We’ve been receiving a fair amount of feedback that customers are frustrated tying to find a bold, strong brew at Starbucks since the introduction of the milder Pike Place Roast as the everyday coffee. We wrote about the introduction of Pike Place Roast last month.

My expectation when Starbucks first announced Pike Place Roast was that the classic bold, strong brew that customers have identified with Starbucks for years would still be available. Pike Place Roast seemed like a reasonable addition to the everyday drip offering. A milder coffee that would appeal to a segment of the market looking for something with a little less edge. And the strong, bold offering would remain available for the millions of loyal Starbucks customers that would like to see that continue.

We’ve been receiving consistent feedback at the Gourmet Coffee Zone that customers are having a hard time finding Starbucks stores that still serve the stronger coffee. So I visited a Starbucks today to check it out. Sure enough, it’s pretty much only Pike Place Roast. This is a mistake and will drive away loyal Starbucks customers looking for the strong daily coffee fix to which they’ve been accustomed.

Admittedly, the store we visited here in Southern California was certainly busy enough. Business didn’t seem to be suffering with the Pike Place Roast front and center. However, as is usually the case, most of the customers were walking out the door with the standard coffee milk shake fare.

We did noticed the “French Press” option, something we haven’t tried yet at Starbucks. On the menu, below the Pike Place Roast was something called “Share a Coffee” (or something similar). Your choice of any of the Starbucks whole bean coffees prepared in a French press for $3.50.

The coffee press is a Bodum 8-cup model designed for Starbucks, I believe the same model sold in the stores. So roughly two “talls” or about 24 ounces worth of coffee prepared fresh for you while you wait.

It must not be a commonly ordered item. The girl taking care of us seemed a bit flustered, and we had to point to the description on the menu behind her. And when we asked which whole bean coffees we could choose from, she explained “only the French Roast and the Italian Roast”. And I’m reminded I’m in a Starbucks. OK, let’s give it a shot, and we ordered the “French Roast”.

The “French press” takes about 5 minutes to prepare. I noticed they used a timer, which is probably a good idea. In the busy store, with the line practically out the door, it would be easy to lose track of the brewing time with the coffee press. As we watched from our table, the timer went off, and she rushed over to push the plunger. We stepped up to the counter and she handed us the French press along with two nice big ceramic coffee mugs.

We poured our own cups at the table. Unfortunately, it was downhill from there. The aroma in the cup was flat, with the Starbucks burnt roast mostly prominent. The brew was just a tad over-extracted, so it was pushing a little too much bitterness.

It was a nice touch, and could work if done right. We might have enjoyed the Guatemala Antiqua, Sulawesi or Sumatra prepared in the press if the beans were available. As mentioned, the menu did indicate “any of the whole bean coffees”. And I think the stores generally honor this policy.

If you’re not in a hurry, and have the time to wait for a French press preparation, this might be an option if you’re looking for that stronger brew at Starbucks.

But the days of the quick and convenient strong and bold daily drip appear to be gone!

Starbucks introduced Pike Place Roast last week. According to the company’s press release, Pike Place Roast is the result of significant customer input with the following objectives:

• “Starbucks newest, everyday brew”
• “Signature bold flavor with a smooth finish balanced by soft acidity and subtle, rich nutty flavor”
• Embracing “new quality standards for freshness including freshly roasted, hand-scooped, freshly ground and brewed with shorter hold times”.
• “Will be the first coffee to bear the new mark symbolizing Starbucks ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability through an expanded relationship with Conservation International (CI)”
• Available in all stores

Many suggest that the new Pike Place Roast offering is an attempt to address the common criticism that Starbucks coffee is too strong and burnt tasting. The familiar, bold, over-roasted style has been the signature profile that many customers identify as Starbucks coffee. Pike Place Roast may very well be an attempt to reach a different segment of the market that prefers a more toned down coffee.

As expected, just about any move that Starbucks makes today stirs up controversy and criticism. Some happy and loyal customers complain that Starbucks is selling out with this milder coffee profile. So you hear comments like “Starbucks is now trying to be more like Dunkin’ Donuts”.

