eureka, California
• New Clover in Gold River, California – I have special fondness for this one because I got to put on a green apron!

The best of Starbucks history posts:

• The 1992 Starbucks Shareholder Report – This is the complete online shareholder report of the very FIRST report published in 1993 for the 1992 year.  It truly represents the ideals of tiny corporation in 1992.
• A Starbucks history lesson: Bottled Mazagran – This is a fun history lesson about the first beverage produced by the partnership between Pepsi and Starbucks.  And it didn’t sell so well.
• Passion for Coffee: A 1994 Starbucks book – This also demonstrates the incredible passion Starbucks has for coffee.

The best of the best – Blog posts that everyone loves:

• Starbucks Chalk Art – Entries and Winners – This is an amazing blog post featuring lots of reader-submitted pics of amazing barista chalkboard art.  So much talent wearing green aprons!
• Streetlevel 101 – There are two mercantile Starbucks – This remains as a solid blog post to somewhat explain that there are TWO non-branded Starbucks stores.  Though given that so much time has gone by, it needs minor updating in terms of food offerings, but it is still a solid blog post.
• The faces of Starbucks – Candid pictures from the land of green and black aprons – This is a fairly recent blog post, and it’s a joy to see all these great photos.  Thank you to every single person who sent in a picture to make this great.
• An introduction to Shared Planet – This is actually not the most popular blog post ever but the information in it is still solid, and it’s a great basic introduction to ethical coffee sourcing.

The best of coffee education blog posts:

• Starbucks Caffe Verona Coffee – This blog post gives a fun little history about Verona.
• The magic of Sumatra and Aged Sumatra – Who doesn’t love these coffees? Such beautiful complex flavors!  This blog post gives some sourcing information.
• For the love of Mexico Chiapas – This was a seasonal coffee offering in January of this year.  I hope it comes back.  Really a delightful coffee, and this blog post is an example of a superb coffee tasting event to showcase this coffee.
• Galapagos Island San Cristobal Coffee Roasting Event at the Starbucks Headquarters – This is a fun blog post.  You can see the white bags that the green beans are shipped in to Starbucks. There are a few photos showing the roasting of this coffee a few different stages.

The blog posts that caused controversy and/or likely made Starbucks wince and wish I would go away:

• Shareholder Meeting Round Up – The extremely gossipy I will regret posting this version – The blog title says it all, and is still the truth.  I probably should have de-published this a long time ago.
• For a few minutes, Howard Schultz, Melody, and Winter all in the same room – This blog is mostly an interview with Winter, who is famous for being on a quest to visit every company-operated Starbucks in the world.  The post was written with a tone of regret, that Howard Schultz walked right past us, and didn’t say hello.  It was a moment of sadness because Howard has said hello to me several times before, and on this moment, I wanted that Winter would get to meet Howard.  But I can’t make that happen.
• Should Starbucks’ Michelle Gass go on UnderCover Boss? – Who likes this idea? This is a blog post inspired by UnderCover Boss!  (And blog posted with great apologies to Michelle Gass!)

The most personal blog post:

• This little Starbucks Air Force Bearista Bear – This blog post has nothing to do with Starbucks, and it is truly stories, all very real to me, of life and death.

The best of the posts that relate to the Starbucks card:

• The First and Battery Card – This card is also called the “Twilight” card.  It features the front of a big store with heavy curtains, in a classic old building.  I like this card because it is a real Starbucks here in Seattle.  This blog entry teaches you a little more.
• Understanding MyStarbucksRewards – The four common pitfalls – I think the rewards program can be confusing in many ways, but these areas pop up frequently as problem areas.
• Top ten reasons to be a part of MyStarbucksRewards – I wrote this to be funny, but even now, I still kind of like this blog post.
• Collecting Starbucks Cards and Howard Schultz’s autograph – This is another just for fun blog post about the Starbucks card.

There are more posts that I particularly enjoy but I don’t want to overwhelm this blog entry.  And now, I end this one year round up by saying that I hope that you will stay with me for another year’s journey with Starbucks. Tell your friends about my site!  Come back every Wednesday and Sunday!

And now it’s your turn to say whatever you want in the comments, tell me what to blog about in the future, tell me your favorite blog post, or give me your two cents about this site, or should I just call it quits? …Anything related to Starbucks or this blog is fair game in the comments.

