I recently got a coupon in the mail for a free bottled Evolution Fresh juice at Starbucks.  I thoroughly enjoy coupons for freebies courtesy of MyStarbucksRewards.com.  It’s been a long while since I’ve gotten such a coupon in the mail!  I have to assume that this particular freebie coupon was only sent to a very small number of people:  the bottled Evolution Fresh juices are not nationally launched yet.  They’re everywhere in Seattle, and perhaps most of the greater Seattle area, but so far it is still a limited launch.

By way of reminder, on April 17, 2012, all Seattle Starbucks began selling Evolution Fresh bottled juices.  Naked juices are no longer available.  I totally see this as an improvement.  Personally, I was a little bored of the Naked juices flavors, and I welcome the deliciousness of these juices.  I am totally surprised at how much I like the “sweet greens’ one.  Celery and lettuce are not usually my style for a juice.  I especially like the Carrot Orange Mango flavor too.

The in-store flavors of Evolution Fresh juices are as follows:

• Sweet Greens and Lemon
• Essential Vegetable
• Carrot Orange Mango
• Organic Orange juice
• Pineapple Coconut Water
• Mango and Fiber

Right now there is one Evolution Fresh store in Bellevue, Washington, and a second store planned in downtown Seattle.  I can’t wait for the second one to open up.  Just as a reminder, when you are at an Evolution Fresh store, you can pay with your registered Starbucks card and earn “stars” in MyStarbucksRewards.  The cards are seamless between the two business.  You can register your Evolution Fresh card and use it as a form of payment at Starbucks stores.

As is tradition, I write a blog post every time I receive a MyStarbucksRewards freebie from Starbucks.  If you want to browse the whole category on the Starbucks card and loyalty programs, click here.

Did anyone else get this?  I think it is probably unlikely that very many people reading this received this coupon, since it was likely only sent to a very limited geographic region.

About one year ago, I wrote a blog post reviewing the Pink Lime Frozt beverage, which was in an early testing phase.  That test lasted just the summer season in a small area of California (as well as a small area of Michigan) and then was removed from their menu.  That’s a classic test:  Try a new product out in a couple of geographies for a little while and see how it goes.

As of early May this year, the Pink Lime Frozt has now entered a second stage of testing.  From the comments in the previous blog post, it is clear there are two Frozt beverages now:  Pink Lime Frozt and Coconut Lime Frozt.  By the way, when I tried the Pink Lime Frozt back in July 2011, I had heard that there were a couple of small variations of the recipes being tested.  It could be that the new May 2012 Pink Lime Frozt has again had recipe tweaks.  The Coconut Lime Frozt is new, and was not part of the July 2011 testing.

Also from tweets and the comments in the previous blog post, it appears that the new 2012 Pink Lime Frozt and the Coconut Lime Frozt are being tested in Dallas (and its suburbs); Atlanta, Georgia (and its suburbs); San Jose, California; and possibly parts of San Diego, California.

I haven’t had the chance to try the new Frozts, though I wish I could!  Feel free to weigh in on how you like them.  What do you think of these new beverages?

Thank you so much to my regular readers who sent these great photos!

(By the way, if you like reading about Starbucks tests, there are more here.  Keep in mind, very few tests actually get to the point of a national launch.)

Bloomberg news interviewed Howard Schultz on May 10, 2012, and there were a few interesting points that I want to highlight.

Here’s the link to the video and interview:

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/92427115/

I should be very clear that the above video belongs to Bloomberg.com.

Per the interview, one in four transactions is now through either the mobile card app or using the registered Starbucks card.  Here’s what Howard says about that:

“Starbucks is the leading company and brand in the U.S. in terms of revenue and transactions on mobile phones.  That, coupled with the Starbucks card, is now 25% of all transactions.”

I often emphatically post that partners need to know the card perks backwards and forwards, and I still intend to write more about that at a later time.  With so many transactions via the card, it is now more important than ever for partners to know the perks.

Howard Schultz indicates that Starbucks now has over a 15% share of the K-cup market.  That too amazes me, especially considering that one year ago, it was a zero.  That means in about 8 months Starbucks has grown from no share of the K-up market up to 15%.  That’s a lot of K-cups.

Howard Schultz told Bloomberg,  ”We have a winning hand, first with Via, which is single serve instant coffee where people can take Starbucks on the go, and then we have obviously this unique relationship with Green Mountain. Green Mountain is an installed base of about 12 million machines in North America. And in less than eight weeks since we went on the platform, we have over 15% share.  So the demand for Starbucks coffee in a K-cup is quite significant and sustainable.”