If you listen to the noise level, Starbucks can never win. Either the standard coffee profile is too strong and bold, or it’s too meek and mild. In either case, there’s a contingent out there that is always eager to voice their opinion that “Starbucks sucks”.

Starbucks is under increasing competitive pressure today in the marketplace and they have a number of initiatives underway to improve quality and customer satisfaction. Good for CEO, Howard Schultz, for doing something about it. You may not agree with the change, but at least Starbucks is making a move. Nothing will improve without taking some action.

Bottom line, people just don’t like change. They like to stay in their comfort zone, where everything is easy to recognize and familiar. And if there’s the slightest nudge or push out of that comfort zone, it’s immediate grounds for whining and groaning.

To these folks, I suggest that it’s OK to embrace a little adventure and curiosity. Life is more interesting with a little variety.

For example, food is a great adventure. Lots of people routinely enjoy many different styles of food and cuisine. And the opportunity to try something new and different is exciting. Why should coffee be any different for the curious who seek a little adventure in life?

By the way, are you stuck on one and only one coffee? If so, I recommend our “coffee tasting course” now underway.

With Pike Place Roast, you now have more choices. You can still order your strong, bold, heavy roasted profile if that’s your preference. Starbucks continues to have that brew ready and available for you. And if you might like a more mild, less edgy coffee, you now have a great option with Pike Place Roast.

Personally, I enjoy many varieties of coffee. I find the differences between an East African and a Central American coffee satisfying and interesting to explore. And for me, a great Indonesian Sumatra or Sulawesi is always a special coffee experience.

And the variety goes for the roast level too. The roast is an important consideration to bring out the best qualities of a particular coffee. Hey, I like a coffee as strong and bold as you can get. But, for many coffees, I much prefer a lighter or medium roast that doesn’t overpower the more subtle characteristics of the coffee. With other coffees, for the right blend or single-origin, a darker Italian or darkest French roast with a dominant smoky or toasted quality is the only way to go.

I had a chance to stop in last week and try a cup of Pike Place Roast at my local Starbucks. Nice cup of coffee, actually. This is definitely not the classic Starbucks over-roasted, in your face profile. Definitely nothing burnt tasting about it.

I found the acidity a little more bright and lively than “soft acidity” as the press release suggests. Smooth, not overdone, but sufficiently perks up the palette. A nice body and pleasant mouthfeel. And a slightly nutty taste with soft fruit tones. This is clearly not a bland, mediocre coffee as some have complained. Different than the typical bold dark-roast at Starbucks that you might be accustomed to? Yes. But bland, not at all.

I did find it interesting that Starbucks brought back a version of the original logo for the introduction of Pike Place Roast, along with the slogan “Roasting coffee since 1971. The best cup then. The best cup now”.

The cup has the sleeve attached with the brown colored logo, similar to the cigar band motif of the original logo from the 1970′s. With a few differences. The phrase around the perimeter of the old logo was “Starbucks – Coffee – Tea – Spices”. The new logo retains the familiar “Starbucks – Fresh Roasted Coffee”.

And another more subtle difference. On the new image, the siren maiden’s breasts are covered by her flowing curls of hair. On the original logo, she was bare-breasted. Starbucks updated the logo to the more familiar green colored motif in the 1990′s, partly to address some controversy and customer discomfort with the original logo.

And a tip about the name. You might be tempted to ask for a Pike’s Place Roast. It’s a common mistake to attach the ‘s to Pike in the possessive form. But you’re sure to expose your lack of familiarity with Pike Place Market, the famous Seattle public market on nine acres for over a hundred years. Pike Place Market is the home of the very first Starbucks store, and the namesake for the newest Starbucks coffee blend.

So stop by a Starbucks and try a Pike Place Roast. You might enjoy something a little different from Starbucks.

Starbucks announced last week they are acquiring ‘The Coffee Equipment Co’, manufacturer of the Clover brewing machine. See Seattle PI article “Starbucks deal ‘dream come true’ for manufacture of coffee maker“.

