I rarely do this, but I frequently get asked why I have this blog and what I am doing with it. There are a million blogs about Starbucks. I’ve found numerous barista blogs talking about in-store experiences, and there are blogs with a focus on recipes and Starbucks (CoffeeVanilla blog). There is no doubt that the largest and busiest Starbucks blog is www.starbucksgossip.com – The guy who runs that is a journalist. He scours the news for interesting topics and most (not all) of his blog articles are taken from current things happening in the news. Sometimes that is fabulous, such as when Zagat highly rates Starbucks coffee, and sometimes it’s far from uplifting when it seems like the news is dominated by lawsuit after lawsuit, whether baristas in Orange County, tip lawsuits in California, or the current Kraft-Starbucks struggle. I can completely understand why Starbucks Gossip has its appeal, I just wanted to create another kind of space for people to enjoy Starbucks. If you want to read about Starbucks merchandise and experiences in Japan, you might be reading Kaori’s Bucked By The Star blog. As I mentioned, there are just tons and tons of barista blogs. There are so many baristas blogging about what it is like to be a barista that I’ve stopped looking for all those blogs. When all is said and done, there is plenty of room on the internet for all Starbucks blogs. It’s not a zero sum game.
Back to Coca Cola. I like diet Coke. This is no surprise. I probably have a caffeine addiction. I love what Coca Cola is doing with Coca Cola Conversations. Notice the website tells you that the blog is partly produced by a Coca Cola staff historian. I love that. I know I joke that I am Starbucks historian, but really I don’t know nearly as much as long-term Starbucks partners. I love knowing the place where Starbucks came from. Take a look at this Coca Cola blog post: 1936 Historic footage. Who knew that between 1886 and 1923, Coca Cola sold 154 million gallons of their beverage? In the past, I’ve done things like uploaded the 1992 Starbucks Shareholders Report. Did you know that in 1992 Starbucks operated 154 stores? (yes that is just a weird coincidence with the numbers in the last two sentences.)
Here is another gem from Coca Cola Conversations: International Coca Cola logos. That is great fun to see logos from around the world! I love it! With this blog, sometimes I try to bring you international Starbucks experiences, and I’ve talked about their changing logo too.
When I stumbled upon the Coca Cola blog, I knew I had found my role model. Odd but true. The worst thing that could happen StarbucksMelody.com is that Starbucks could just start their own “Starbucks Conversations” and of course it would leave me in the dust. Starbucks is a ten-billion dollar corporation annually. Melody is just one person in Seattle. They could crush me like a bug at any time.
Take a look at this one: Coca Cola tells you the history of Diet Vanilla Coke! That’s another great blog post. Likewise, I’ve tried, as best as I can, to talk about unique Starbucks offerings whether discontinued or not. Some of you might remember my episode on Starbucks Mazagran Bottle Soda.
The archive section of this blog has more old StarbucksMelody.com blog posts. Click on the categories tab to sort by major Starbucks themes.
I assume that Coca Cola Conversations is going to be around for a long time. That corporation has a 131 year history. They are not going to run out of material any time soon! It is possible that someday I might run out of content. Though there is still a lot of coffee that I need to write about, and still many stores I would like to review.
Why should you read Coca Cola Conversations? Because it is an uplifting and informative blog! 🙂 I leave with one more of my favorite StarbucksMelody blog articles: 14 t-shirts tell their Starbucks stories.
(My apologies for typos. I will go back and fix them. I typed this up in record time).
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Well, I too drink ONLY diet-coke for pop. 🙂 AND, I can’t do it now but I just wanted to say I can’t wait to read all this and comment. Coke does have quite a history! back later……
ps: just looking at those old(er) Christmas t-shirts made me miss them all the more, again. why would they ever do away with such a cool thing? so cheerful, adorable, exciting?
@deniseR- I assume that they thought that getting rid of the Christmas t-shirts was a money thing? I guess? It’s less expensive than traditional advertising, and adds a lot of holiday spirit to the stores. These days Starbucks takes out ads in the paper, has billboards, and professional ads.