Anniversary Blend is back, now in a sexy deep and rich brown shiny package.  It’s an annual seasonal coffee each Fall, celebrating Starbucks‘ anniversary.  This coffee was first launched in 1996 to mark the 25th Anniversary of Starbucks, and the story goes that it was intended to be a one time coffee, but was so popular that it has returned every year thereafter.  Anniversary Blend arrives each Fall, but technically, as I understand it, Starbucks first opened their doors in March of 1971.  Such is life.  Fall is a better season for an Anniversary! Anniversary Blend is a blend of washed, semi-washed, and aged coffees from the Asia/Pacific growing region.  This combination of processing methods helps to give Anniversary Blend a rich and varied flavor profile.   Previously I wrote a blog post which explained a little bit about what an “aged” coffee bean is, and I still highly recommend visiting this old, but still solid, blog post:

The Magic of Starbucks Aged Sumatra Whole Bean Coffee

Anniversary Blend a very bold coffee, and this year’s coffee has a lot of the quintessential spicy and syrupy notes that it is known for.  The aged coffee beans provide a heavier body to the coffee.  Complementary flavors to the coffee are maple, oats, cinnamon, and butter.

I went to two of my favorite baristas and asked for their help to learn about pairings with this coffee and to arrange a little tasting of it at their store.  Baristas Jeremy and Heidi, who have been featured twice before in this blog, put together a small coffee tasting event today at their store (Starbucks at First and Pike, “Heritage” store) and I snapped a few pictures from this event, featured below.  By the way, this store tends to be busy all the time.  It is located just outside of Pike Place Market and has incredibly heavy store traffic of tourists who wander in, either on their way in or out of the Pike Place Market.

I’ve known a few coffee purists who believe that the only way to taste coffee is for the coffee to be consumed by itself, not with food.  I am NOT such a purist.  The average Starbucks customer will likely be consuming something with their coffee, whether it is their breakfast or a dessert at dinner, or a mid-day snack.  I think it’s important to learn about the coffee from the perspective of both educating the palate about its flavors, as well as educating customers about how to decide what kind of coffee might go with a variety of foods.

Today, coffee masters Jeremy and Heidi paired a zucchini bread, peppered cheese, and candied ginger with a French press of Anniversary Blend.  In my humble opinion, the zucchini bread was by far the most delightful pairing.  The bread had been made with a lot of cinnamon in the recipe, and the strong flavor of cinnamon complemented the spiciness of Anniversary Blend.  One lesson in today’s food pairing, and something I hadn’t thought too much about before, is that even the texture of the food can affect the flavor of the coffee.  The cheese with black pepper crust had a strong pepper flavor but the cheese itself was a moist, sticky texture.  It tended to coat the palate a little bit, and masked some of the flavors of the Anniversary Blend, in my opinion.  I actually liked this pairing quite a bit.  This coffee is so bold that its strong flavor still comes through, but with a nice creamy type cheese, the coffee actually seemed very smoothed out to me, and a bit milder.  I don’t have much to say about the candied ginger pairing.  I’m not a big fan of ginger.

Jeremy’s comment as to the peppery cheese pairing was that the cheese itself helped pick out the sweeter, herbal notes of the coffee, almost giving the coffee a slightly grassy flavor.  There were three customers that stood there for the entire duration of the tasting (given that this is often about a fifteen to twenty minute commitment of time, I’m impressed at how often customers will join and really experience the whole tasting).  One customer was a tourist from Texas, and she said it was her first coffee tasting, and seemed to be delighted at the experience.  Heidi somewhat felt that the ginger paired with the coffee was overpowering.  The ginger flavor completely dominated.  In general, if baristas are looking for creative ideas about food pairings, my two cents is to stay away from ginger.  Lesson learned.

If you want to read about other coffee tasting events hosted by coffee masters Jeremy and Heidi, take a look at these previous blog posts:

Three Region Blend Coffee Tasting

Mexico Chiapas Coffee Tasting

So what do you think of this year’s Anniversary Blend, and what do you think of the packaging?

Starbucks has announced that coming soon they will be adding flavored Via Ready Brew to the current line up of Via Ready Brew offerings available in store.  This new flavored Via will be offered in four flavors: Mocha, Vanilla, Caramel, and Cinnamon Spice.  Gossip is that this new product goes on sale in stores in the middle of October.  Further gossip about this product includes that beginning mid-October, with the purchase of the largest size of any Via Ready Brew, one can get a free tall beverage under MyStarbucksRewards.  One important word of caution here:  The free tall beverage offering is just very loose gossip that I’ve heard and it has definitely not been confirmed by Starbucks.  If I turn out to be totally wrong on that, I’ve given you fair warning that it was just guessing and gossip.

