Starting on August 31, 2010, Starbucks will be offering a very limited coffee called “Galapagos Island” as the first coffee branded as part of the “Starbucks Reserves”. This coffee is sourced from the Galapagos Island (more specifically, the San Cristobal island) and it is the first time that Starbucks has ever sourced coffee from that growing region.
Starbucks only has obtained a small lot of the coffee, which is part of a program to bring limited coffees to a variety of Starbucks stores. Only 1000 Starbucks have been selected to sell the new “reserve” line of coffees. There are roughly 6000 company-operated Starbucks in the United States, and about 16,000 Starbucks world-wide, yet only 1000 will get the coffee. At this time there are only roughly 70 Clover Starbucks locations, so the new “reserves” program brings coffee to many more stores than just the stores that offer the Clover “small batch” coffee offerings.
My understanding is that this will retail for $15.00 per half pound and has a juicy, medium body, and strong cocoa notes with subtle herbal flavors also.
There was a limited preview selling of the coffee through gilt.com: thus some customers have actually already tried this coffee. I am not sure if it is still available through gilt.com. It might be already sold out through that partnership. I’m also curious whether Starbucks will be continuing to offer additional coffees through the partnership with gilt.com or whether this was a one time coffee offering.
One thing that is interesting is that it looks like Starbucks is adopting a strategy similiar to my previous suggestion here:
This is a very exciting new coffee offering! I’ve tried this coffee and my own personal tasting notes were that the coffee had a strong cocoa aroma, and the flavor profile was cocoa notes with deep berries like blackberry or cherry. I think the “juicy” body of the coffee is how I picked up the cherry notes. Notice that this is very opposite to Jamaica Blue Mountain which has a lot of citrus flavor to it.
And here is the logo for the new “reserves” line up of coffees:
What does everyone think of the new partnership with gilt.com or the new coffee or the new “reserves” program? It seems like this is a sophisticated re-launch of Black Apron exclusives coffees.
Talk about this or ANY other Starbucks topic. As some people might know, my home computer is still sick with a virus which is slowing down my ability to write blog posts, and I’m swamped with work, so I apologize as the pace of new blog entries isn’t quite as fast as it used to be.
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Ugh if that Starbucks reserve search modifier is up to date, then there are no Starbucks Reserve stores in Tucson or even Phoenix. I only found a handle in Dallas, OR and Seattle. 🙁
@Hayley – Arizona is not getting any Galapagos? No reserves stores? That seems weird. I would assume then that California would be your next closest, but that’s not close!
Not that I saw…I checked the website yesterday typing in both Phoenix and Tucson in the search option. But that maybe explains why nobody knew much about it. Hopefully, they’ll expand to just a few more stores in the future and include us!
Love Starbucks and also love your blog. keep up the good job
Melody, I’m happy the report the dozen packs of Galapagos Island whole beans I ordered at Starbucks.com arrived within a few days.
I’m having a love affair with this coffee! (We ended up in bed together, well, actually I enjoyed a cup of it in bed with the morning paper.) This is the most flavorful and full bodied coffee I have enjoyed in my 34 years of coffee drinking experience!
Would there be a list of the stores that will be selling the coffee, so customers know where to find it?
Starbucks.com is selling Galapagos Reserve online, and mine arrived the other day after ordering it early this week.
Unfortunately I’m only seeing stores in Northern California selling it in the store itself. You can check to see if your local store is one of them:
http://www.starbucks.com/store-locator
NOOOOOOO! Galapagos is already sold out online!
Oh my, Hayley, that’s just wrong. I’m so sorry!
It’s like a foreshadow of things to come. There’s 6 billion people on this planet competing for scarce resources. If all the new money (tens of trillions) created by the Federal Reserve is finally “unvaulted” from interest bearing accounts held by major banks, M1 will explode like an atomic bomb, unleashing hyperinflation worldwide (since world currencies are pegged to the dollar). In English, that first unleashes the blessing of full employment. Everyone will have jobs and so much cash they will empty store shelves and online store inventories, leading to a vicious cycle of panic buying (like what happens during a natural disaster, when people empty supermarket shelves and gas station wells). New inventory will skyrocket in price to balance “supply and demand.”
Zambia recently experienced the results of hyperinflation, where one unit of its currency skyrocketed to one billion units. (Bill Gates fortune would be worth less than $100 USD if a similar hyperinflation hits the U.S. economy.)