We’ve been talking about the Clover brewing machine quite a bit lately. See “Starbucks Tests the Clover in Several Stores” for more detailed information about the Clover brewing system.

Starbucks has been testing the Clover in several stores for the last few months. So, pending a successful outcome of the limited Clover testing, it only makes good business sense that Starbucks would acquire the manufacturer. Evidently, the test phase indicated good results.

Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, said they plan to put the Clover machine into all but the smallest stores. The machine is not inexpensive, a single unit sells for around $11,000. Let’s see, Starbucks has about 7100 stores in the US, and over 15,000 stores world wide. Let’s be conservative and say that they will put a Clover in 5,000 stores. Without acquiring the company, let’s say Starbucks were able to negotiate a significant volume discount and purchase the machine for $5000 per unit. That’s a $25 million purchase order right there.

The initial investment raised to launch ‘The Coffee Equipment Co” in 2004 was around $1 million. The small 11 person operation publishes that they have sold the machine to between 200 and 300 independent coffee houses in the US and Canada. Some stores have purchased two machines, so let’s again be conservative and speculate that the company has sold about 1,000 machines to date. At the current price of $11,000/unit, that would be about $11 million in sales over the last 5 years.

Hey, my numbers could be way off, but any way you cut it, the Starbucks purchase order alone would easily exceed the annual revenue of the company by a wide margin. And most companies acquired in a transaction like this are valued at some multiple of annual revenue or gross sales.

The other consideration for a volume order this size is the necessary financing that ‘The Coffee Equipment Co’ would have to secure just to scale up the manufacturing capacity. So, it only makes sense that Starbucks has acquired the company.

And good for Zander Nosler who co-founded ‘The Coffee Equipment Co’. I’m sure a very nice pop for him and the others with equity positions, as well as the private shareholders.

I’ve had the opportunity to try a cup off the Clover at four or five different independent coffee houses. The brewing system definitely produces a good result in the cup. Not necessarily dramatically better than what you might be able to achieve with a proper French press extraction, but consistently good results.

The real benefit with the Clover, in my opinion, is the ability to dial in the right parameters to achieve the same consistent result time after time for each custom brewed cup of coffee. And do this in a busy commercial environment where waiting for a 5 to 6 minute brew cycle with a French press or drip brew bar would be too inefficient. The Clover can typically complete a predictable full extraction custom brew in less than 90 seconds.

The acquisition, while probably a good thing for Starbucks, may be a disappointment for other coffee aficionados and independent coffee houses. The independent specialty coffee retailers, the initial target for the Clover machine, have been successful in differentiating a premium offering by offering coffee brewed with a Clover. And at a fairly hefty investment for the small store at $11,000 per unit. From what I can tell, the Clover has been a successful drawing card.

I’m sure these independent store owners would like to maintain this edge, and that will probably change somewhat once the Clover is brewing coffee at most of the Starbucks stores.

For Schultz, he would like to shift the edge and distinction to Starbucks, so he bought the company. However, although consistent with an ongoing initiative to upgrade the coffee experience at Starbucks, I’m not sure the Clover makes complete sense. The real distinction of brewing with the Clover is the ability to consistently bring out the full flavor and subtle taste characteristics from premium coffee beans, especially the interesting single origins such as a Sumatra Mandheling or an Ethiopian Harrar.

I just don’t see Starbucks in this end of the specialty market, at least not presently. But maybe that’s where Starbucks is headed? Today, I’m not convinced that the typical Starbucks customer who comes in for a cup of drip is interested in more than the one or two batch brew offerings that Starbucks prepares.

Hey, but then I don’t run the company either.

The good news, for interested coffee enthusiasts out there that have been waiting to see what the Clover is all about, your chance seems to be coming soon at a local Starbucks near you!

Well, it’s behind us now. Tuesday, Feb 26th, Starbucks closed all 7,100 US stores for three hours, from 5:30pm to 8:30pm to conduct a company wide unprecedented employee refresh training session.