I haven’t yet tried this product which is one of the reasons I haven’t said very much about it.  It’s a little bit tougher to get excited about a product when you simply don’t have a clue what it will taste like.  I don’t totally object to the idea of flavored Via, but my gut tells me this would be better offered as part of the consumer products group of grocery store items.  There previously had been tales of high pressure on baristas to sell Via, and I hope very much not to see or hear a repeat of that episode from about one year ago.  For those that do not recall, Via Ready Brew was soft-launched in Seattle in March of 2009, and then a national launch in the U.S. in September 2009, with a slow expansion to the international markets since then.  Via was launched in Japan April of 2010.  When Via was launched in Japan, that market received a wide variety of really cool Via merchandise, including a Via Bearista Bear!  It’s worth taking a look at their fun merchandise: (Please note, Via is called Via Coffee Essence in Japan, and not Via Ready Brew, but it is the same product).

Starbucks Via Coffee Essence merchandise in Japan

I’ve talked about Via Ready Brew several times in this blog, and you can find all the Via related blog posts by click on this link here:

StarbucksMelody.com Categories – Via Ready Brew

I’ve heard gossip that the Mocha flavored Via is described as a bittersweet cocoa flavor with a touch of vanilla.  Cinnamon Spice is described as a cinnamon flavor with a hint of ginger and other spices.  It sounds like they could be yummy.  However I can’t reach a verdict until I’ve sampled these new offerings, and truthfully I probably have at least a month to wait before that will happen.

The floor is open to your thoughts about flavored Via Ready Brew.

It was just a little over one week ago that this blog took a trip to the Sloterdijk train station in Amsterdam, where the most recent Netherlands Starbucks opened in July of this year.  We’re heading back to the Netherlands again, this time to see a few pics of other Starbucks in this country.  As a reminder, in the Netherlands, all Starbucks are located either in the airport or in a train station, and the country has a total of about 8 Starbucks.

Here is the previous blog post on Starbucks in Amsterdam:

Starbucks in Sloterdijk, Amsterdam

The eight photos below were taken in a variety of the Netherlands Starbucks, and are provided courtesy of Sebastian, who is generously letting me use them for this blog.  I don’t have too much to say, but I thought that a few readers might enjoying seeing more pictures of Starbucks in Netherlands.

Since this blog post is on the topic of store photos, and store experience, I wanted to recommend a few older blog posts that have been my very favorites on the topic of store design and experience:

• The First Starbucks – 1912 Pike Place – This blog entry takes you on a virtual trip into the Pike Place Starbucks, and it’s an uplifting store visit.
• Featured Starbucks – Store #101 Columbia Center – This blog entry takes you on a trip to a Starbucks that has an amazing history.
• Soup’s on at Children’s Hospital – A store review of a Starbucks INSIDE Seattle’s Children’s Hospital, and definitely a heart-warming store.
• Starbucks opens its first LEED store in Japan – A beautiful Starbucks in Japan
• Store review: Clover Starbucks in Sacramento – This is a very recent remodel and Clover store in Sacramento.  It’s a beautiful large store, and a great friendly place to visit.
• Store review: Clover Starbucks in Gold River, California – Another beautiful Clover Starbucks in northern California, and for me this was a very fun experience because I got to make my own Clover coffee!
• Happy Birthday Pioneer Square Starbucks – A blog entry which is a tribute to the Pioneer Square Starbucks in Seattle – Nice pics of the Pioneer Square neighborhood.

Not too long ago I featured a blog entry with a picture of a partner in Texas, at work in his store.  It was a great candid photo, and it made me think that there might be more of these kinds of photos out there.  It’s always fun to look at pictures of smiley faces, and surely working at Starbucks produces some happy faces, and so I put out a call to gather such photos.  This was easier said than done.  The previous blog post was here:

The faces of Starbucks: Seeking pics of real people, real partners

I had outlined a long list of rules, but most people sort of half-way followed them.  I ended up cropping people out of photographs where the permission to use the person’s image appeared ambiguous to me.  In other words, if a partner sent in a pic with him or her standing next to someone, and that other person didn’t provide me permission to use their image, I cropped the photo.  As a result of this, a few of the photos below may appear oddly cropped.

