Starbucks is testing offering single-origin espresso for handcrafted espresso beverages. Customers who want an elevated espresso experience can order their espresso beverage with Colombia Nariño Supremo instead of the core Starbucks Espresso Roast.
There are three areas of the country currently testing the single origin espresso: Portland, Oregon; Columbus, Ohio; and areas of Riverside county and inland Southern California. Customers are charged fifty cents for purchasing the single-origin espresso. I’ve heard from people who’ve tried this that their espresso beverage is amazing with the Colombia coffee.
This isn’t the first time that Starbucks has experimented with offering different espresso options for handcrafted drinks. The Starbucks UK/Ireland region has been offering single-origin espresso options for handcrafted drinks for about one year now.
Starbucks Colombia Nariño Supremo will be available in stores as a whole bean coffee on April 1, 2014. You can already order it now at StarbucksStore.com.
What do you think? Have you had the chance to try a single-origin coffee as your espresso shots? If you like reading about Starbucks test beverages and lattes, click here.
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I was somewhat happy to hear that Columbia Narino Supremo would show up on shelves as a whole bean coffee, when I learned of it a couple weeks back. I sure wish they would bring back OSM, but one can dream considering it was a favorite of mine on the Clover.
@Melody – I have noticed you didn’t cover this years Kona. I was wondering since you haven’t discussed it, what you thought of it? Personally…… The store hyped it up as great, but when I tried it I didn’t like anything about it. I found it to be flat and flavorless. Any chance you will discuss the Kona at a later time?
I did notice I spelled Colombia as Columbia. It’s early, It’s Monday and I’m setting out for my coffee now. I think I really need it today. Sorry for the typo.
Does anyone know how long this test will be going on? I would love to be able to try this but am 3 hours from the closest test area. Might be in Columbus, OH in May and am hoping it will still be available then. I think it’s interesting that the StarbucksStore is only selling it in half pound bags.
In October 2013 starts the program Starbucks Origin. We presented Ethiopia Origin and I thing that it was a successfull coffee.
Now it’s time for Colombia Narino. It’s not the same like Colombia Narino Supremo, because ( you know) that Supremo means that it’s the biggest coffee beans. But Colombia Narino Origin is awesome coffee. I will present it in my Coffee Seminar at 27.03 in Bulgaria 🙂
Melody, as you say we have had a choice of Single Origin Espresso since last March. I think the Colombia Nariño is the third variety that we have had. I have to say that the Colombia Nariño is by far the most impressive one yet, I really like it. In the UK an upgrade to the Single Origin Espresso is one of the benefits of having gold membership of MSR.
@Chgo – Kona discussion is coming soon. That’s planned for this week. 🙂 I haven’t tried it yet.
@Chris – Totally interesting that the Starbucks UK version of MSR gives you free upgrade to the single origin espresso. Thank you for weighing in!
I like the Colombia Narino with specific drinks, like a Caramel Macchiato or as an add-on to certain frappuccinos. Not a huge fan of the Espresso – by itself or in a Latte…
@Katherine – I tried the Colombia Narino in a latte at Roy Street. You can get it at the Roy Street Coffee and Tea store in Seattle but they don’t make standard drinks so I didn’t have a chance to try it in a caramel macchiato. A friend of mine said the way to try it is in the new vanilla macchiato. I will get down to Portland soon to try it! Thank you for weighing in. I didn’t realize that so much of Europe has the single original espresso, not just the UK.
Yea, we’ve had since I guess around January 2013? We started of with Origin Guatemala Antigua, then Kenya, then Ethiopia, then had the “non-origin” Christmas Blend Espresso Roast (Which you probably do get in the US, right? like the whole bean christmas blend but in a darker roast), went back to Ethiopia with the Winter Promo and now it’s all Colombia. Ethiopia and Christmas Blend Espresso were by far the ones I enjoyed most. It IS good to keep trying them especially in all sorts of different beverages. Depending on the drink, the flavor of the Espresso just comes out so much better!
Wow, very cool. I didn’t look to day, but do any of you reading this know if the single origin has hit the Chicago market?
This is great news! I certainly hope they’ll extend this test nationwide and offer it at regular price. ESP is undoubtedly one of the worst blends, clearly designed as inexpensively as possible with the knowledge that most consumers will experience it only in heavily-sweetened drinks. As it is cheap, it is highly inconsistent. Sometimes it’s quite serviceable, and other times it’s totally unpalatable. Y’know when you get a bad latte, ask them to make it over, and it’s just as horrid? Well, there’s little the baristas can do to make a really bad batch of ESP better. Here’s hoping we’ll soon have choices galore.
@CarlBlack – Interesting you should say that. I genuinely do like Espresso Roast. It makes for a fine drip coffee too. I agree this is great news, and I like the better option of Colombia, but I do like Espresso Roast too.
