Starbucks Promises Customers Perfection
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022700551.html

Instead of dumping shots straight into the paper cups they’ll serve to customers, Starbucks baristas are getting back to pouring espresso into shot glasses first. “You get to see if it’s a quality shot of espresso,” store manager Justin Chapple, 25, said during a training session at a New York City store.

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!

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?!”

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.