I realize this was a tough request that I made.  Most people aren’t really all that fond of sharing face pics.  Furthermore, I asked for just partner participation which limited the number of emails I would get.  I didn’t imagine that I would get a bunch of close ups, because I thought candid pics will sometimes be at a distance.  I got a mix of both.  I really have to thank every single person who sent in a picture.  It is much appreciated.  Those people who sent an address with the emailed photo will get a ‘prize’ from me – The prizes, listed in a previous blog post, were a very cool Starbucks coffee stirrer, and a $10 Starbucks gift card.  Oddly, very few people included an address with their picture submission.

The photo that is the anchor photo for this blog requires a short explanation.  The barista is now, only just recently, a former partner and right here in Seattle.  She is someone whom I used to see regularly.  Although she’s left the company, we talked on the phone recently and she shared this photo and said I could use it. It doesn’t really count as a pic for a prize, but this person is one coffee knowledgeable and passionate person!

The kind of passion that people have for Starbucks as a brand is inspiring, and you can definitely see it in these pictures.  It makes each and every one of these pics its own precious gem.

Enjoy and please comment!

A former Starbucks partner in Maryland recently contacted me and said that she had some old t-shirts she was getting rid of.  She used the “contact” form on this site and said that she had been reading the blog, and wanted to know if I wanted her old t-shirts.  I had no idea what I would be getting, but of course I said “yes.”  A few days ago I received the box.  Inside it were numerous Starbucks t-shirts spanning more than a decade of Starbucks history.  It was amazing to look at them.  She had quite a collection.  Two of the t-shirts shown below are my own that I decided to mention and show in this blog post too.

A number of the t-shirt photos demand a little discussion surrounding them:

The Tiazzi t-shirt probably dates from somewhere in 2000.  There was a mango citrus Tazo Tiazzi juice beverage offered in the summer of 2000 and so the t-shirt that says, “a mango bumped into a cup of tea” likely dates from that era.  A few years after the Tiazzi juice blends, there was another summer offering of tangerine Tazo blended tea, or a pomegranate blended tea.  They were delicious.  I wouldn’t mind seeing them return.

It’s hard to believe that the Creme Frappuccino was ever a new item, but indeed it was introduced to the Starbucks beverage line-up in 2002.  The t-shirt announcing its introduction is dated (by the way, I’ve noticed that Starbucks is often terrible about dating marketing materials of any kind.  It can be really difficult to pick up any old mug, tumbler, marketing item, even old Clover menu and know exactly what era it dates from.)

Also there is below a t-shirt for the 25th Anniversary of Starbucks. That’s an old t-shirt!  I’m amazed it looks barely worn.  I assume that was a promotional t-shirt in 1996.  I do know that there were a number of promotional items for the 25th Anniversary of Starbucks, because I think the Starbucks at 1912 Pike Place had its own tumbler, and I believe there may have been other tumblers to celebrate this anniversary.  I’m sorry that I don’t have an image of the 25th Anniversary 1912 Pike Place tumbler, but I have it somewhere, so I think it exists.

There is a blurry t-shirt photo below, with the words “All Books For Children” on it.  I’m sorry the picture is not clear.  This book drive program is mentioned in the Starbucks 2001 CSR Annual Report.  It’s described as follows:

To support our literacy efforts, Starbucks collects books through our annual All Books for Children drive and distributes them to more than 180 literacy organizations across North America. Since 1997, nearly 1.5 million books, including 416,000 in fiscal 2001, have been collected in our stores from partners and community members.

I think that All Books For Children is a program that somehow died, but at one time it was important enough for its own t-shirt.  A promotional t-shirt for an outside Starbucks good cause is a rare thing.  This t-shirt is also a Christmas Blend t-shirt.  To think of this another way, wouldn’t it be a surprise if you walked into a Starbucks and saw a partner wearing a Shade Grown Mexico t-shirt with the coffee stamp image on one side, and then Conservation International mentioned on the other?

The t-shirt which says Starbucks V2V on the front side did NOT come from the box from the partner in Maryland.  That t-shirt is my own and was given to me as a gift by an SSC partner in 2008.  Starbucks launched a web page in 2008 called V2V.  Unfortunately, the site appears almost totally inactive now, but it was a great idea as a way to connect with others in your own local community to coordinate volunteerism.  One interesting thing about V2V was that it was designed so that every single Starbucks theoretically could have its own store web page.  Sadly, very few partners ever volunteered their time to make the store page a lively place different from the default graphics.  For an example of a V2V store page, click here.  Also, the second t-shirt which came from my own collection is the black one with the word coffee written in numerous languages on the front side of it.  That is a current t-shirt which can be purchased at the Starbucks partner store.