It looks like Coca Cola is more interested in their own history than Starbucks. I’ve been told that there IS a corporate historian but I am in disbelief. I was at the home of a former SSC partner yeserday talking about Starbucks history. We got into a conversation about the “pottery era” of Starbucks when there was always a ton of very high end Italian pottery in the stores. Starbucks found that it was absolutely fabulous for atmosphere but it didn’t sell. People don’t go to Starbucks to buy a $40 pottery plate. My point to the former partner is that part of what I want to do is capture some of those kinds of stories and history here, and I even said that Starbucks doesn’t seem so interested in keeping things the same or looking back at history. She quipped at me, “they’re too busy reinventing themselves to notice.” (Not verbatim but you get the idea).
This blog is way more than history. It is store reviews, test products, food inside a Starbucks and everything Starbucks. But the blog’s closest BIG BRAND soul mate IS Coca Cola Conversations which is likely well-funded by Coca Cola and will live a long life!
Melody, I love your blog and I hope it has a very long life as well as the Coca Cola conversations blog. You add something special to your posts that is inspiring to customers and partners alike. You truly are the embodiment of what we call “Starbucks Passion.” I love visiting your blog and many of your posts cause me to rethink Starbucks, and challenge routine. Thanks!
Taylor – Thanks for saying that! I really wanted to talk about Coca Cola Conversations because first off, who doesn’t like a nice cold diet coke, and secondly, I feel some emotional connection to that blog: Those professional bloggers look passionate about their topics. Sometimes corporate blogs look sterile, as if each blog entry was written by a committe of legal, PR, and some other department, and that isn’t so appealing to me. Thank you for being here!
Oh man…it’s not like I didn’t know I love the caffeine and I still couldn’t help but chuckle as I read that you like Diet Coke too 🙂 I drink all sorts of cola’s and I do have to say that Diet Coke has been and will always be my favorite. I’ve got to get hoppin on some homework but I made sure to bookmark the coke sight to go check out later on 🙂
Kat, thank you for dropping by! I would have to turn off a computer to do homework. 😉 It seems natural to think that there is going to be some cross over between the coffee drinkers and the coke fans!
I love, love Diet Coke!!! I think there’s a connection to people who love Starbucks also love Diet Coke…
Hi Hayley! I should have thought of how to insert a poll into this blog post! Dang it! We could then see how big the Coke/ Starbucks overlap is. Though I just realized how annoying this blog post might be to Starbucks considering their business partnership is with Pepsi! LOL Oh well!
Oddly enough, I was drinking a Coke as I brought up your blog this afternoon. So another point for a Starbucks/Coke overlap (regular Coke, though, not diet! And it’s the only pop I drink).
Can the Starbucks historian be tracked down?
Thank you for the mention! I would have responded to this blog post yesterday, but I hadn’t really been near my computer that much this past weekend…I definitely raised an eyebrow when I saw the words ‘Coca Cola.’ Coca Cola and coffee? What is Melody up to? Lol.
Ok I will be the one to say I don’t drink coke or any soda. I have heard about the Coca Cola museum in Atlanta which is supposed to be great. I too agree that I really hope Melody you never stop this blog. I tell so many customers about it. I do find though when I let baristas know about it or try to hand out your card, most of them around here just roll their eyes. I guess from what I gather baristas in Seattle are different and then of course you are there! Great thread!
re: Coke. I think it is kind of an American symbol. Pepsi just doesn’t say that. Pepsi is in way ‘classic’. Coke is classic. We seldom had any pop EVER as kids growing up in the ’50’s and ’60’s but if we did, that rare rare time, it was Coke. And I can remember still, my mom, during a big load of starched ironing, once in a while allowing herself a special treat of a COLD bottle of Coke, especially on a really hot day.
I got some of the Christmas special little (8oz?) bottles sometimes in the ’90’s to have for my folks, especially, when they visited. At that time (unlke this yr) they were decorated wit Santa’s. Very cool. Things TASTE different in different sizes and out of different substances..ie: GLASS. Those little glass bottles were, and still are, perfect.
later…….