Howard Schultz, the company’s CEO, requested that approximately 135,000 employees participate in this refresher course to reinforce the standards on how Starbucks creates the drinks, including such tasks as pulling proper espresso shots, steaming milk, and bringing all the elements together.

This week’s retraining has been part of an overall initiative to raise the bar at Starbucks, and get back to the core business. In addition to the barista training Tuesday evening, the improvements have also included software upgrades and reprogramming of the Verismo automatic espresso machines, elimination of the hot breakfast sandwiches which have been criticized for overpowering the coffee aroma in the morning, and the introduction of free WiFi internet access (well, sort of free – available to Starbucks debit card holders for the first two hours per day).

Of course, closing down the stores for three hours has been criticized as more of a publicity stunt than a sincere attempt at a quality uplift. Well, perhaps a combination of both, but a pretty expensive publicity stunt if you ask me.

And the media has certainly had a heyday with this one. Did anyone miss the story plastered all over the press, the internet, the television, and the radio? The Starbucks store closings may have actually briefly eclipsed Britney Spears for just a moment. OK, sorry, that’s an exaggeration.

Competitors didn’t let this one sneak by either. Dunkin’ Doughnuts seized the opportunity offering a small latte, cappuccino or espresso drink for 99 cents from 1 pm. to 10pm Tuesday. The Dunkin’ Doughnuts official statement stated that this promotion, available only on the day that the Starbucks stores were closed for the three hour training, was to celebrate a top spot award in a brand loyalty competition. Right. And this wasn’t a Dunkin’ Doughnuts publicity stunt?

Nonetheless, whether it was the Dunkin’ Doughnuts relief for Starbucks refugees or not, it looks like die-hard fans survived without their Starbucks fix Tuesday evening. And shareholders can relax. It seems that store receipts for Tuesday were at about the daily average, so customers must have heard the news in time to stop in early enough and grab their drinks before the doors closed.

After all is said and done, did the training help? Well, I haven’t been back in yet to sample the drinks, but Starbucks employees talking about it over at Starbucks Gossip seem to be positive about the training. Employees are making comments that they’re happy and proud to be taking appropriate measures to improve the drink experience for the customers.

To be expected, someone did post a comment that they went into a Starbucks on Wednesday after the training, and some barista got the drink all wrong. Oh well, life’s tough. Apparently, Starbucks didn’t get a 100% result from re-training 135,000 employees the night before.

For good or bad, with all of the publicity surrounding the training session, the spotlight shines pretty brightly on Starbucks at the moment. I can only imagine the baristas and employees behind the counter having to force a smile as they hear for the millionth time from the next obnoxious and unoriginal customer that just has to ask “so are you trained now”?

Bottom line, in my book, good for Starbucks. They are making the effort, and for the most part, it seems that the employees are behind the company. I expect some good to come as a result of these initiatives.

Starbucks is reputed to be testing the Clover coffee brewing system in several stores.

The Clover is described as an automated reverse French press. Although, at around $11,000 a pop, this innovative coffee brewing system is a bit more expensive than a typical coffee press.

The invention of Zander Nosler, co-founder and president of the Coffee Equipment Company which manufacturers the machines, the Clover was first introduced about four years ago. There are now about 200 in use at specialty coffee houses in the US and Canada.

Clover Coffee Machine Demonstration

The Clover is a single cup brewing system that automates the function of a French press, and gives the barista precise control over all four variables of the brewing process; water temperature, coffee grind, coffee to water ratio, and the brew time.

Intended for commercial use, the full cycle time to produce a cup of coffee is about 75 seconds. The result is a precisely controlled, near perfect coffee extraction, similar to a French press, but in much less time.

A French press will take, on average, about 4 to 5 minutes to steep and brew several cups of coffee, and is not a very practical method for a busy commercial establishment to produce a brewed-to-order single cup of coffee. Another important efficiency factor for a commercial operation, cleanup of the expelled coffee grounds after brewing with a Clover is much easier and faster than with a French press.

If you like to dump milk and sugar into your coffee, the refinement of the Clover brewing system is a nuance that will most likely escape your appreciation. And, at between $2.50 and $3.00 for a cup of coffee brewed with a Clover, you’re not likely to see the value in spending the extra money.