Somewhere, I think I have (or had?) a 2008 Pike Place Roast t-shirt in my collection.  I have no idea where it is now. On my wish list for marketing materials or t-shirts would be Sorbetto stuff.  I am nearly positive that there was a blue Starbucks Sorbetto t-shirt in Southern California where that wonderful delicious treat was launched.  I would give my right arm for any old Sorbetto signage or a Sorbetto t-shirt.  I’m so disappointed that never launched nationally, and never made it out of the testing phase.  There had been a ton of buzz and excitement around it.

This is an open thread, so please feel free to talk about anything Starbucks related in the comments.  Thank you to Molly of Seattle Custom Framing who assisted with the photography.

As my readers know from this blog, any time of year is a fine time to talk about Christmas merchandise in a Starbucks.  This extremely short blog post is simply a visual look at all the merchandise that Starbucks offered during Christmas season 2006.

A regular blog reader sent me this little booklet, thinking it could be another chance to memorialize Starbucks history.  I enjoyed flipping through this little book, and hope you do too.  A couple of things that are worth noting about this holiday merchandise:  First, there seems to be several options in terms of brewing equipment.  I haven’t seen a coffee brewer (other than a French press) inside a Starbucks in a long time.  Next, somehow the style of the marketing reminds me a lot of Pier 1 Imports.  Molly (who helps me with the photography on this blog) immediately commented that it looks like the marketing takes its cue from a Pier 1 Imports catalog.  Of course, once she said that I saw the immediate resemblence.  Lastly, I haven’t seen any espresso machines for sale inside a Starbucks in a while either.

If you’re looking for my previous blog posts that relate to Christmas or holiday merchandise, here are the links:

• What Christmas merchandise do you want to see this year? (originally posted June 30, 2010)
• Christmas Blend arrives November 17th 2009 at a Starbucks near you. (originally posted November 16, 2009)

This was only a few years ago, but it seems like Starbucks has changed so much since this 2006 booklet was produced.  I definitely wonder what they will come up with for this year!

Any guesses on what is coming for Christmas 2010 merchandise?

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:

The Tweet Up Event at the Starbucks Headquarters

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.

It is time to clear up some confusion surrounding the Starbucks in-store photography policy:  Once upon a time, a long long time ago, Starbucks had a “no photos in store” policy. In the year 2010, this is simply not the case.  I don’t know exactly when this policy changed though I have some theories about that.

***Here is the Starbucks photo policy ***

Customers may take photographs for personal use while in our stores.

Members of the media may not take photographs or film in store without permission from Starbucks Media Relations.

***A little background story***

Last December I decided I would write a blog article about a then-new Starbucks in Bellevue Square, in Bellevue, Washington. My blog article is here:

Store design and community: Just beautiful Bellevue Square and Pier 55

Shortly before I wrote that article about the Bellevue Square Starbucks, I confirmed via email the Starbucks photography policy.  I had heard from a variety of people that non-professional photography is fine in a Starbucks, but members of media must contact PR.  (This blog is definitely considered non-professional).  While I definitely felt that I could freely take photographs of the new store, I contacted a few people above the store level and alerted them to my plan.  Even if I am sure that I can take pictures, if the store partners aren’t on the same wavelength, I could (hypothetically speaking) cause alarm or problems in a store. That definitely isn’t my plan.

So in summary, the day that I took the photos for the above blog article, everything went as smooth as pie.  In addition, as I visit a variety of stores in Seattle, for the most part I rarely get hassled about store photos.  Those stores which are high profile “beacon” stores are totally accustomed to customer after customer walking in the door with a camera in hand.  I believe that the Starbucks store photography policy is better understood in Seattle than most places.

Recently, I ended up having the conversation again about what the Starbucks photo policy is, in conjunction with this blog article here:

The faces of Starbucks: Seeking pics of real people, real partners

^ Please click on that link! That contest involves prizes and is still an active contest until August 28th!! Please share that link.

Since all of the photos that I’m seeking are non-professional, there is not any problem about any possible violation of the Starbucks photo policy.

