Ren, a week or so ago we talked about the original Starbucks Coffee, back in the 70's, down at Pike Street Market. I found this, thought I'd share it with ya:
They did sell teas and spices too. I thought so, but that was so long ago I wasn't sure.
On another note, but related to Starbucks:
quote:
IG BREWHAHA Anti-God Starbucks cup has customer steaming Woman says: 'I don't think there needs to be religious dialogue on it. I just want coffee'
An Ohio woman is steaming after reading an anti-God message published on the side of a Starbucks coffee cup.
The message that got Michelle Incanno's blood boiling reads:
"Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure."
Michelle Incanno of Springboro, Ohio holds a cup part of Starbucks' 'The Way I See It' campaign (courtesy: Dayton Daily News)
The quote was written by Bill Schell, a Starbucks customer from London, Ontario, Canada, and was included as part of an effort by the Seattle-based coffee giant to collect different viewpoints and spur discussion.
"As someone who loves God, I was so offended by that," Michelle Incanno, a married mother of three who is Catholic, told the Dayton Daily News. "I don't think there needs to be religious dialogue on it. I just want coffee."
Incanno of Springboro, Ohio, admits she had been a huge fan of Starbucks before discovering the message, always ordering a large, house-brewed coffee with nonfat milk and two Splenda.
"I wouldn't feel right going back," she said.
The paper says Incanno wasn't satisfied with a company disclaimer saying the quote is the author's opinion, not necessarily that of Starbucks, which invites customers to respond on its website.
Starbucks spokeswoman Sanja Gould said the collection of thoughts and opinions is a "way to promote open, respectful conversation among a wide variety of individuals. "
I wonder if this woman complained back in December when Starbucks was selling Christmas CD's and the cups were red and green holiday motif? Is she that insecure with her faith that a few lines on a cup that praise the merits of introspection rattle her so much?
------------------------------------ We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
Posts: 1855 | Location: here and now | Registered: 22 September 2005
My interest back then was enjoying myself at Pike Place and drinking some good coffee, and their roaster was good at what she did. I probably had blinders on when I walked in as I focused on the coffee bar.
I suspect if the woman likes coffee she'll forgive Starbucks, especially if it removes the offending wording from the cups. Unless she finds a competitor in the meantime. Last time I went to Michigan, about five years ago, after I left Western Washington, a good cup of coffee was not to be found until I got to Ann Arbor (I didn't go through Chicago). Fortunately I brought my own. My guess is Ohio isn't much different than most of that coffee dead zone. Starbucks may not have much competition to worry about.
Meanwhile, I don't speculate about how people make sense of the world with their faith.
The best cup of coffee I've had came from Cafe Allegro in the University District. It's tucked away in an alley behind a nice used book store and has been around longer than Starbucks. Their coffee has a great "toasty" flavor. Their roaster is Brown's Coffee.
A very close second is Herkimer Coffee on Phinney Ridge, just a couple blocks from my house. If you ask my wife she'll tell you they take the number one spot. Their roaster is Caffe Vita, which operates a couple of their own cafes in Capitol Hill and Queen Anne that I've never tried.
well, we were talking about the good ol' days when Starbucks hadn't yet franchised, and they roasted their own. I've been to maybe two Starbucks since 1989. I roast my own now, I get my beans wholesale from sweet maria's, I've long since paid for my roaster, and I'm having the time of my life with one of my very few obsessions.
Yeah Ren, back then visiting the market and getting real roasted coffee was a periodic treat. I rarely go near Seattle anymore, just can't stand the traffic. I think the last two times I went was to go to Jazz Alley for some good blues music. I'm going down next week though, my older sister is insisting, she bought tickets to the Celtic Women's show; but we're taking the bus
JohnnyX, that name, Cafe Allegro, sounds familiar, would they be around the 55th & Roosevelt area? I used to pick up materials from a vendor in that area, I probably stopped for coffee there at least once.
Someone told me that if I bought the beans green and roasted them myself I would never go back. Countertop home roasters have a ways to go before I go that route.
------------------------------------ We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
Posts: 1855 | Location: here and now | Registered: 22 September 2005
Lisa, I don't know what you've looked into, but check out sweet marias from my above link. I use the earlier version of the Hearthware i-Roast Coffee Roasters - the iRoast2 which paid for itself within a year, and that's with only one person drinking. It's programmable for all kinds of roasts, so I can just experiment and really craft a cup to my taste.
If this one ever goes out I'd probably get one of the bigger drum roasters next.
Hey Ren, that's cool. A friend of mine has the same hobby and was trying to tell me how to do it in a popcorn popper.
This may be a non-sequitur but my wife and I toured the Theo Chocolate Factory in nearby Fremont this morning. They're the only organic chocolate factory in the US, and they do it all - import the cacao beans from Panama, Ecuador, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Venezuela; roast them; and create the finished product which is the BEST chocolate I've ever tasted. Their Madagascar chocolate has really complex wine-like notes of fruit - I'm spoiled for life now. It struck me this morning what an amazing place this is. I love Seattle.
Lisa, Cafe Allegro is south of 45th, I want to say 40th maybe. The building is right on The Ave and they're around the corner on the back side.
Gourmet chocolate and coffee? I can see a correlation. Like chocolate covered coffee beans for one.
I'll look those folks up, that's quite an amazing thing that they do it all like that.
Back about 1985 I did an operations manual for these folks when they had a store in Vancouver BC and were just three guys, two brothers and a choclatier who created their hand made, $20 a pound chocolate: House of Brussels Chocolates
I spent a week with the chocolatier, who'd been trained in Belgium, and I learned a lot about the art, and of course about fine chocolates. I was contracted through a franchise consulting firm in Chicago, and my contract was to produce a manual so they could franchise. It's as much a legal document as anything else.
