Starbucks in the News

Starbucks has been in the news a lot this last month. I don’t want to be accused of advertising for the company, but with 16,000 stores worldwide, the Seattle-based coffee giant is probably the most important coffee chain in the world. To ignore it would be doing you a disservice. After all, many cafés watch what Starbucks does very closely and then try to mimic or improve upon it. What starts in Starbucks may later be seen at your favorite local café.

VIA

At the beginning of the month, Starbucks released its flavored VIA instant coffee (available in vanilla, caramel, cinnamon spice and mocha). Yes, that’s right, the company who rose to prominence by educating customers about high-quality whole-bean coffee, now sells flavored instant coffee. Am I the only one who winces when he walks down the bulk coffee isle at the grocery store and gets a whiff of the caramel-flavored coffee sitting on the shelf? Some of those aromas are so strong they make my stomach queasy. The flavored VIA had better be nothing like those coffees. When I try it, I will let you know.

Mind you, I am not anti-instant coffee. If people want to drink instant coffee, that’s their business. One of the things one of our professors in business school told us was that if your product saves people money or if it saves them time, you have a winner. VIA does both. It’s cheaper than going to Starbucks to buy a mocha every day and drinking VIA is a lot quicker than stopping at a Starbucks too. In addition, as reported by the company, sixty percent of its customers drink flavored coffee and eleven percent of American households buy it. Maybe the company is onto something. 

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Cupping at Portland Roasting (No, it's not like spooning)

Thursday morning I had the pleasure of visiting Portland Roasting Company (PRC) to take part in the company’s “Cupping for the People.” This is a free event that PRC puts on once a month to educate people about its coffee and roasting operations. I tried to go last month, but the class was already full, so I had to wait. The wait was worth it and I had another great day of coffee education.

Nathanael May, PRC’s coffee educator and trainer, was our guide for the day. Only three of us were there to participate—apparently several people had cancelled. It was their loss, as we had a very interesting and tasty morning. The first thing we did was take a tour of the warehouse and roasting facility. PRC is located in the building of a former bulk popcorn producer (I didn’t know such companies existed, but then again, maybe they don’t, which could be why PRC has this space).

Nathanael explained that the facility was a good fit because it included both food storage and production areas. As we passed through the warehouse, we could see that here were hundreds of boxes of Muin syrups on the shelf (PRC is the nationwide distributor for the syrup maker). At the back of the warehouse, there were large jute sacks of coffee piled high, each bearing the name of a country or growing region. Coffees from Asia, Central and South America and Africa were all present .

In addition to the regular coffees, there was also a small section of coffee that was labeled “Swiss Water”. Contrary to what you might think, Swiss Water is not some exotic coffee from northern Europe. Rather, it is the name of the method that Portland Roasting uses to decaffeinate its coffee.

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Coffee Snobbery?

Today in the Oregonian’s A&E section, there was an article titled “Non-Foodie's Food Guide.” The article had a tone that mocked Portland’s “foodies,” people who have a reputation for eating only local, organic foods at non-chain restaurants. The article implied that foodies don’t go to the same places where ‘normal’ eaters go.

In addition to food, the article talks about coffee too, comparing some of the more well-known Portland roasters (like Stumptown) to Dutch Bros Coffee, a Grants Pass-based chain. The author implies that Dutch Bros. comparable coffee and more friendly service than Stumptown. One of the Dutch Bros. franchise owners is quoted as saying “We’re trying to be a blue-collar stop. We call our big coffee a ‘large.’” (That quote reminded me of my time working at Starbucks. Once in a while, people would come into Starbucks and tell me they wanted a medium coffee but they didn’t “know how to say grande, or whatever you say here.” I used to smile and explain that I understood English too.)

The piece has received a lot of attention and comments from readers today. On one side, there are people that say “That’s right! Foodies are rich snobs who eat overpriced food and drink overrated coffee!” and there are others that say “Why would anyone go to the chains? Their stuff is garbage!” The third type of comments are those that ask “Who cares? Most of us like to go wherever we can get good food and drink at prices we can afford, and by writing this article the Oregonian is just trying to create conflict where there really is none.” I agree with the  third type of comments.