But for coffee drinkers that are refining their palates, the Clover is an effective and complimentary brewing method that can really bring out the unique and distinctive tastes and flavors of the more exotic specialty coffees increasing in popularity today.

Starbucks has an initiative underway to renew the higher-end quality coffee experience and attempt to recapture some of the customers who have begun to stray. An effort to refocus on the core business and make it “more about the coffee”.

Apparently, deploying the Clover coffee machines at several pilot stores, including a few stores in Seattle, is some of this current testing underway. Supposedly, the stores with a Clover will also offer more exclusive beans than what is normally available at a standard Starbucks store.

Of course, as we would expect from Starbucks, they have coined another Starbucks-ism and will refer to the Clover machines as a “Fresh Press“.

Whether or not the Clover will draw the customers in, good for Starbucks for making the effort to raise the bar.

I know I’ll be curious to try a cup from a Clover when it comes to a Starbucks in my neighborhood.

Starbucks barista bashing, and Starbucks bashing in general, seems to be a popular activity lately.  And I’m not talking about the Starbucks Barista  espresso machines for sale. I’m referring to the human variety, the baristas preparing espresso drinks behind the counter.

There are some espresso aficionados not even willing to call these folks baristas.  In defense of honorable and worthy baristas where ever we are lucky enough to find them, I concede that we’re not typically going to find highly skilled artisans behind the counter at Starbucks.

But let’s be fair. Preparing espresso drinks, for better or for worse, with automatic espresso machines, manual, semi-automatic or otherwise, takes some level of skill and training. And what these folks do at Starbucks, whether or not it matches the highest expression of blissful espresso, does fall under the role of a barista.

To keep this in perspective, Starbucks is not really about sublime straight shots of espresso.  Truthfully, anyone who heads over to Starbucks for a nirvana shot of espresso is only setting themselves up for disappointment.

The espresso preparation at Starbucks is much more intended as the basis for the lattes, cappuccinos, macchiatos, and so forth.  By the time you add the foam, the milk, and the syrup, the caliber of the espresso shot isn’t going to make nearly as much difference.

Whether the connoisseurs consider the drinks at Starbucks authentic or not, it’s not really the point.  Starbucks delivers a style and version of espresso drinks that clearly satsifies the customer demand.    That is key for any successful business.  The proof is in the numbers.  That’s millions of customers and billions of dollars.  Hard to argue with numbers like that.  True, Starbucks had a lot to do with shaping the customer demand for their style of drinks, but all the power to them.

As for my personal preference, I don’t go into a Starbucks for a shot of espresso.  And I’m not a fan of all the milk, the foam, the syrup and the sugar.   But neither do I despise Starbucks as many espresso connoisseurs seem to do.  I’m fine with a cup of drip, and I generally enjoy stepping into a Starbucks and find it a pleasant experience.

Is there a higher barista calling than what we can expect to find at Starbucks?  Of course.  Let’s see, 15,000 Starbucks stores times 5 baristas per store is 75,000 baristas.  We don’t honestly expect to encounter a legion of 75,000 master baristas at Starbucks?  That would suggest that anyone can easily achieve black belt barista status.  Which would diminish and dilute the true accomplishment that an expert barista achieves.

And there is always room for improvement.  This year, in 2008, Starbucks is undertaking an initiative to improve the coffee experience at their stores.  This includes upgrades to the Verismo machines (I know, there are those that will never forgive Starbucks for moving from the LaMarzocco machines to the Verismo Automatics) and barista retraining.  At least Starbucks recognizes that there is need for improvement and I commend the effort.  See the lively discussion at Starbucks Gossip.

So let’s give the baristas at Starbucks a break.  Let’s lighten up on the Starbucks barista bashing.  There’s a place for Starbucks in my world, and no need to disrespect the folks that are working hard at Starbucks to please the customers. 

Yes, I will continue to enjoy my visits to Starbucks, and still remain free to seek out great espresso elsewhere.  And honor the barista master whenever and wherever I can.