At the end of the interview, Bloomberg TV’s Adam Johnson asks, “You wrote your book back in ’08, Onward, you laid out the platform … what’s the one core value that comes out of that book, that has driven business?”

And Howard replied, “That is a very easy question for me.  Starbucks built its brand in a very unusual way — not through advertising or marketing – but quintessentially through the experience.  And that experience comes to life through our people. The one thing we have tried to do, and we’re not perfect, is manage the company through the lens of humanity, providing health insurance for our people, equity in the form of stock options, giving back to the communities we serve, and also taking a position on the issues and the crisis facing the country.  Most importantly, most recently, on how Starbucks can use its scale for good, and help the country create jobs.”

I just thought my readers would enjoy some of those interview segments.  Again, all credit goes to Bloomberg.com.  As just a side note, the book Onward was released in late March 2011, and given that the book covers numerous events in 2008 and 2009, it was likely written in 2010.

(Please use the Amazon.com widget in the right side column to buy your copy of Onward and support this blog – or use the widget to buy whatever it is you’d like!  Thank you for your support.)

There is lots of new merchandise at Starbucks!  I thought it would be fun to walk through some of the new things in the stores.  Here it goes!

By popular demand, Starbucks has finally launched dome lids and replacement straws for the cold to-go cups.  Frappuccino fans will like this!

There is a new coffee mug inspired by Three Region Blend, and it’s quite ornate, which is something I like!  I definitely have to get one of these:

For the first time ever, the to-go reusable cold cup comes in a stainless steel version.  I had a co-worker drop by my office and proudly show hers off the first day it was out.  I know many customers will  love this:

There is a whole new series of city mugs!  These are the “local relief” mugs; obviously it is “relief” referring to the definition found in “that’s a nice relief map,” not “what a relief that the coffee is done brewing!”   My understanding is that a number of cities have these but since they’re new, I’m not familiar with other cities or designs yet.  I think it’s kind of cool to offer another way to collect local mugs.  The Seattle one appears to mesh the Space Needle, Mount Rainier, and it looks like the Starbucks headquarters, all into one design.  I think I will have to get one.  The name of the city is written also on the interior of the cup, though I don’t think you can see that in this photo:

Yet another new item is the recycled glass cold drink cups.  They say Starbucks down one side of them, and on the other side of them there are lines with very small letters that say, “s,” “t,” and, “g.”  The letters stand for (as is obvious) “short,” tall,” and, “grande,” and so delineate the beverage size fill line.  I hope I’ve explained that okay!  Anyway, I like the look of the recycled glass ware, and enjoyed the mugs that had said “16″ on them, and so I definitely like these too:

And last but not least, there are few new ceramic ware items, including a “chubby” mug:

Thank you very much to Mindi who volunteered her store for photos of all the above merchandise, and who walked me through a tour of all things new and exciting on the merchandise wall!

***************

Last but not least, I want to mention an exciting item currently available exclusively at the Starbucks located at 1912 Pike Place.  It is a reusable cold cup with the first logo on it and even better, currently when you buy one of these cups, Starbucks will donate $2.00 to the Pike Place Market Foundation.  Here are the cups:

I have to point out the back side of the cup.  The cup has boxes on it just like the standard boxes for marking up one’s drink, but also includes an extra box.  Notice at the bottom that “first store” is checked off!  That’s  a great touch!

These cups have a removable cardboard attachment which talks about the donation to the Market:

If you are wondering about the pig on top, it’s not a capricious animal choice! The pig is sort of unofficially the mascot of the market.  1912 Pike Place has their own pig too, and his name is “Pork and Beans.”  Be sure to look for the pig when you visit the store:

Hope you enjoyed this merchandise tour!

Starbucks is testing new yogurt-based beverages which are called “Frappuccino Smoothies.”  One is the Mango Passionfruit Smoothie, and the other is the Strawberry Smoothie.  These are not the same smoothies that are readily available everywhere.  First off, these new drinks do not include a banana. Secondly, one of the main ingredients is a sweetened non-fat yogurt.

These smoothies are only in a small test market in California, so please do not rush to your local Starbucks thinking you will find these.  (Though I really wish I could do that!).  They sound delicious!!  I had a couple of different readers emailing me about this test, and I owe a lot of thank yous for the attached photos.

