Starbucks previously announced exciting news that the “pour over” brew system is coming to soon all company-operated Starbucks. Today (February 20, 2010) I had the chance to taste out a few coffees made with the pour over at a coffee event in West Seattle. (West Seattle is actually part of City of Seattle technically, though it is a bit geographically distant from Seattle, and it feels like a completely different city). So I hopped in my car and drove for a full half hour, and I was there at the Starbucks store located in the Alki Beach neighborhood of West Seattle.
I arrived and immediately recognized coffee-master Zach working at the pour over brew station, who once upon a time, worked as a barista at 1912 Pike Place. He recognized me from there as well. I met up with Sbx_Bean (“Cecile”) from MyStarbucksIdea and I met Rachel A. who is on the brewed coffee team at the corporate headquarters.
Zach began by brewing up Sumatra for everyone to try through the pour over cone brewers. For those who do not know, essentially with the pour over brew method, filters are placed in plastic cones, and water is poured over ground beans in the filter. Sumatra is perhaps Starbucks’ most popular single-origin coffee. It is sourced from the island of Sumatra, in a semi-wash method, with farmers washing the coffee cherries handful by handful by dunking them in vats or buckets of water. Sumatra is produced almost entirely by small farmers who often have coffee farms of less than one hundred coffee trees. I highly recommend that my readers read about the unique sourcing of Sumatra in prior blog post here.
I took a tiny sample cup and definitely enjoyed having a cup of Sumatra. The great thing about the “pour over” brew system is that it produces a flavor profile nearly identical to drip-brewed coffee in the larger brewers, but does so with almost no coffee waste. At one time, about a year ago, I was mad that Starbucks does not simply brew bold all day. Slowly, over time, my opinion changed a little bit. I was never happy with the experience of ‘brew on demand’. Let me be clear about this: ‘brew on demand’ was a very poor answer to the Starbucks problem of over-brewing coffee. However, slowly between about spring 2009 and present, as I began to realize that more and more that the independent coffee movement is to produce a single cup of coffee for a customer rather than brewing large batches. One important part of all this is the environmental impact of coffee sourcing. It takes a full coffee tree at coffee harvest to produce one single pound of coffee. The millions of coffee trees required to produce enough precious coffee for 40 million customers a week cycling through the doors of Starbucks … well, it’s just stunning to think about the human labor involved and the millions of trees required. On the island of Sumatra alone, in 2008 there were about 24,000 C.A.F.E. practices farmers. Since coffee is a precious resource, it is important to think about how much labor is involved to produce it and the environmental considerations of farmers harvesting literally millions and millions of coffee trees each year. Each farm may only have two harvests per year.
Following Sumatra, Rachel and Zach prepared Verona through the brewers and then African (Red) Blend after that. Both held up very well as pour over coffee. The (Red) was particularly impressive. There were lots of typical fruit like notes to the (Red) coffee. I was excited to hear from Rachel that as the pour over rolls out nationally (will be in all Starbucks by March 9, 2010) concurrently Starbucks plans to emphasize bold choice, and finally offer some bold offerings that have not been seen in the core brew cycle for a long time: The favorites Italian Roast and Yukon Blend will be back soon as part of the core rotating bold line up, as well as, (Red) brewed as a bold pick too. There was chatter that at some point there will be a promotion featuring (Red) Blend in the afternoon with a nickel from each cup sold of it going to (Red), an organization bringing HIV and Aids medicine to Africa. (Don’t quote me on the (Red) promotion! I’m not sure of any specifics of that).
At the end of the event, the many customers in attendance received a little goodie bag, which had a mug inside, a Starbucks card, two CDs, and some chocolate. Since technically, “StarbucksMelody” is media (though I have some difficulty thinking of myself like that) I have to disclose to you that ‘Starbucks has provided coffee or other promotional consideration‘ for this blog post, meaning that, hey, Melody drank some free coffee, schmoozed with coffee people, and got a bag of goodies free from Starbucks.
If you enjoy this blog post, you might also enjoy the following:
- For the love of Mexico Chiapas: Coffee tasting event
- Starbucks Arabian Mocha Sanani – Your introduction to a cupping at 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea
- Casi Cielo returns to Starbucks
And I hope that I’ll get to hear from baristas everywhere already using the Pour Over. Please do tell all about what you like or don’t like about the pour over, and how the customers are enjoying it.
