Starbucks buys Clover, grinds beans, and dumbs down their espresso machines even further
Posted by TheShot on 19 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Machine, Starbucks
We really hate doing Starbucks posts if we don’t have to. After all, Starbucks hasn’t been relevant to quality espresso in over a decade. But if you’ve been following some of the Clover brewer posts here, you may be surprised to learn that Starbucks liked them enough to buy the company: Aroma comeback: Starbucks to start grinding coffee in stores. (More details here: Starbucks to Acquire The Coffee Equipment Company, Maker of the Clover – HispanicBusiness.com.)
OK, so the rest of the world seems to be “oohing” and “aahing” over news that Starbucks is returning to grinding beans fresh at their locations — reversing a move to pre-ground, packaged beans from 10 years ago. The media also seem curious about Starbucks’ announced replacement for their horrid Verismo machines: an even more dismal-sounding contraption from the same manufacturer, Swiss-based Thermoplan, called the Mastrena. (More on that in a minute.)
But the news most relevant to quality coffee is their purchase of the fledgling Coffee Equipment Company, makers of the (oft-cited-$11,000-a-pop) Clover brewer. This after Starbucks tried out the device in a couple of Seattle-area cafés for a couple months. For chocolate lovers, this is akin to Hershey’s buying out Scharffen Berger in 2005. (It’s entirely fitting that Starbucks announced Hershey’s as their chocolate partner earlier this month.)
Starbucks coffee in a Clover machine? Who buys a $30,000 sound system to listen to AM talk radio?
But back to the Mastrena, a device that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer described as “a new machine designed to leave a smaller margin for error in pulling shots and steaming milk.” Apparently Starbucks will now be able to hire employees with less skills than trained monkeys — to produce consistently underwhelming and “safe” espresso beverages that taste like they were squirted out of a coin-operated vending machine.
“It’s an unbelievable tool that will provide us with the highest-quality, consistent shot of espresso that will be second to none,” said Starbucks’ chairman, Howard Schultz. However, we’re wondering if by “unbelievable tool” he meant the Mastrena…or if he was referring to himself.
UPDATE: March 20, 2008
If you envy those at The Coffee Equipment Company, who cashed in big with their Starbucks acquisition success, here’s a story for you from today’s Post-Intelligencer: Starbucks deal ‘dream come true’ for manufacturer of coffee maker.
UPDATE: March 26, 2008
The New York Times kicked the tires of a Clover machine in a Starbucks, bringing along George Howell of Acton, MA’s Terroir Coffee as their expert taster: Tasting the Future of Starbucks Coffee From a New Machine – New York Times. His findings? Most of the coffee Starbucks roasted for their Clover machines was over-roasted and destroyed the flavor, reducing the Clover to something no better than a $20 French press could produce with the same beans.
UPDATE: March 28, 2008
And here’s a version of the story today from the Associated Press, highlighting some of the independent cafés that are disowning their Clover machines in response to the buyout: Starbucks acquires pricey coffee maker … and the indies are upset – SGVTribune.com.
10 Comments »
on 19 Mar 2008 at 1:52 pm -05:00T 1.manseekingcoffee said …
Thunk! (The sound of my jaw dropping to the floor)
on 19 Mar 2008 at 1:54 pm -05:00T 2.Eric said …
Here is an article with Howard stating this:
“It’s an unbelievable tool that will provide us with the highest-quality, consistent shot of espresso that will be second to none.”
With that kind of statement I’m not going anywhere else but Starbucks now
I wonder what is going to happen to clover?
on 19 Mar 2008 at 3:14 pm -05:00T 3.Srini said …
Love the statement Unbelievable Tool..in reference to Shultz.
This guy is the jerk of the first magnititude after destroying the Original Starbucks with his cheap expensive imitations.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 12:00 am -05:00T 4.Rick Turoczy said …
Looking for the bright side here. Not sure that I’ve found it, but I’m going to say, “At least Schultz is getting back to something he knows: coffee makers.”
Oh forget it. I don’t even believe that.
Clover RIP.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 10:35 am -05:00T 5.Wayne said …
“For many years now, we have been a respectful inheritor of the Italian coffee culture. We have built our business honoring the very things we saw and experienced. And, in some cases, I am humbled to say, we have improved it. All of you deliver a world class experience to our customers — one that I believe Italians would praise.” – Howard Schultz
You have to ask yourself what kind of person could write such balderdash. Someone who lives in an alternate reality-bubble of the sort that surrounds megalomaniac petty dictators, or someone with a serious lack of integrity — these two types, alas, are often combined. The source URL is below, if you care to read the whole thing:
http://www.coffeetasters.org/newsletter/en/index.php/schultz-starbucks-ceo-italian-baristas-are-very-good-italian-coffee-is-awful/032/
on 20 Mar 2008 at 11:07 am -05:00T 6.Christian (aka manseekingcoffe) said …
All I can say is that I’m jealous of those Clover guys. But seriously, puting aside my own jaded, cynical view of things – “this is a sell-out” or “why would you want starbucks on a clover” – it seems to me that the silver lining is that more places might start tuning in to what the clover is about. The clover has wide-spread grass roots usage amongst cafes with top-notch coffees. Hopefully as places start to take on the clover, they’ll absorb something about better coffee in the mix.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 9:37 pm -05:00T 7.asurroca said …
Just saying…Starbucks switched to the shitty pre-ground crap more like 5ish years ago, not 10. I worked there a couple years before they switched, and back then nothing was pre-ground, not even the (ugh) Frappuccino coffee base.
The Clover news excites me because (I live in Florida) Starbucks is probably the only way I’ll ever get to drink a cup of coffee from one of these machines.
on 21 Mar 2008 at 10:20 am -05:00T 8.TheShot said …
FWIW, I don’t profess to be a Starbucks expert for the past decade. But the “10 years” figure noted above for when they switched to pre-ground, packaged beans has been cited (correctly or not) in multiple sources, e.g. United Press International:
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Business/2008/03/19/starbucks_to_go_back_to_the_future/1002/
Though perhaps one of my favorite quotes on this news thus far comes from member DU on Metafilter:
on 26 May 2008 at 7:47 pm -05:00T 9.Makers of the Clover Bought Out By Starbucks said …
[...] so poorly that no $8,000 brewer is going to fix it. As Greg Sherwin over at TheShot coffee blog very aptly put it: “Who buys a $30,000 sound system to listen to AM talk [...]
on 07 Sep 2008 at 6:20 am -05:00T 10.MeanBean said …
It doesn’t matter how great a system is used for brewing an espresso if you are going to serve it in a paper cup. Yuck. If you ever had an espresso in Italy you would know really good coffee, server of course in a REAL cup in an artful manner. Those Italians know how to brew with skill.