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It cannot be easy, being green, shade-grown and responsible. It cannot be easy, being the butt of endless Dunkin Donuts commercials. It cannot be easy, watching McDonalds roll out espresso machines. It cannot be easy, being Starbucks.
Evangelist-in-chief Howard Schultz roundly denies that Starbucks is losing its way. "Our best days are ahead of us," he says. To prove it, an extravagant product launch of a new blend, Pike Place (named for the company's first location). "We've reinvented brewed coffee," he says, and calls it "the best we've ever done."
And there's plenty to do. There's a new site, MyStarbucksIdea.com, to solicit public input, and well-meaning suggestions keep coming in. And over on StarbucksGossip.com, the buzz is about (successful) lawsuits filed by employees to prevent managers from sharing in tips.
Dunkin Donuts proclaims you can order their lattes in English, not "Fritalian" (ignoring that latte doesn't actually mean coffee at all, but milk). Mickey D calls its espresso stations "McCafe." But just as the competition turns toward espresso, Starbucks is turning its attention back to drip.
When Gordon Bowker and his roommates created Starbucks 37 years ago, it was largely a reaction to the insipid coffees of the day (canned Maxwell House and MJB). Their richly aromatic "Full City" roast was revolutionary, and to this day it is still being Swift-Boated by counter-revolutionaries as "burned."
Still, Starbucks rounded up 1,000 customers and listened to 1,500 hours of comments to provide input into "what's important to them" in a cup of coffee, says Andrew Linnemann, Starbucks master coffee blender. The result is, to be honest, quite remarkable: smooth, low-acid yet full-flavored. It's going to be a huge hit.
So if this is the face of the new Starbucks, the question is: What took you so goddamn long?
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Just walked down to the Pike Place sbux (I work nearby) and got myself a cup of the new stuff.
Generally it's the acidity level that turns me off of of a lot of drip coffees, so this one is just right in my book.
I don't like Starbucks, or coffee for that matter. And the tourists from out of town get a pass when I walk by hearing them recite "facts" about Seattle from their bargain-bin guidebook. But really, there's a difference between "first Starbucks" and "oldest Starbucks." I know that even Starbucks kowtows the notion, but that one you see at Pike's Market with the pre-corporate-cleansing old-school logo is the oldest; the first is long-gone.
It seems what's happened, as pointed out on Gothamist, is that Pike Place Roast is not new, just relabeled 'new' to sell more lbs of coffee. Is it so easily forgotten that Pike Place Roast has been 'released' every year, albeit with less fanfare?
Perhaps the old Pike Place Roast (now with a TM) has been reworked, as they have done with the 'Heritage Logo'... the older (IMO better) brown logo has been made more PC: No nipples on this new one. Sadly sanitized, and I'd bet the 'new' Pike Place Roast has been reworked for mass appeal as well.
Starbucks is calling this a new beginning, but it may well be the end -- do they have anything left to sell out besides the original store? And WTF are they going to call the Original Pike Place Roast? "Original Actually Somewhat Local Pike Place Roast"?
Even the font used to advertise the 'new' roast (as seen above) is the same font used for years in Burger King Ads.
Just another reason to visit Top Pot/Zeitgeist: Where the coffee is delicious and the doughnuts fresh.
P.S. Is there a Barista who can clarify this old/new Pike Place Roast issue?
New and exciting - Drip coffee for people who don't actually like drip coffee! Yes, it is smooth and low acidity, but it is not full flavored. I took one sip and wondered if it was brewed properly because it lacked the depth, punch, and high notes a great cup of coffee has (I will admit that some other Starbucks roasts have delivered these qualities in the past).
It seems to make a watered down, unassuming cup. This is something different than the old Pike Place Blend. I do support grinding fresh beans right before brewing, but I hope they continue to have an alternative coffee of the day for people who actually want coffee. Then again, so many better places to go...unless you only have 5 mins between meetings.
To polyrhythmic:
Old blend was Pike Place Blend.
New: Pike Place Roast. New different blend. I think they are both Latin American blends, but they are most definitely different.
"New and exciting - Drip coffee for people who don't actually like drip coffee!"
Should we really be surprised? Given that Starbucks' greatest business success has been convincing millions of people who don't like coffee to believe that they, in fact, really do.
(...i.e., when given enough milk, whipped cream, syrups, and other toppings to bury it like a murder victim in the Puget Sound.)
Thanks ghastly. The warm, worn-wood, no-frills, original character of the Pike Place store just isn't seen in any other Starbucks, and I guess they're determined to keep it that way.