It wouldn’t really be much of a StarbucksMelody blog post without a few pics to go with it, so here ya’ go!
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OMG, so the “valentine’s day cup” was real!
Thanks for posting this! Very enjoyable read, and am glad to hear they are going to be introducing and expanding bold options.
What was the design of the mug and Starbucks card you received? Just wondered if it was something new or especially for the tasting? thanks again!
One of the main problems I’ve had with doing events like this is getting the word out about it. How did you hear about this event? Sounds like it was organized pretty well (free goodies, Sbux corp ppl attending, etc.)
That sounds like a lot of fun! I’d love to attend something like that. And I for sure wouldn’t complain about a free bag of goodies, either. 😉
This event was on a blog posted on MSI in the ‘ideas in action’ portion, it was in the thread introducing the pour over. I don’t think would want a ton of people to go, if you had a good group of 10-15 people would be plenty to do something like this. I know I wouldn’t want to be among a huge group of people that attended a tasting.
Thank you so much for the preview. I was particularly glad to hear that more of the full coffee lineup will be back in the bold rotation for drip orders.
I still believe that Starbucks is missing a huge opportunity (diatribe on my site above) to use pourover to reconnect with brewed customers by putting this on the front bar, adding a dedicated grinder (which could also be for sale, Baratza Vario anyone?) and opening up the whole lineup for brewing on demand via pourover. As currently planned this looks like a me-too option or just a way to save a little coffee in the afternoons. Sad.
Hey Smoovebcoffee – I had the chance to ask Rachel A. today your very question about merchandising to go with the pour over, and expanding in many of the ways you’ve talked about in your site. Starbucks seems to be taking the small-bites approach: Let’s try something small and see if we can make it big later.
One thing that concerns me is that when you start small and narrow, the lesson constantly gets passed on to the baristas is “Starbucks only goes so far… we don’t go above and beyond”. Baristas become dis-empowered from ripping open a bag of flavorlock coffee because the message constantly coming to them is “No you can’t do that. We only do this. We only offer this.”
I bet that many Seattle Starbucks will gladly use the pour over for any Starbucks coffee – After all, would you not have to rip open a bag of coffee if the customer wanted a french press? But elsewhere in the US, where Starbucks seemingly has even less coffee enthusiasm, I bet there will be managers and baristas who see the pour over as strictly for the bold pick of the day only.
That’s a shame, and I hope we can fix these messages from corporate to the stores which are increasingly variations on a theme of “No we don’t offer that. No we don’t do that. No we don’t brew that”. That’s not the road to enthusiastically satisfied customers and being a leading coffeehouse.
soooo totally jealous.
and, re: your last comment, I was told by my store (where they are generally as accomadating and kind as one could imagine) that they will ONLY be using the bold they’re using for the week. 🙁 ???
ps: thanx for the post! as always. I tell people about your site all the time, espcially baristas, who almost always seem very interested…… I give them your web. IF you have a bunch more of your cards, I could put them to good use….much easier than all the ‘writing it down somewhere’. thanx!
@Hayley – I need to come back and answer what was in the goodie bag. I got a coffee mug. It is exactly this mug featured here in this previous blog post:
http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2010/01/09/its-time-to-talk-about-mystarbucksidea-com-again-the-2010-makeover-of-msi-open-thread/
The Starbucks card was the standard image of espresso shots being poured into 2 shot glasses. I assume it is pre-loaded with like $5.00 though I have not yet checked it!
There was a CD of blues type music, and another CD of tango-type music (?).
The chocolate bar was the Chocolate Santander dark chocolate bar currently available at most Starbucks stores.
thanks for this 🙂 I really hope this IS indeed a step in the right direction. I don’t think we’ll be using it, as we already brew bold all day and truly do brew decaf on demand. Is the French press really that uncommon of a practice? I love making customers French presses!
And yes, bold is going to be emphasized for the spring promo.
Thanks for the post Melody! I *really* wish that stores in my part of the world were able to do things like this.
And I don’t mean the free samples of bite-size whatever that are available at the register.
The free stuff isn’t so much the point as the ability of the baristas to connect with customers and share something new at an event.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Just curious if anyone is doing anything additional to the pour over instructions like pre-wetting the filter, etc. I know I’ve seen this done with other methods similar to the pour over. I want to be able to make my customers the best pour over they can get. So, are with sticking with the original instructions sent with the product components, or going a step beyond?