The moral of the story, Hayley, is that when a scarce resource like Galapagos hits the market, you must run — don’t walk — to be the first to hit the “buy” button on the web site!
Based on the unexpected shortage of Galapagos, I’m afraid they may run out before they can even serve it up at Starbucks stores. What a tragedy considering this is the best coffee I have ever experienced in over 30 years of coffee drinking! I’m hesitant to say this, but in hindsight, perhaps Starbucks should have rationed its reserve of Galapagos, although many will say that’s too drastic of a measure.
@eugene duly noted 🙁
Unfortuantely…this was the one I wanted to try. I love the sound of ‘cocoa notes and deep berries’…like Yirgacheffe!
Hayley, here’s what you need to do: Bookmark that page where you can place the order, and check back periodically. I think there’s probably a little more “life” in the Galapagos coffee plantations serving Starbucks for 2010, before they stop producing and go to the next season of 2011. Keep enough money on standby to jump on the opportunity to order when the next wave of Galapagos coffee hits the market at Starbucks.com! You just have to be quick because with two sell-outs the season is running out of steam, and some may have to wait until 2011 if they don’t grab some when a new crop is harvested.
And we haven’t even started selling it in-store yet!
Oh dear. I’ll have to camp outside the nearest Starbucks on August 31st.
I would call first to make sure that Starbucks store will have it in stock. Otherwise it’s like camping outside a theater only to be told the showing has been cancelled. 😉
All the Reserve stores are taking pre-orders. Put your name on the list and you will have yours set aside to buy Aug 28-30 (before it goes on the shelves on the 31st)!
Now it’s the big day when everyone is rushing out to get Galapagos Island Reserve, I thought it fitting to mention that I was talked into buying a French Press manual coffee maker. After doing some research on quality and pricing, I purchased the following French Press:
BonJour 53772 Montano 8-Cup French Press – Double Wall Stainless Steel
http://www.beveragefactory.com/coffee/french/bonjour_montano_8cup_french_press.shtml
According to friends, I will never want to use my automatic drop Capresso again. Due to its stainless steel outer shell, I will likely keep it for “show” but manually boil water and pour it into this French Press. Unlike those breakable glass units, this unit is surgical stainless steel; even the filter and fittings are solid stainless.
Best of all it makes 8 cups at a time. I understand a Starbucks Venti Drip coffee is technically two cups (16 oz.) and I get a free refill everyday using my Starbucks Gold Card, so I can fill this French Press halfway and do the job on the weekend! 🙂
I’ll report back on my experience using this device, since I only used a tiny 1-2 cup French Press in Italy recently. I read on the blog at Starbucks.com that Galapagos is out of this world brewed with a French Press!
WOW !!! S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R !!!! I went to Starbucks today and the manager called me to the side and said Mike….try this. It was a Frenchpress of the new reserve coffee from Starbucks and it is the most wonderful coffee I have EVER tasted. It was nutty, it had the cocoa tones, a touch of blackberry sweetness, it was complex and kept you wanting to smack your lips to taste every level of flavor, it was delicious. I want to buy all 84 1/2 lb bags they were given to sell…..but I wont !! haha
I finally got mine too. I wanted to wait until this morning so I can share it with my mom. It was amazing. Very delicious.
As promised I want to report back on the double-walled surgical stainless steel French Press purchased on August 31, 2010:
BonJour 53772 Montano 8-Cup French Press – Double Wall Stainless Steel
http://www.beveragefactory.com/coffee/french/bonjour_montano_8cup_french_press.shtml
Even with free shipping it arrived on September 2. I used it for the first time this morning.
The instructions looked a little oblique so I went online to get the basics of using a French Press and the amount of time to grind my Starbucks Galapagos Reserve beans. Now pay attention if you plan on obtaining this item to save yourself extra effort. The RESULTS make it worth the purchase!
Going from a Capresso top of the line automatic drip maker to this stainless 8 cup French Press (that comfortably fills 2 oversized Starbucks coffee mugs) was an eye opener!
First, Galapagos Islands coffee in the automatic drip was sensational and explodes in the palate. Moving to the French Press is like living all your life in a dense forest, and for the first time you venture out into a clearing and see the Moon and stars for the very first time! It is so overwhelming a taste experience, I cannot begin to describe it. The French Press makes coffee taste the way it was always supposed to taste! Adding Galapagos Islands beans elevates the taste to a zen experience, with the additional endorphin kicking caffeine “high” the frosting on the cake.