However, I can imagine some of you thinking when I write about a coffee’s fruit notes and smooth finishes, it seems pretty ridiculous. In some ways I agree, but it’s not that bad if you think about coffee like if it were music. I’ll try to explain what I mean:

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What Makes a Good Café

Some of you have probably noticed that I mostly write favorable reviews for cafés. That’s true, I do. I try to find as many redeeming qualities in a café that I can. I’m not interested in making a cafe look bad. If there’s a place I really don’t like, I don’t bother writing about it. I’m not out to make enemies and I’d rather use my time to write about places that I think are worth visiting. 

So what makes something a good café? Here’s a list of things that I look for, so that you can have an idea of my criteria.
  1. I tend to like places that give a damn about coffee and about service. If a place cares about both, it’s likely to get a good review.
  2. I like places with personality. The café doesn’t have to be weird, but having something that distinguishes it from other cafés is a good thing.
  3. I drink my coffee from a ceramic cup. If a café only has paper cups, it ought not be in business. Not only is it wasteful to use only paper cups, but I also hate putting paper in my mouth. I’ll do it if there’s no other option, but it doesn’t make me happy.
  4. On a similar note, any self-respecting café ought to have metal stirring spoons. If you only have plastic stirrers, or even worse, only wooden stirring sticks, you lose major points. A wooden stick transfers its flavors to the coffee, and how am I supposed to clean up the sugar at the bottom of my cup? The only time I want to put wood in my mouth is when I’m using a toothpick to clean steak out of my teeth.
  5. Music volume is important. I like music. I listen to music. I write music. I play music. When I’m in a café if you want to play music, that’s great. However, if it is so loud that I can’t have a conversation or if I can hear your music over the music coming through my earphones, you ought to turn your music down. 
  6. Friendly service makes me happy. I don’t expect you to be super-smiley, but polite and friendly is not too much to ask. 
  7. If I come in to a café and you don’t want to pause your conversation with a co-worker to help me, that’s a bad sign. I promise not to be on my cell phone when I order, and you should offer me similar respect. If you don’t, you’re not getting a tip and you’ll probably lose a customer.
  8. Show some enthusiasm for the coffee, for crying out loud!
  9. I tend to prefer places that have just a touch of class. I’m not expecting high society, but I prefer things to look neat. It’s a bonus when the baristas dress similarly as if they were all part of a team. 
  10. Your employees ought to know something about the coffee. I don’t expect everyone to be coffee experts, but if you ask an employee “What’s your coffee like?” and he or she says “Um, it’s good," you are losing an opportunity to educate me and create more interest in your coffee. 
  11. Wi-Fi is nice to have. It’s not a requirement, but as a writer it’s one of the tools I like to have available.
  12. Finally, there’s the most ambiguous criterion of all: vibe. Some cafés have it, some just don’t. I don’t know how to explain this one. It’s like trying to explain what “cool” is. Fonzie was cool, Richie wasn’t. Same goes for cafés.
That’s what I look for when I go to a café. Anyone care to add anything? One of these day’s I’ll write up what makes a good customer. We have a few responsibilities too.

 

World Cup Coffee and Tea

After checking out the Sterling kiosk on Glisan, I decided to head toward downtown to find a place to sit and write. I didn’t make it very far. A few blocks down Glisan, I came across World Cup Coffee and Tea. I had been planning to try World Cup coffee, but I thought I would go to their café in Powell’s Books. However, since the opportunity presented itself, I decided to stop and check this one out. It turns out that the store on Glisan is World Cup’s headquarters and main café. The company has its offices and its roasting operation there.

World Cup from the outside

While waiting in line, I read some of the company’s literature and I thought I was at another café for coffee enthusiasts. Having visited many similar places, I expected the people in the café to be knowledgeable about the coffee. I walked up to the counter and asked the barista what their espresso was like. She paused for a second.

“It’s really strong. Have you had espresso before?”

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