Both smoothies start with the barista pouring non-fat yogurt to the lower line of the Frappuccino measuring  cup, then adding a designated amount of the fruit compote, then ice, and then plain Frappuccino syrup base to the mix.  As is obvious, it all gets blended in the blender.  The beverage is served with a whipped yogurt topping.

Every time I write about test beverages and products, I always include the small warning that most test beverages never launch nationally, so please do not hold your breath waiting for this.

I will say, this sounds delicious.  For years, I’ve somewhat hoped for a yogurt-based smoothie.  Literally, the very first day this blog went live, I was writing about yogurt-based smoothies.  Here’s my second blog post ever, from September 2009:  (There are now more than 475 articles on this site!)

Starbucks tests the honey vanilla Vivanno. – This honey and yogurt smoothie had a wonderful tangy-ness, a delicious flavor, and was tested in 2009.  I heard that it didn’t sell well, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Has anyone here tried these two new test beverages?  Which one is better?  Mango Passionfruit or the Strawberry one?

I might eventually write a second blog article on this if I get the chance to try these drinks.  I just don’t think I’ll be able to get to this test market this summer.  I wish Starbucks would bring these drinks to me.

Please weigh in!

The Starbucks in Ballard, Washington just relaunched and relocated, adding a Clover brewer.  The new location opened on Sunday, April 8, 2012.  For those who don’t know, Ballard is one of Seattle’s adorable neighborhoods, and not an actual city.  For long-term Seattleites, the building will bring back fond memories of the Italian restaurant, Lombardi’s, which sat in that location for 23 years.  In 2010, Lombardi’s closed their doors, only to be replaced with another restaurant that seemed to be only fleetingly in that location.  When Lombardi’s successor moved out, Starbucks jumped at the location.

Perhaps I should start with a brief history lesson for the Ballard Starbucks.  This Starbucks first opened brand new at 2204 NW Market Street (in Ballard) on July 21, 1989, as one of the very earliest Starbucks in the business.   The location at 2204 was narrow and small, with only limited seating.  So for more than two decades, it sat immediately next to Lombardi’s, a true Seattle favorite Italian restaurant.  I remember eating at Lombardi’s often in the 1990s! After 23 years of being a neighborhood Starbucks at 2204 NW Market, Starbucks re-opened at their new address:  2200 NW Market Street.

If you want to visit, here’s the complete address:

Starbucks store #318
2200 NW Market Street
Seattle, WA 98107
206 – 782 – 2795

The exterior sign on the Starbucks at 2200 NW Market was designed to be reminiscent of the “Bagdad Theatre,” which was a nearby movie theater, which operated from 1927 to 1949 at 2218 NW Market Street.  That theater is now long gone, but I like how the current signage calls up memories from that old historical Ballard building.

Back to the Ballard Starbucks.  It is gorgeous.  As I have mentioned in many blog articles, I love the store designs which feature the “live edge” to espresso bar woodworking.  There is plenty of seating, and a number of comfy seats close to the door along the east wall of the lobby.  The comfy seating is not shown below because too many customers were sitting in them during my visit.  The community table is large and spacious, and there is even a children’s community table too!

I love that every detail has been well thought out.  The window seating near the Clover area has an abundance of outlets too.  Towards the back of the store, there is a long hallway leading to the restrooms, and I love the fact that the store displays local art along this wall.

Best of all, the store’s manager is absolutely fantastic.  There is only one Jen.  I actually knew her long before I even planned on writing this store article, and before she was the manager of this store.  Jen is genuinely very enthusiastic about coffee, and coffee education.  I’ve met up with her in person at the Olive Way coffee tasting events. I think I’ve known her for about one year, long before she took over this store.   I’m always impressed when partners go on their own time to learn more about coffee, and the world-class coffee tastings at Olive Way are a great way to do this.  Jen has been a partner for five years, and just recently began managing the Ballard Starbucks.  I really can’t say enough good things about her.  I arrived today (April 30, 2012) shortly before 7:00 a.m., and she welcomed me in the store (of course, she immediately knew me) and helped answer my questions about the store’s design.  I learned the tidbit about the Bagdad Theatre from her today.  And best of all, as I mentioned, she loves coffee.  It is perfect that she has a Clover store to manage.  Here is the Clover area:

I can’t really pick a favorite Clover store because there are so many wonderful stores, but this is indeed at least one of my favorites.  If you’re ever in Ballard, you must stop by.