I know that a number of partners will be in disbelief reading this blog article, but if you need further confirmation, then send an email to press@Starbucks.com for more information about the photo policy.

In fact, recently I did send such an email to press@Starbucks.com which is how I ultimately received back the black and white photo policy listed above.

I’ve actually had baristas tell me that they only allow customers to take pictures in their stores (even if it is friends just trying to capture memories with other friends) if the customer stands towards the entrance of the store.  This is just a false notion entirely.  I would say that the current photography policy weighs in favor of allowing photographs over not allowing them.

***What does all this mean?***

From here on out in this blog article, I’m just giving you my opinion and educated guesses, and take everything I say with a grain of salt…

I think that at one time there was a more firm “no photos” policy but that began to erode away in 2008.  In the summer of 2008, Starbucks opened up a beautiful and unique store in the SODO neighborhood of Seattle at 4th and Diagonal,  This store was perhaps one of the very earliest prototype stores for the repurposed wood and reclaimed wood themed stores.  It’s a visually lovely story, and looks fairly unique because it does really look like the store design team used it to experiment with a number of ideas.  The only disappointment associated with that store is that the store design team never gave that store the lovely chalk menu boards that most reclaimed wood-themed stores have.  People started taking pictures.

But in 2009 there were big developments in the area of store design: First and Pike Starbucks opened, as well as University Village, 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, Roy Street, and even Disney France.  By 2009, I believe that Starbucks began to think, “it’s a great idea to have people taking pictures of our innovative stores and showing them off!”  In fact, it’s great PR to have photos on the web of smiling faces inside stores, beverage in hand, in innovative stores with great store design.  Those photos should nearly be encouraged! LOL

By 2009, the store photo policy evaporated.  The good PR possibilities looked like they would outweigh the risks.

So what kind of photos does Starbucks not like? I think that the intent of the photos is what is important, but the problem is that there is no way for Starbucks to tell baristas, “Only let in customers with good intentions.”  If I walked into a Starbucks and started taking photographs of tables and then posted a blog article which said, “look, here’s a store that never does lobby slides. Look how messy these tables are” I have no doubt that such an article would make a few PR people wince just a little, even if briefly.  If I walked into a Starbucks and took photographs of tables and posted a blog article that says, “look, here is a remodeled Starbucks with lovely tables made from wood reclaimed from fallen trees in a nearby park” then the same photos have completely different significance.

Despite what a few people may think, this blog is non-professional, non-traditional media, and it’s just a hobby.  The question really then becomes when is someone professional photography? That would be newspapers, magazines, professional blogs possibly, television, etc…  In the event that professional media needs to take photographs in the store, in my experience, what happens is that both a PR person and an Edelman person will baby-sit the event.  I have been to in-store events with both PR and Edeleman people there because professional media was at the event.  Amazingly, I would say that traditional media, such as the Seattle Times Coffee City blog, fairly automatically uses the right channels before just snapping pictures automatically.  And based on what I have seen in the stores, my own conversations surrounding this topic, and my own use of photos in this blog, I would say the policy weighs in favor of allowing the photographs over not allowing them.  Starbucks probably never wants to perceived as trying to hide something, nor do they want to be perceived as a big bad corporation that would harass a couple of guests taking pics of each other while having fun in a store.

By the way, Starbucks can’t really ever know how a person plans to actually USE a photograph at the time they’re being taken.  A good example of this happened earlier this year when I was visiting the Starbucks at First and Pike.  One morning I dropped by the First and Pike Starbucks, and happened, as luck would have it, to be standing near two bloggers from Serious Eats.  That blog employs professional bloggers who are paid to produce content. The story of Serious Eats visitng this Starbucks is here:

Serious Eats drops by First and Pike Starbucks

As I stood there watching the two women from Serious Eats take photographs, I had the passing thought that the two women could actually be professional media.  In the end though, they produced a very positive article about the store which then ran in a busy and popular blog. Should the two of them have had a PR or Edelman person with them? Maybe so, maybe not. Did it even matter in the end? Definitely not.  The store handled it perfectly right: Don’t make a big deal and treat the two customers with great customer service.  And visit the Serious Eats blog if you’re hungry! That is a fun blog.

***Conclusion***

I would absolutely encourage partners to get their answers clarified through official channels: press@Starbucks.com.

Hope this blog entry has been helpful!

(Photo for this blog entry borrowed from Wikipedia Commons).