If you order the above French Press, know this: It is a beautiful masterpiece of polished stainless art, with the beautiful handle literally part of the pot. (In other words, the entire French Press is SOLID stainless where they must have poured surgical steel into a mold that included the handle!) Yet the double-walls extend into the handle, so the handle is never very hot even after pouring boiling water into the French Press! Whereas most handles on even thermoses and expensive stainless coffee pots (like the one with my Capresso) are attached. Not this one! It’s not skillfully welded, either… it’s literally a seamless extension of the double-walled construction. No more loose handles.
The quality is exquisite, a look, feel and construction like one would expect from a Sub Zero appliance. The double-wall means you can pour boiling water into the grounds (which you most definitely want to do to extract that richness and flavor!). The air space between each wall of stainless steel helps keep the water steaming hot (which the automatic drip could never do). This seriously competes with a cup at Starbucks.
What is very special about this French Press over most others, is the stainless filter assembly is designed so that by rotating the handle clockwise, you shut the filter off, isolating the grinds from the water, so it traps the grinds, separting the grinds from the coffee. Otherwise, in many French Presses, if you don’t drink it right away, it gets stronger by the minute unless you transfer it to a stainless steel thermos! Whereas with this shutoff assembly (which is well designed and all stainless) when the coffee is strong enough (usually after 4 minutes) you simply twist the handle clockwise to shut-off the grinds from the coffee. The double-walled stainless keeps the coffee steaming hot so the heat “bites” your palate. I had to drive to Starbucks to get that kicker up to now.
Lastly, this French Press isolates the grinds so there is NO SEDIMENT in my strong Galapagos Islands French-style brew! It reminds me of that heavenly coffee I sipped at a cafe in Venice as I watched the gondolas drift by.
Here’s a short-cut around the oblique instructions:
1. Start boiling a pot of water as you continue these steps.
2. This is dishwasher safe but it’s better to wash it in warm water with a soapy sponge (IMO). You want to keep that mirror stainless looking like a mirror. I always wash a new appliance first thing, although this was so clean it was probably good to go out of the box.
3. Remove the lid attached to stainless steel filter and set the lid and assembly with filter next to the French Press.
4. Fill it with hot tap water to warm it up (which you will pour out in a step below), which makes the coffee heat last longer while you’re sipping your first cup (you don’t have to rush worrying the second cup will get cold). Even if you skip this step, I’m pretty sure this will keep the coffee hot for at least an hour or more. I just did it because I like it to remain steaming hot for at least 1/2 hour while I enjoy my first mug.
5. GRIND THE BEANS COARSE! I used to grind for 30 seconds… that’s called FINE GRIND. I would have never believed in a million years that grinding for 5-10 seconds (coarse) would yield rich coffee, but that’s because a French Press is different from an automatic drip. I ground 10 seconds (counting to 10: 1/1000, 2/1000, etc.), so it looks like garden soil in texture. NEVER grind for over 13 seconds or the French Press will clog according to the Internet. Next time I will probably try grinding for 7 seconds, because it’s NOT about releasing flavor, but it’s all about making the grinds coarse enough not to leach through the stainless filter. If you’re an automatic drip person you have to go on faith when I say NOT to exceed 10 seconds of grinding. This will make or break your success here.
6. Empty the French Press of the hot tap water that was warming it.
7. Pour the grinds into the empty French Press.
8. When the water is at full boil, pour it into the French Press until one inch of space is remaining at the top above the actual water line; do NOT over-fill in this regard! And do NOT under-fill or you’ll get less than a full second mug. (If you over-fill, it will be messy I suspect, although I filled it to an inch below the spout-line with the grinds foaming up to the spout-line.) At the risk of belaboring this point, the coffee “foam” caused by the boiling water can go up to the edge of the French Press, but the water line itself should be one inch below the rim.
9. Take a plastic or rubber coated spoon and stir (as a steel spoon may scratch the inside, although I got this warning off the Internet… if you must use a steel spoon be gentle in stirring). You don’t have to stir too much, just a little to mix the coffee grinds into the hot water will do.
10. Take the lid and attached stainless filter basket assembly, and make sure you twist the plunger GENTLY in the counter-clockwise direction until you can see through the filter (it must be in the “open” position). This is critical because if it’s in the “closed” position, you cannot push it through the grinds to filter the coffee!