Here are the rest of the photos:

Two years ago, Starbucks was in the middle of their “8 Weeks of Bold” promotion.  On April 5, 2010, Verona was the featured coffee.  I have an old poster from that era which is featured here.  Still looking back at this, I loved this promotion.  It was totally coffee inspired.  It was fun to collect the stickers.  And, I liked the marketing materials too.  Just as a reminder, to participate in the 8 weeks of bold coffee, a customer picked up a “Something Bold is Brewing” tasting sheet, and collected stickers for each week’s coffee.  At the end of the promo, you could turn in the sticker-sheet for a pound of whole bean coffee.  A customer had to buy a tall size (or larger) cup of bold drip to receive the sticker for the sheet.

As I recall, every customer was allowed one substitution coffee with Pike Place Roast.  What I mean is that if I went into the store and I really did not like Sumatra, I could ask to substitute Pike Place Roast, and then still get a sticker for Sumatra.  The promo rules, as I recall them, strictly allowed for just one “substitution.”

The 8 week promotion kicked off with Organic Yukon Blend.  Here’s an official MyStarbucksIdea.com blog post on the kick-off coffee:

• 8 Weeks of Bold: Organic Yukon

Sumatra had a great blog post too from the official Starbucks blogs:

• 8 Weeks of Bold:  Sumatra

On MyStarbucksIdea.com official blogs, the 8 weeks of bold was sometimes referred to as a “tasting club” and customers were encouraged to share their thoughts about the coffees on the official blogs.

When the promo was brand new, I wrote a blog post article about it here, and looking back I wrote in a rather silly tone of voice!  Does anyone else remember this promotion?  On the other side of this Verona poster, Cafe Estima was the featured coffee.  I wish I had a few more of these posters.  If you have one of these in your house, and you want to part with it, I’d be very interested.  Thank you very much to the partner who sent me this.

I categorized this blog article as a “Starbucks History Lesson” because although it was two years ago, it is now recent history.  And it’s strange how two years ago seems like a long time ago in Starbucks years.  Click on the Starbucks History Lesson link for more episodes in the history of Starbucks.

Here’s a few more photos:

Here’s the same poster after being custom framed.  Thank you very much to Molly at Seattle Custom Framing for the framing and most of the photos in this article.  We used Conservation Clear® glass which does a great job of providing UV protection, but is moderately reflective.  Museum glass would have cut down on the reflection but it is quite a bit pricier.  I think it looks great framed – Molly does an amazing job of picking out exactly the right mats and frames, and custom builds the frames to make it look perfect.

Conservation Clear®

There were protesters in downtown Seattle today.  Most of the chaos happened while I as at work, but as I walked home, here is what I saw:

There were still plenty of protesters and police, and it seemed like most of the action was along Fourth Avenue between Pike and Pine.  I took the above photo at about 5:45 p.m., at the intersection of Fourth and Pine Street.  I tweeted the above photo and so there is a slightly larger version of the same photo here.  Needless to say, the Westlake Center Starbucks which sits right at that corner was closed for business.

Just a little further up Pine, at 6th Avenue, Seattle had their police officers on horses out.  Not a very common sight at all:

There was tons of news of violence today.  I happened to miss most of it.  I arrived at work long before it started, and walked home after most of it ended.  I read in the news that protesters smashed out windows of businesses such as Nike, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, American Apparel and more.  There’s a Seattle Times article about this here.  Seattle is mentioned in this msnbc.com news article about May Day protests.

Along Sixth Street, I discovered that one of my favorite Starbucks had a smashed out window.  Technically that Starbucks has a Pine Street address because it is connected to Pacific Place Mall, but its entrance is on Sixth.

By the way, the above Starbucks is the same one that I featured in this blog post here:  Featured Clover Store: Pacific Place Starbucks.  I really like that store.  The partners there have always been super friendly and nice, and the manager absolutely cares about the experience for both his partners and the customers.

I realize this is an usual blog post for me.  As I walked home, I was so struck by these images, that had to put my pencil to paper, so to speak.  Perhaps I am just of the wrong generation, but I don’t understand many modern-era protests, and especially have zero tolerance for those that turn violent.  The way I see it is this:  You (and me too) may be part of the 99%, but really, 99% of our problems are first world problems.

Breaking windows won’t make the world better.

May 1st marks the introduction of the newest Frappuccino into the Starbucks Frappuccino lineup:  It is the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino.  Has anyone tried it?  And the famous Frappuccino happy hour comes back soon too.  From May 4, 2012 through May 13, 2012 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., customers can order half-price Frappuccinos.

