Coffee Klatch Roasting Celebrates Starbucks Store Closures With Free Coffee for Everyone
Posted by TheShot on 19 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Barista, Quality Issues, Starbucks
It’s a rather snarky press release, but we confess to being amused by it: Coffee Klatch Roasting Celebrates Starbucks Store Closures With Free Coffee for Everyone.
These days, Howard Schultz’s return to the CEO post at Starbucks has resembled nothing short of a panicked man caught on a runaway bulldozer, pulling every lever and knob he can find to steer the thing before it careens off a cliff. Last week, Starbucks announced that they were going to temporarily close some 7,100 cafés nationwide for three hours — to retrain some 135,000 in-store employees and people who oversee the stores.
Hopefully it’s to teach them what a proper espresso should really taste like. However, as San Dimas’ Coffee Klatch owner, Mike Perry, pointed out in his press release, “I’m not sure why it’s going to take them 3 hours to learn how to press a button.” Touché. We first met Mike at the 2006 Western Regional Barista Competition, and he knows good coffee. (His daughter, Heather, won that competition as well as last year’s U.S. Barista Championship.)
Hitting a company when it’s down smacks of a little schadenfreude, no matter how big the company. Starbucks did popularize better coffee in this country more than anyone else, even if today they are a lot like Mikhael Gorbachev’s relevance to Russian governance after perestroika. But if Howard Schultz were to take our advice for improving the espresso standards at Starbucks, and if he were truly serious about his commitment to quality, we would only close about 6,900 of those 7,100 cafés — but never reopen them.
UPDATE: Feb. 20, 2008
Not to be outdone, Seattle’s Caffé Vita (one of the famous ‘V’s of great Seattle espresso) is offering a similar promotion, according to a blog on today’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Feb. 26: First No Coffee, Now Free Coffee.
UPDATE: Feb. 21, 2008
One successful press release can sometimes lead to another: Coffee Klatch Roasting Anti-Starbucks Promotion Sparks Nationwide Free Indie Coffee Uprising.
4 Comments »
on 21 Feb 2008 at 12:54 pm PT 1.Wayne said …
Those who know *$ personnel tell different stories about what the upcoming training session will cover. For ex., I’ve read that the super-autos are getting tweaked to produce a higher-quality shot. Also, some baristas need a refresher in how to steam milk (but don’t hold your breath expecting microfoam). The weirdest story is that they’re going to pull shots into shotglasses first, to enhance the “presentation”. Jeepers. Like that’s really the burning issue, isn’t it?
on 21 Feb 2008 at 4:53 pm PT 2.TheShot said …
I too have read that some of the training is to adjust their Verismo machines. Not to compare things at the opposite ends of the spectrum, but let’s also not forget that the Clover is technically a push-button machine — just with a whole lot of adjustments you can also make to its operation overall.
And as a home barista, I confess that milk frothing is a much harder art than getting a good espresso shot down with a nice crema.
The pulling shots into shotglasses story is so tragic, it is funny. For one, the shotglass was always about measuring the pour — which is about as useful to a Starbucks barista these days as a timer. Secondly, they’re introducing another heat sink before serving your shot — essentially diminishing its quality for “looks”.
But what looks? They’re probably slopping it into some paper cup or one of the two chipped ceramic relics from China they have in the back when they serve it to you anyway.
Starbucks has committed such irreversible crimes against quality coffee in recent years, and given that they do more business by volume in milk anyway, perhaps they should give up the ghost and rebrand themselves as a premier dairy retailer.
on 21 Feb 2008 at 9:00 pm PT 3.Wayne said …
Ciao,
The shotglass rumor should be taken with a grain of salt, esp. since many SB shops would need to re-position their machines to make the process visible to the customer. Their loyalists are probably more interested in speed than presentation anyway. My co-workers disdain the slow service at Peet’s — never mind that their barista’s pulling real shots on a La Marzocco Linea!
I figure whatever change is forthcoming, someone will be irritated by it. The SB barista’s lament could be, “Maaan, they won’t let us re-steam milk in the bucket anymore! We have to steam it fresh for every customer in these little pitchers! Like, WTF?!”
on 28 Feb 2008 at 1:05 pm PT 4.TheShot said …
Sure enough, looks like you were dead on with the “shotglass theatrics” call. From yesterday’s Washington Post:
Starbucks Promises Customers Perfection
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022700551.html
Yes, Starbucks is so committed to quality coffee that they are now adding free insult to the injury of every espresso. Not only will they serve your espresso beverage in a cup designed for the birthday parties of 4-year-olds, but they will additionally pour the shot in a shotglass to leech out more heat from your shot and to manhandle any crema that might be left on it. All for your eye-pleasing, coffee-loving enjoyment!