11. Gently lower the basket into the brew until it rests on top of the coffee “foam” on the water’s surface; it will fit snugly. Don’t push the filter down at this point. Lower the stainless lid until the French Press is shut. The stainless “plunger” should be fully extended (about 7″ outside of the lid).
12. Position the stainless lid so that the little “spout filter” attached to the lid aligns with the pour spout (to catch any stray grinds when pouring later), then make sure the lid fits snugly over the French Press top.
13. Gently push down the stainless “plunger” VERY SLOWLY so as to push the filter down through the water with coffee grinds, until the plunger is completely down. When you can no longer press it gently down, simply stop pushing and completely let go of the French Press.
14. Start an egg timer at the 4 minute setting.
15. During the 4 minutes, if you take anything in your coffee, I usually prepare the empty mug by adding sweetener to the empty mug (in my case, I add a teaspoon of natural Whole Foods 365 Organic Agave Nectar from a desert cactus that tastes identical to sugar, but is more digestible to prevent elevated blood sugar levels naturally). I get out the organic Horizon Cream (it displaces less fluid that Half-and-Half which is simply half cream, more fluid). I add cream AFTER filling the mug with steaming coffee.
16. When the timer rings in 4 minutes, SLOWLY POUR the coffee into the cup; DO NOT REMOVE LID as the small spout (with filter) is designed so it can remain “pourable” at all times with the lid on, with minimal heat loss.
17. IMPORTANT: Turn off the French Press filter’s “shut-off valve” to prevent coffee grinds continuing to “steep” and make the coffee stronger by the minute! Gently twist the handle on the plunger in the CLOCKWISE direction until it will no longer twist; do not force it passed the point where it stops. The shut-off valve is now closed, and the grinds are trapped at the bottom of the French Press without any ability to leach into the coffee. This keeps the coffee at a perfect flavor density while you’re enjoying your first cup. (I hear this is one of the few French Press’s with this patented feature.)
That’s it! This may seem cumbersome at first, but believe me, it will come as second nature. The flavor is worth it, and you’ll be spoiled for life. I can still taste that amazing Galapagos Islands coffee even as a type this message.
One final thought, is that I read in a coffee book that Galapagos Islands coffee, which has been around for generations, is the rarest on Earth. The Galapagos Islands sanctuary is so pristine, all chemicals are outlawed on the islands. Therefore, the coffee by its unique nature is truly organic. In the 1990’s the plantation that grows this coffee was shutdown due to lack of business, but reopened with an output of only 3,000 bags PER YEAR. The owner dreamed of increasing output to 5,000 bags PER YEAR, which he finally did in the year 2000. The plantation is running at peak capacity at 5,000 bags per year. (Each bag is around 100 lbs. if I’m not mistaken.)
Starbucks bought up the entire island’s production capacity of 5,000 bags (at 100 lbs. per bag) and shrink-wrapped each 8 oz. bag for freshness. In doing the math, Galapagos Islands production provides enough coffee per year to sell-out in several hours in Starbucks Reserve Stores and online. This coffee is so rare, I feel very privileged to have purchased it for less than Jamaican Blue Mountain (which in sharp contrast has 100x production capacity)!
Think about it. Each year, if one “bag” of coffee is 100 lbs. (200 half pound bags) then only 100,000 Starbucks customers can buy one bag EACH to use up the entire yearly reserve of Galapagos Islands coffee. I found that doing right by such a rare coffee requires using a French Press. This treasure from a place considered Darwin’s “cradle of life” may not be around forever due to issues like global warming!
Hi Mel. I follow you on twitter. I stumbled on your blog on the web where I was looking for the Galápagos San Cristóbal Reserve. I was actually sent a free bag of this as part of Starbucks Tasting Club. I scrambled to find out how to buy and it wasn’t available last month. Now, it is and I just bought 4 bags. Will be sad when this is gone. 🙁
I ordered a bag of this coffee today per an email I received as a Gold Card member. It was nearly $20 including shipping so I am hoping it is as good as the description says. 😉
A funny story…I went into Starbucks last week taking a 1/2 lb. bag of Christmas Blend beans in so I could get them ground for my coffee pot at home and the employee tried to use my grounds to brew in their store coffee pot. Once he realized he error he dumped the grounds back into the bag quickly and handed it to me sheepishly admitting his mistake.
This coffee is outstanding and I quickly ordered two more bags after I tried my initial beans. I took it to the local SBUX to have it ground and shared with two baristas who later told me they loved it too. I have one bag left and will definitely look for this offering every year and be sure to buy a few because it is worth the price.