Denise that is a great Coca Cola story. I mean you just told a slice of Americana. I remember before everything came in plastic bottles, but it seems in my generation, in the 1970s as a kid everything came in cans. So true how things taste different depending on what container they are in. I sometimes think that point gets lost on baristas, because coffee in a porcelain cup is better than paper. Denise you have so many great stories. I love the “it’s a wonderful store” baseball cap story, and with your permission, I may still use that when writing a blog post about baristas empowered to make customers feel good. Sorry I am rambling and I have to run to work now! Bye!
I know I am off point Melody but I have to pick up on a statement you made to Denise that stood out for me- Baristas empowered to make customers feel good! Wow what a great post that could be and so so important and to me just as important as the product itself.
HaHa! I am as addicted to coffee as to Diet Coke…LOOOOOVE it! No day without it. 😀
Thanks for sharing, Mel!
@Sebastian – I love diet coke! If it were warmer in Seattle, I’d sure be drinking a lot more of it! But we have coffee weather 8 or 9 months of the year. 😉
@Melody: of course, use the ‘Christmas cap’ story and/or pic whenever you want! I really intended to send it to you by now…the cap…then I never got around to it. Then I started waivering a LITTLE about giving it up….but not too much……. because I feel it really would be better off in your little museum collection! (to my amazement, as the yrs have passed, whenever I have told anyone about this cap, they sigh and say they really ‘want it’…… I almost gave it away quite a few times to baristas I barely knew, now I’m glad I didn’t.) So, we’ll see…. but with or without the cap, it’s a great memory and it was a great thing to have happen.
I do have quite a few stories. and actually lots of them involve Sbux, too. (more recent ones….meaning since the late ’80’s! ha! I guess this just means I am not very ‘young’. )
re: Coca-Cola: I know it was just trace amounts, but I didn’t see any mention here of the whole cocaine-in-cokes in the late 1800’s-early 1900. I always thought that was kind of interesting. ?
oh, I meant to say: @purple1: along those lines, yes, the baristas have soooo much to do with the total experience of Sbux…..certainly as much as the product itself. but, off topic again…..sorry Melody.
Melody – THANK YOU for being the Starbucks historian! And, as Taylor said – for being so inspiring to customers and partners alike.
Gosh you guys make me blush. Thank you! I really wanted to give a fun example with the Coca Cola blog of how a blog can be an uplifting big brand blog covering current events, products and history.
Hi Melody, thank you for mentioning my blog in this post! I don’t drink Coke but I’m a big fan of Coca Cola commercials, especially the jingle “the sun will always shine, the birds will always sing…!” Seeing their CCconversations website, I can see a lot of similarity with your website…mainly that it’s filled with so much interesting information for people who enjoy and want to learn more about the brand that they enjoy so much 🙂
At first I thought the blog might be on Coke-Coffee (like Pepsi Kona of years gone by)
I am not much of a soda drinker, usually only in restaurants (which is rare), the rest of the time it’s tea, but I do prefer coke to pepsi.
@Denise, I never heard a real answer for why we didn’t get shirts this year. I was actually super disappointed. but maybe it’s just b/c I’m a dork 😉
@Taylor, you nailed it!
sorry for all the posts melody, but thought you’d appreciate this-on the topic of pop, i just added some dark cherry to my dr. pepper. It’s amazing lol
@CaBarista – Thank you for the props and being here. I really did like the dark cherry syrup, and the idea of putting it in just about any cold carbonated soda sounds delicious! I never did use the dark cherry in a mocha – Far too sweet. But I added the dark cherry to passion tea, to a Chai as an experiment, and routinely to the oatmeal. It was also good in a Strawberry Vivanno. Probably even more ways I can’t think of. 😉
We used it a lot and sold it to customers, as in got them to try it in lots of things. But, I guess not enough cafes did so. poor guy today , we got him hooked on it in his green tea frappuccinos