I am excited about this post because I wanted to go to this coffee event. Thank you!
You can go to there in 30 min.
(I need 8 hours by air for that. Haha)
Starbucks store sell that MSI cup? That’s very COOL.
I like that place. At STATUE OF LIBERTY PLAZA of the beach in front of the shop, I found name of Starbucks on the base of the Statue of Liberty.
Hi Nob! As luck would have it, I actually have TWO of those special MSI mugs. I can send you one. However, please send me an email again with your mailing address because I am a little bit disorganized, and I lost it.
My email is Sbux206@StarbucksMelody.com – I’ll send you the mug as a big thank you. I really enjoy the cherry blossom tumbler and card you sent me from Japan!
I am excited to hear that they will move Yukon back into the line up, I haven’t been able to have Yukon @ a Starbucks here in a long time!
How was the temp of the coffee? I remember someone commenting that they were concerned the water they would be using wouldn’t be as hot as drip brewing it.
Wow!
You are goddess, Melody!
Thank you very much.
Had the french roast today atSbux on Hayden & 0sborn in Scottsdale AZ as pourover . I had never seen the station before in any store. It must be brand new. more tomorrow as I am on my iPhone.
Haven’t seen any of the stations in Tucson yet. Stayed home sick today, but hoping I will see them around this week. Good to know they are starting to offer this AZ…even if Scottsdale is 2-3 hours away!!
The pour over coffee should be just as hot as drip coffee as long as the barista “primes” the hot water first by pouring hot water for about 10 seconds to heat the water up.
As for the (Red [or as they’re now calling it in promo materials “East Africa Blend) promotion:
One week (I cannot remember which) of the Spring Promotion the Bold Pick of the Week will be (Red) Coffee. During that week, every bold drip sold will donate $0.05 to the Global Fund 🙂
I wish my store was on the ocean. But anyway, the cone brewer works really well, we just need to educate customers that they can still get a great cup of coffee at Starbucks by using the cone brewer. Unfortunately, customers are not willing to wait for a BOLD coffee because they believe that it should be ready for them, when they walk in the door. At many Starbucks, throughout the day, the BOLD is the go-to coffee at Starbucks because customers prefer its flavor.
You can easily go to any other place here in New England and get a cup of coffee that tastes like Pike Place Roast. You can even go to a gas station and get a better cup of coffee than Pike Place Roast.
People go to Starbucks for the BOLD coffee which can’t be bought at other places. Its great that Starbucks is highlighting the BOLD coffees at Starbucks during the Spring Promo however, it should be noted that Starbucks in its SCHIZO mentality state that BOLD will ONLY be offered after on request after 12 PM.
In conclusion, we can only wonder what Starbucks is truly thinking. Customers are in a hurry and want a great cup of coffee with value within at the fastest speed possible. However, Starbucks has the fourth variable of giving customers a great cup of coffee but still saving money. Therefore the speed part is loss and customers want speed of service rather than letting Starbucks save money. So in the end, Starbucks loses customers in their attempt to save money.
Finally, Starbucks is KILLING the goose that lays the golden egg: BOLD coffee.
AUGH! I’ve only had a pour over once at the 15th Ave. coffee house. I <3 it!!! I've been wanting to go again but it's a bit of a bus ride for me and I haven't made time in the schedule. I need to do that…seeing that they have it in West Seattle though….I can totally do the Alki Beach thing 😀 I tend to be in West Seattle more than the 15th Ave. neck of the woods. I think I need to plan a day to hit up 15th Ave again and to finally go see Roy Street 🙂 Also…still enjoying my Mexico Chiapas in the french press 🙂
On Monday night I stopped in a Starbucks in downtown Chicago and had a tall decaf that was made via the “pour over” brew system. It didn’t even dawn on me that this was unique until I saw this post and then thought about it. Tasted fine, seems like a good idea. Great for stuff (like decaf) that they don’t always have brewed and ready.
I can’t wait for it to go national. I’ll be at my Starbucks on March 9th.
I have a pour over coffee system at home, and I have been going to a coffee shop for the past few years that uses them.
It is cool Starbucks is finally jumping on this bandwagon. Too bad it took them this long.