I haven’t tried the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino so I’m not certain if I will like it.  It looks quite sweet, and I’m not a huge Frappuccino drinker.  (Though I remember the days of the ‘malt’ Frappuccino and had a weakness for those.)

Just this past Sunday (4/29/12), I dropped by the Starbucks located at First and Walker, and noticed a fantastic huge billboard near the store.  I love big Starbucks billboards and so this did put a smile on my face:

There were three baristas working, two of whom already knew me.  One of them said that she’d been experimenting with the Mocha Cookie Crumble ingredients, and came up with this variation that she really liked: I am terrible at deciphering cup markings but here’s what it was:  Grande, x CCRumbles, WH, 1H, 2 sc protein, 3 CB.  Hopefully that makes some sense to some of my readers.  I did think it was a nice variation.  The crumbles were blended into the drink, and the whip-cream was still the wonderful normal whip-cream that Starbucks is famous for.  That was entirely her creation.  Give it a try!  It wasn’t overly sweet, but nice and chocolatey.

Launching tomorrow, there are domed cup lids and replacement green straws in the stores for your re-usable cold cups.  It doesn’t look like the “tall” size re-usable cold cups are being offered again.  There was one last holiday season, but I haven’t seen one since then.  So glad I got mine then!  I’ve seen the domed lids and replacement straws but didn’t get a photo of them.  I’ll go back later and update this blog article with a photo of that merchandise.

There is more:  The official Starbucks @Frappuccino profile on Twitter is encouraging you to take a photograph of your Frappuccino and tweet it with the hashtag #FrappuccinoHappyHour.  There is a contest where winners can win a $25 Starbucks gift card.  Details are on the official Frappuccino Community page.

Now is a perfect time to remind my readers that customers MAY take photos inside a Starbucks.  If you have a problem, contact customer service.  I know that many partners do not know that the photo policy went through major changes in 2009.  It appears that the Frappuccino twitter photo contest is only open to residents of the U.S. or Canada.

Also, in my twitter stream, I had partners tell me that the UK and Ireland market does not launch the Mocha Cookie Frappuccino until May 18, 2012.   Sorry that my friends in the UK and Ireland have to wait a bit longer for it.

So how does everyone like the new Frappuccino?

All I can say is that the Boston, Massachusetts area has a dynamic Starbucks Clover market.  A number of stores in Boston (and the greater Boston area) offer the Reserve Coffee offerings and are equipped with the Clover coffee brewer.  This article about “The Garage” Starbucks is the last in a series of four articles about that area.  Here are the other 3 articles:

• Harvard Yard Starbucks (Cambridge)
  
• One Charles Street Starbucks (Boston)
  
• 27 School Street Starbucks (Boston)
  

Since this was the last of my scheduled Starbucks visits, I was on my own when I went to “The Garage.”  The district manager did not come with me.  A barista from the Harvard Yard Starbucks showed me the way, and introduced me to this store’s manager, “Brandi.”  I loved The Garage.  It was super packed the entire time I was there, so I only took a few photos.  I think we arrived at about 1:00 in the afternoon, which is definitely not a slow hour for this store.  Brandi was wonderful.  We chatted about her Clover, and the unique large chalkboards, and she told me about her store.  I was totally impressed with the hand-drawn chalk art featuring the designs of the Reserve coffees.  As regular readers of this blog know, I love the in-store chalk art, and have an older article featuring quite a bit of it here.  There is a small seating area directly across from the Clover (not pictured below) which is slightly on a platform.  That seating area turns into the site of occasional “poetry slams.”

This store has had a Clover coffee brewer for years, and it is clear that the store partners love it.  There is booth seating directly across from the register area/ pastry case area, and then there is a larger table seating area with big windows looking down on the street below.  Everything about the design is so very charming.

I bought a “Mallorca Sweet Bread” because I realized I’d never heard of this pastry before! It was so delicious!  I wish we had these in Seattle.  It’s funny, but this is the only store that I noticed this pastry at.  I assume it is available at the Harvard Yard stores and a number of greater Boston locations, but this was the only time I stumbled upon it.  Here’s what that wonderful pastry looks like:

Also notice the entrance to the store:  you don’t see many of these old Siren logos anywhere.  I always thought this was a great looking logo:

The Garage Starbucks got its name because this building it is in original was an auto garage many many years ago.  I love the arched windows, and it is easy to imagine that this space was once part of a garage.  Starbucks first opened this location on June 7, 1996, and here is the address:

Starbucks store #861
“The Garage”
36 JFK Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts
(617) 492 4881

Here are the rest of the photos from this visit: