The Way I See It:

“What is released from a bean that is roasted to smoky perfection? A philosophical musing, a spirited discussion, a cup of afternoon in a French café. French Roast defines simple imagery and embodies a state of mind.”

Seriously?

You got to love marketing. French roast is defiantly smoky, but more like the bottom of an ashtray smoky. And the second sentence isn’t even a sentence it’s a fragment, one that doesn’t even make sense. And “simple imagery” or a “state of mind”? What exactly are we describing?

The way I see it you can sell anything with good marketing. But it sounds intelligent.

Beyond The Boring

A relevant commentary on our addiction to this “poor man’s wine” is the variety and number of crazy drinks out there. Many more beyond the menu board at Starbucks. Some that would bring on cardiac arrest with the amount of caffeine.

Picture this: a layer of syrupy sweetness, thick cream, and Carmel colored espresso downed in one quick gulp. Ask your barista for a John Wayne and you’ll most likely get a crazy look. But this equally proportioned drink of “two parts of any flavor syrup, though commonly caramel or vanilla, and two portions of half & half, topped with two shots of espresso”, arrests your taste buds with an array of tantalizing flavors. “The ingredients are added slowly in this order, so that the end result is layered with three distinct flavors and temperatures, and is customarily drunk all at once”. (Wikipedia)

A common favorite that many of my regulars ask or are the Black Eye (a cup of coffee with one espresso shot) or Red Eyes (two shots of espresso in a cup of coffee), and I’d always wondered what you would call a triple shot or more. Maybe brown eyes or blue eyes?

Well Wikipedia has enlightened me.

Kennedy: A cup of coffee with three shots of espresso in it.

747: A large coffee with seven shots of espresso in it.

Another hard core drink I came across was the Shakerato / Cafe Shakerato. A double espresso made in a cup with some sugar in it then poured into a shaker with ice, shaken until foam develops, then poured into a glass.

But what one that beat them all was the Sputnik. Two large coffees with 16 shots of espresso, and a Red Bull mixed in! talk about out there. This tops my list for all nighter.


Warning: This is a drug and should not be taken in large amounts on a daily basis. Less then 600mg in generally is not harmful. Ask your doctors be before consuming any drink with large amounts of caffeine. Shaking, blurred vision, hyperactive responses, alertness are some side effects. Extended use may lead to depression, deliriousness, nervousness, restlessness, and stomach issues.

Crappy Customer

I’ll admit. I’m a horrible customer, but only when it comes to licenses Starbucks stores. Perhaps it’s some rudimentary need to show off. Like when you are in elementary school, and the new kid on the block thinks he’s all that. It’s then that this urgent desire to show them up in anything and everything takes over. I try to restrain. I’ve gotten better. But when I walk into the Starbucks on campus I can’t help but note all the differences, the misinformation, and failings in standards. It isn’t their fault. Lack of training and oversight from corporate has led to this clash of personalities (for lack of a more appropriate analogy). When things clash it open opportunities to correct and improve, right?

Improvement on my part might be to stop walking in and ordering the most complicated drink I can think up just to see if they can with stand the challenge. One of my favorites that confuses them every time is when I order an iced venti no espresso Americano, aka, an iced water.

Improvement on their part... Better customer serves. I would be able to stand the mis-made drinks if only they would treat our customers with respect and dignity. I say our ‘cause though they are only licensed, the average consumers doesn’t know that. So, when they order Starbucks at Target, or on campus they are looking at it like a real Starbucks.

Many barista’s have shown the same concern; while Corporate has assured us that training will improve, I still cringe when I walk into the Starbucks on campus. And have to continually apologize to my regulars who come in complaining about the service they received when visiting a licensed store.

They Say

“Decaf, please, I have to have that decaffeinated.” Woman with swollen midsections and rounding stomachs constantly insist that they no longer are aloud caffeine now that they are expecting. But where did that rumor start? The pessimist in me had to question if it was even true. What makes caffeine so bad for you anyway?

So the search began when a friend of mine recently announced that she was pregnant. I started a investigating the effects of caffeine on pregnancy.

TalkAboutCoffee.com uncovers many discrepancies and misunderstanding in that area of caffeine and childbearing.

Some research goes to the one extreme of say that if you want to be able to conceive you should hold the caffeine because it hinders conception, while others say there is no effect at all. One Danish study showed that 300mg in the late trimester had no effect on the child.

It is generally understood that no caffeine is best, but some say that three cups is okay. But how big of a cup? One cup can hold a lot of caffeine. Take for instance the fact that an ounce of espresso has on average 50mg of caffeine verses a cup which varies from 80-130mg (Thanks Wikipedia). So what three cups is pretty vague. I usually get a double tall late, so that would be 100mg in 8oz. Would that be okay?

Basically, what I got out of the article was that everyone’s body acts differently to caffeine, and that in the end they really aren’t sure.

Open Forum for district 110

This was our company picnic. Not really that exciting. Mostly just giving everyone a pat on the back. But hopefully this will give you a taste of Starbucks. Then again I never really could do it justice.

3:30pm

Dang. There is a ton of food left over!

3:15pm

John (regional vise president) and Sara (regional president) gave closing statements.

2:40pm

I thought we were done at two?

2:35

Two guys from my store got an award!!! I am excited for them. They deserved it. one got the Be Welcoming award for always introducing himself to customers and smiling. He’s so great to work with. The other guy got the Be Involved award for always involving customers in coffee tasting and pairings. He does one on every shift. That was exciting!

2:10pm

All the district managers got up and presented awards to stores and partners in their area. It was so awesome. The stories were amazing. One manager told about how a store in her area helped a lady unknown to them through a deep depression with their smiles.

2:02pm

With all these free Izzies I defiantly took advantage of the five minute break.

1:50pm

Five minute break and then the awards.

1:45pm

Oops! Spaced for a few minutes and missed the last couple questions. It’s really not that interesting. They started using business lingo and lost me.

1:12pm

Question: Are there any plans to change tip distribution for our area?
Answer: No. John (regional vice president) reconfirms Starbuck’s statement that they believe the original judge in the California ruling to be wrong.

1:00pm

First question: when are we getting our new espresso machines and Clovers?
Answer (abbreviated version of a long drawn out response): we can’t say now.

12:39pm

Twenty minute warning till the Q&A session. A few more partners from our store showed up.

11:56 am

Just challenged my manager to race me through the obstacle course, but we decided to postpone it till after lunch since Smokey Bones just drove up with the food.

11:40am

Wow! Was I just talking to the regional vice president (Hugh Grant impersonator)? And I think they lady with him was the head-hauncho for Florida!

11:33am

Just hanging out. Found a girl who covered a shift at our store once with me. Talking about nothing seems optimal when you are at a relatively boring party with no one you know.

11:25am

So they just stopped talking and everyone dispersed in the direction of giant blow-up optical course.

11:00am

Some guy is speaking. He reminds me of Hugh Grant, only because of the accent and similar wrinkles around his eyes.

10:57am

Oh. I get it. It’s a question answer session, where they ask the questions and we answer. If we get it right we get a Starbucks card. Boring questions. Who cares about 410K?

10:55am

Feel like I just jumped into the middle of a conversation. I think that they just introduce people…

10:52

Cool inflatable obstacle course!

10:50am

Found a seat, and my assistant manager, manager and district manager. SCARY.

10:48am

Found it! Okay, don’t recognize any one.

ESPRESSO MY LIFE

Words, I’ve had a crush on them all my life, but coffee was my first love. It started slow, in tiny increments. My grandma would let me have espresso sized cups half-full of coffee (the other half I would fill with sugar and cream in that order). When we moved to Virginia, coffee kept me warm on all those bitter cold winter nights. I would curl up with a hot mug and a good book for hours. Slowly, I’ve become so dependent on my cup of java joe that I could not leave the house in the morning with out sipping down a mug or two. Then three, and soon I was moving onto a stronger version. Espresso.

I remember, very specifically, my first espresso drink. Actually, it coincides with my first Starbucks visit. What a memorable experience.

The first thing I distinctly remember was the smell. That amazing, seizing, aroma of espresso and steamed milk! Then, when I got to the register, I was completely overwhelmed. The incomprehensible jumble of different menu items was bewildering. So I ordered a latte, which I probable pronounced wrong. A scrawling conversation was written on the walls. I tried to read the whole thing once but the jumbled sentences verged on poetry and lost me immediately. I love the city and the busy down town setting only enhanced my awe.

No one experience since then has ever been as original.

Tips on My Mind

$106 million dollars is a lot of money.

That’s the amount Starbucks is giving back to all their barista’s in California in compensation for “illegally” splitting tips with shift supervisors.

Multiple customers have come in on every shift I’ve worked this weekend inquiring about the tip lawsuit filed against Starbucks. Most customers wonder if it will affect us. Others inquire more specifically about our opinions. Some, just think it’s great to read negative reports about Starbucks, like “Starbucks got caught with its hand in the tip jar”.

While some barista’s have no idea what’s going on, others, especially employees in California, have an opinion. Personally, I’m with the vast majority that thinks it’s all ridiculous.

Everything depends on how you look at it. According to California law, they were out of line. But every barista has to admit that shifts do everything (and more) that a barista does. Even my manager works on the floor with us. There’s no differentiating between us from a customers perspective. Nothing good is going to be accomplished by taking tips away from shift supervisors.

Fair Trade

Fair Trade had me puzzled. Even Bean Activist Chris O’Brian comments on the complexity of fair trade in his article The Wall Street Journal’s Fair Trade Faux Pas: “fair trade is complex enough as it is without the media complicating it further by making easily avoidable mistakes.” His criticism of the WSJ’s innocent mix up between “fair trade” and “free trade” is understandable. Yet, even from the naïve perspective of the WSJ’s article Tours to Fair-Trade Farms Help Coffee Sellers Spread Word, I was enlightened. The proposal of sending both potential buyers and committed customers of “fair trade” coffee to rural farms in third world countries intrigued me on whole new level. Granted, the business benefits from this set up would be profitable. However, what caught my eye was the endeavor to establish connections with people.

People are the heartbeat behind my love of coffee. When I see those in need protected as O’Brian commented, “justice and sustainability are important in their own right,” fair trade wins my devotion through its commitment to people. In statement made by Global Exchange, they believe “in a total transformation of the coffee industry, so that all coffee sold in this country should be Fair Trade Certified, or if produced on a plantation, that workers' rights should be guaranteed and independently monitored. Our view includes social justice and environmental sustainability.”

My first encounter with fair trade was while sitting in a Starbucks work shop. There they elicited your awe and praise by telling story after story of people and farms that they have saved with their participation with fair trade. As suspicious of it as I was at the time, the stories went to my heart. And after a little research were justified. I found documents establishing the alleviation of poverty in area’s of third-world countries where fair trade had been established. So, although, I may not know all about Fair Trade business, I respect and admire the justice and equality for individuals they are endeavoring to accomplish.

LATTE ART

Well here it is.

Latte Art.

Don’t be scared. Or terrified. Intimidated. Or impressed.

This basic, but well done example of espresso art is not as easy as it looks.

Actually its extremely hard!

Running Out of Steam

In my business this becomes problematic.

No steam, no milk, no froth, no latte, and defiantly no cappuccino.

But what can be more problematic is getting burned out mid-semester with multiple assignments, etc. due. So please excuse the long delay getting back into my blog after spring break. I expect I’ll be on track this week.