@Neil – I’d tried pretty hard to figure out the test regions and only came up with those three areas: Portland, Columbia, and large areas of inland Southern California, meaning primarily Riverside County. Sorry, no Chicago.
And I love the idea of adding the upcharge for the single-origin espresso as a MSR reward. If it works in the UK, maybe it would work in the US.
Hi, I’ve been working at Starbucks in the Nordic region for almost two years and I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog and getting the bigger picture what is going on with Starbucks especially in the States. 🙂
Besides work, I’ve had the chance to visit stores in the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland during the last 12 months. Therefore I believe most of the European markets have had origin espresso since Spring campaign 2013, in the order that Kathy already described. First there was Guatemala Antigua in Spring 2013, then Kenya in Summer, after which the “new” Ethiopia (since Ethiopia Yirgacheffe is still one of our core coffees as well) in Fall, to conclude with Christmas Blend Espresso Roast in the holiday season. This year, we started with Ethiopia again in Winter, and this Spring campaign introduced us to the new Colombia Nariño (other Colombia is also in our core line up).
It’s cool to see origin espresso being tested now in the US too. Usually it feels like in Europe we get everything after the North American markets, e.g. Pumpkin Spice Latte and Vanilla Spice Latte. But this time it’s the other way around! 50 cents sounds quite much for it though, here the cost is approximately 15 cents. We promote the origin espresso quite consistently at the register, and many customers choose it and like it. However, I’ve always found that the North American customers visiting our stores rarely want to try it though, and I don’t know why that is. 🙂
Shout out from Columbus, Ohio! I had no idea we were one of only 3 test markets! We tried this espresso yesterday and LOVED it. It was rich and flavorful, with a hint of sweetness and no “over-roasted” taste. We hope they’ll roll this out in stores nationwide!
Harvard Yard will most likely be featuring Colombia Nariño as an alternative espresso upstairs at least for some time. Currently our alternative espresso is our core Ethiopia, but as soon as Nariño launches I’m going to test it out in our machine and see how it compares!
Of all the cool and interesting things Starbucks has done over the years this is probably the most excited I have been about a new offering. When I read on this site last year about the UK offering Origin Espresso I was really hoping we would do that here in the US as well. There is a lot of bad single origin espresso out there from many of the so called Third Wave roasters so I would love to see Starbucks show what a single origin espresso should taste like. The IE is a bit of a drive for me from OC but I am thinking it will be worth it to try out Colombia Narino as espresso.
@Chgo I am in agreement about this year’s Parry Estate 100% Kona. I tried it from the Clover and really enjoyed it. I liked it so much hot that I then bought a cup from the Clover over ice and that was great too. I bought a bag and when I brewed it in my French press at home it totally fell flat. I actually got my hands on a couple bags of the 2013 Parry Estate 100% Kona before the stop sell was issued and I enjoyed that much more than the 2014 release.
@CarlBlack I agree with Melody that espresso roast is a fine coffee that even works well as a brewed coffee. If I had to guess I would say that for those times when your drink is horrid you are probably being served shots that are taking too long to pull, or the barista is working out of routine/sequence and your shots are expiring before before the milk is added to make your latte. I would lean towards expired shots since shots taking longer than 23 seconds to pull would slow down beverage production to the point that the barista would adjust the grind to calibrate the shot times.
@Melody I’m with you, I would love to see Origin Espresso offered as an MSR benefit. Actually, I would love to see it offered at no additional cost to all customers but I think that it would make a very nice value add for MSR members and I could understand offering it as such.
I love pulling different coffees through the Mastrena. For all you interested partners, I highly recommend giving it a try. Empty out the decaf hopper of your secondary machine and put a spoodle’s worth of whatever in there and run a couple shots. You might need to adjust the grind if you’re pulling something super-dark (French) or a blonde but they should run around 18-23. Veranda is not so great, Willow is awesome, French is like liquid smoke (not a fan), but my favorite core coffee as espresso is Guatemala. If you have any Tribute left TRY IT NOW! It’s amazing.
@IzzyJ – A Flat White is a small, strong, traditional latte with latte art. http://www.starbucks.co.uk/menu/beverage-list/espresso-beverages/flat-white – It’s usually a for-here item.
@ Jacob. Brilliant IDEA. Also, I am thinking we can offer this option to enhance our coffee sales as well. Guatemala is one of my favorite. But, I am drinking Cafe Verona now AND Fall In Love all over again with CV. Thanks.
I use the Aeropress (yes, Melody, I’ve been hooked since the day of that tasting) at home and my fave coffee to use in my latte is the Yirgacheffe…
The Berkeley district in the SF bay area is also running the single origin espresso test, started with Colombia Nariño with Kenya next I believe