In the process I made a connection with the chocolatier, because I too have an interest in creating delicious things to eat, and I discovered they did not have a happy camper on their hands, he saw his love and his art being destroyed, and himself being abused. So confidentially I told him there are basic principles to a successful franchise and they are being severely contorted with this basic model of theirs. First thing you don't do is base your entire franchise systems on the unique skills of one person.
The main part of his art was creating the fillings, not the chocolate, which they purchased in bricks from some gourmet place in Belgium. The chocolatier was being turned into a mass producer of his own unique fillings that would be sold to the growing base of franchisees who would assemble them in the various molds as they would be trained to do, also by him.
They did try to sell franchises, I don't see that as part of their business anymore. So my guess is that fell through as I anticipated. I don't know the whole story, I've long since lost touch.
Here's an article about them from 2003, still trying to find that magic formula I see:
"While Brussels' business is not yet sufficiently stable to provide accurate guidance, we do expect 2004 revenues to be a multiple of 2003 and it is our intent to update this guidance as the year progresses."
House of Brussels Chocolates has manufactured and distributed Belgian chocolates around the world since 1983. HBSL's signature product is a hedgehog - a molded chocolate design that blends the traditional Belgian symbol of good luck with taste for a strong customer appeal.
Other products in the HBSL line include an assortment of tourist oriented truffles including some made with genuine maple syrup and some with Canadian ice wine, fine quality chocolate bars made in several distinct flavors, and their recently introduced no-sugar-added/low-carbohydrate line of chocolate bars and truffles.
So there's another connection, franchising Starbucks and franchising gourmet coffee.
Is their a dilution factor going from the hand roasting Starbucks used to do and the hand made chocolates House of Brussels used to do? I leave the question there.
Interesting bit about that "old Pike Place coffee joint."
Starbucks in my lifetime has introduced the higher quality coffee bean, Coffea arabica, in a variety of gourmet roasts to the vast cultural wasteland between the coasts of the U.S. where only cans of Hills Bros., and similar varieties of relatively cheap coffees of the Coffea arabica variety could be found.
Coffea arabica is a species of coffee indigenous to Ethiopia. So this news item struck me in its sense of connecteness to this important world trade item and Starbuck's role.
Specialty Ethiopian coffee beans can retail for as much as $25 dollars a pound in the U.S, but back in Ethiopia, impoverished farmers may earn less than $1 dollar a pound for the same beans. Hoping to take more control over marketing and boost prices, the government of Ethiopia tried to trademark regional coffee names. Starbucks - the world’s largest specialty coffee retailer - opposed Ethiopia’s trademarking efforts. In response, Starbucks came under heavy public pressure to sign a licensing deal with Ethiopia. The campaign appears to have worked. Last week, Starbucks and the Ethiopian government released a joint statement announcing they signed an agreement in principle.
quote:
We invited Starbucks on the program but they declined saying the licensing agreement has not yet been finalized.
Generally, Starbucks has very good relationships with it's coffee growing partners. They aim for sustainable environments, fair trade, improving conditions of the coffee growing communities including education and health benefits for the children of coffee growers. Starbucks has a better record than most corporations, in that their sole aim is not to totally exploit the workers, grind them into the ground, ignoring their welfare in pursuit of maximum profits.
------------------------------------ We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
Posts: 1855 | Location: here and now | Registered: 22 September 2005
Of course, but there's still the neoliberal polyarchic pseudo democratic institution of globalism they have to contend with, and the strictures of making a competitively induced buck -- with stars in their case.
I wonder, how much coffee beans grow in Oregon/Washington? Anyone want to give up coffee (like I have) so that we don't feed into that "neoliberal polyarchic pseudo democratic institution of globalism"?
Posts: 7939 | Location: Santa Barbara | Registered: 19 July 2005
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
Originally posted by Sawdust: Marionberry's? I thought you were kidding.
LOL... Not this:
And this guy spells it wrong:
Well this is what there is in the Great Pacific Northwest: Yummy! Do you want to take my challenge? What do I get from Florida that I many not like giving up?
Posts: 7939 | Location: Santa Barbara | Registered: 19 July 2005
Originally posted by Ronald Rutherford: Then I guess people would have to give up sweet Washington Apples? Blackberries? Oregon Grape? MarionBerry? Marionberries?
MicroBreweries?
Salmon?...
Hi, Lisa, what do you have unique in your neck of the woods???
I've actually given this some serious thought, Ronald. You might want to try fishing in another pond. Or not.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
I get it. You're in Washington State and I'm thinking about DC.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
Generally, Starbucks has very good relationships with it's coffee growing partners. They aim for sustainable environments, fair trade, improving conditions of the coffee growing communities including education and health benefits for the children of coffee growers. Starbucks has a better record than most corporations, in that their sole aim is not to totally exploit the workers, grind them into the ground, ignoring their welfare in pursuit of maximum profits.
I do business with Starbucks. These people care passionately about their suppliers, their employees and their customers. If these people don't satisfy the anti-business progressive crowd, no one will.
After Lisa's comment, Ren sniffed:
quote:
Of course, but there's still the neoliberal polyarchic pseudo democratic institution of globalism they have to contend with, and the strictures of making a competitively induced buck -- with stars in their case.
For goodness sakes, I hope this was some kind of snotty progressive joke.
Posts: 1807 | Location: West Michigan | Registered: 23 June 2005
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