Starbucks has just released a news thingie (yes I know, very professionally put: thingie) that they are removing the artificial ingredients from their baked goods and replacing them with all natural ingredients.

Just remember folks, all natural is NOT the same as organic. However they are promising the following:

• No artificial flavors
• No artificial trans fats (LOL! ALL transfats are artificial)
  
• No artificial dyes
• No high-fructose corn syrup

I think that is a great step for them. They are even giving recipes for a couple of their items. You know what I would like to see them do? Seriously? I would like to see Starbucks and other large coffee shops that carry pastries and such begin to source locally. I realize that they would lose the continuity flow but the items would be so much fresher, so much tastier, and it would be good for local economies.

I don’t know how difficult that would be, how many government and corporate hoops they would have to jump through or anything..but to me it makes much more sense.  Let’s face it. Baked goods are their best within the first 12 hours or so of being baked. The longer they hang around the more stale they get. Having pastries delivered from a local bakery every morning at 5 am would solve the freshness issue for sure.

What do you think? Is it feasible? Should be hit them with a barrage of emails?

image: MaryeAudet

I just learned that Starbucks is having to recall 530,000 coffee grinders. Apparently they are defective and they fail to turn off, or turn on unexpectedly and the result has been some pretty serious hand lacerations. You can find out  if your grinder is one of them at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. They go by the names, Seattle’s Best and Starbuck’s Barista.

Let’s play three guesses where these are made. Ready? When I count three just shout it out….one…two…thr…….Yep China.

Now, I don’t want to say that the Chinese government has a furtive terrorist plan to subdue the entire  United States by booby-trapping children’s toys, pet foods, and now coffee…but..I’m just sayin.

The only coffee makers and coffee grinders tht I could find that are US made are by Bunn. They are all commercial products and over 500.00

I don’t know about you but that is a little out of my price range.

If you know of a coffee grinder that is made in the US please leave a comment with a link to it!  All of this outsourcing is getting to me. I was looking for a soapbox to get up on but they are all made in China….

image:Via CPSC

I was reading this article about Starbucks in Reuters with great interest, Green or Greenwashed?

Frankly, I am not sure that any large company can ever be green. No matter how much they try their very existence as a corporation will preclude them being environmentally friendly.

Green belongs to the small, local coffee shops that use “for here” cups and buy their organic, shade grown, bird friendly coffee from a local roaster or roast it themselves. Green belongs to small, family owned companies that operate in communities, support the local communities, and refuse to grow past a certain, controllable point.

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My family and I watched Bride Wars last friday night. We thoroughly enjoyed the movie.  I was reminded how people can get really bent out of shape from silly things that seem important at the time.

Well, move on from Bride Wars to Coffee Wars.  Starbucks, Panera, McDonalds, and Dunkin Donuts seem to be in a hand to throat battle over your coffee dollar.  Don’t you feel important?

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So.  Keep in mind that I gave the Starbucks Ipanema Bourbon a great review…

Starbucks recently introduced what may be the biggest set back for coffee drinkers since it was being boiled with eggshells over open fires by men named Slim, Cookie, and Billy Joe.

Starbucks Via is their newest foray into grasping at straws….  Short for Very Icky Aroma.  So, brace yourselves..because we’re goin’ in..

O.k.. the packaging is nice.  I like it.  Slimline, nice colors…good deco/upscale look.

But it goes down hill from the moment you open it and the scent of the coffee spills out.  If you have ever walked in to one of those pancake houses where the Bunn has been sitting on the burner with the same coffee in it for three days…OR if you have ever had the coffee at the OCmpany B mess hall at the Presidio of Monterey then you will have experienced the exotic aroma that wafted up from the package upon tearing it open.  And I hadn’t even added water yet.

I poured a little out on my hand.  It was a beautiful, dark, microgrind.  I tasted it. After my tongue uncurled I felt read to go on to making the coffee.

Pouring the package into the water was easy.  Stirring it, yep, easy.  It was the drinking that was tough.

The odor of carefully and methodically  scorched coffee intensified until it permeated my room.  The liquer is murkyand dark and if you don’t get it all stirred in you have sort of a sludge buildup on the sides of the cup.  Nice.

Taste is bitter, scorched, and stale.  If you have a fantasy of becoming a 1930s style journalist with a cigarette, a fedora, and a cheap suit then this is the coffee for you for sure.  If not, go ahead and donate it to the displaced cowboys society of Wyoming or something.

On a scale of 1-5?  Let’s not go there.  This is on equal footing with the Duncan Donuts coffee I reviewed.

Image: Starbucks

Starbucks Brazil Ipanema Coffee beans are only going to be around for a short period.  I am not sure what that means, other than you had better go ahead and order it now.

This was a delightful coffee.  It was a big surprise to me, because as you know I am not a Starbucks fan.  This coffee is worth driving for.  Mild and sweet, Brazil Ipanema Bourbon is smooth and a perfect way to start the day….or end it.

Distinct milk chocolate notes with an almost hazelnut finish make this a must try.  The usual scorched acidity that Starbucks is so proud of is no where to be found in this cup.

The unbrewed beans are glossy, and heavily perfumed.  There is a spicy floral scent that is hard to describe.

The aroma is delicate and comforting  and yet exotic and elegant.  It reminds me of really good vanilla, although it is not a vanilla flavor- if that makes sense.

On a scale of 1 to 5 I would give this a 4 1/2 and I know that is the best rating I have given anything Starbucks does.

Image: marye audet (c) 2009

Starbucks has a coffee out now that is considered seasonal and they will not be carrying it permanently.  I am not taking the time to review it at the moment because I want to cup it again tomorrow so I can be more specific than my memory allows right now.  My tasting notes are at home and I am at Panera…watching it rain…listening to quiet jazz….

I have some awesome pictures of the beans.  I will say that this is the very best coffee, in my opinion, that Starbucks has come out with.  Don’t wait for the review…go buy it now.

Image:marye audet (c) 2009

My dad liked great food.  He loved to go to unusual restaurants and try new things.

But one of the other things he loved to do was to take me out to run errands with him on Saturdays.  We would start at the lumber yard, head for the hardware, and end up at Grants, a department store with a lunch counter that was popular in Pennsylvania in the 1960s.  We would get burgers and fries, and thick chocolate shakes…and invariably, on the way out to the car he would stop and buy two big pretzels from the pretzel guy, dirty hands and all.  (The guy, not my dad).

You see, in his world you could enjoy expensive food or cheap food just as easily as long as you didn’t get served cheap food at an expensive place.

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Well, they just emailed me only moments ago.  Youc an now officially get a free sample of Starbucks Instant.

If I was really nice I would get one and try it so I could tell you about it.  I am not sure I am that nice.  We’ll see.

Here is where you go for the free sample, Starbucks Instant Coffee.

Image:via Starbucks

I have tried hard not to comment on this.

I have tried hard not to comment on this.

I have tried hard not to comment on this.

I have……

Aaawww, junk.  I can’t do it.

If you haven’t heard, Starbucks will set coffee technology back fifty years next week and unveil its own instant coffee.

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