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Re: Starbucks

Per capita coffee consumption rose steadily in the US until 1963, when
it faltered and dropped each year thereafter (due in this student's
opinion because of the influx of cheap filler beans into US blends in
the years after WWII) until the specialty revolution took hold and
stabilized coffee consumption.  In recent years coffee consumption has
been growing in the US.  According to the National Coffee Association
this trend continued into the current year with, “17% of the adult
population consumed a gourmet beverage on a daily basis in 2008
compared with 14% in 2007.  Consumption of cups per day by consumers
age 18-24 continued to trend higher in 2008. Young adults who drank
coffee consumed an average of 3.2 cups per day as compared with 3.1 in
2007, a significant increase over 2005’s level of 2.5 cups per day.”

Specialty roasters began to appear in US cities in earnest around 1970
as a response to what Jack has called, “mass market degradation.”
Almost 40 years later there are hundreds of specialty roasters linked
by an industry infrastructure that includes the internet, trade
magazines, the SCAA, Roasters Guild, CoffeeFest, and the Annual
Conference & Exposition (hosted by SCAA).  The number of small
independent roaster wholesalers and roaster retailers continues to
grow, as does the number of home roasters particularly since the
publishing of Ken Davids’ Home Coffee Roasting.

Since the Seventies several specialty roasters have made failed
efforts, to reach the level of becoming a multi-regional resource for
roasted coffee at the consumer level.  Each of these houses, including
Millstone, Brothers, Elkins, Sarks, and Hillside have in the process
either collapsed or been bought out by commercial roasters.  Green
Mountain (regional supermarkets) and First Colony (Big Box Stores)
have had the best success at establishing their brands in multi-
regional retail settings.  Starbucks turned to Kraft to launch their
brand in supermarkets.  There are only two national lines of roast
coffee in the US; Maxwell House (Kraft) and Folgers (JM Smucker).

Specialty coffee is at best, the top 10% of available arabica beans.
The top 20% of the Top 10% appear to be the coffees that posters on
this thread are talking about.  The thing is that that is very little
coffee in the scheme of things.  The small independent farms, and
small batch roasters together do not have the ability to present a
uniform product of the type talked about on this thread to a national
audience.  Local roasting and distributing is the best niche for their
type of business.

Some wholesale roasters have been suggesting cold storage for coffee
for years to their customers.  Mike Sivitz, of fluid-bed roaster fame,
holds a US patent on the freezing of roasted coffee to maintain
relative freshness.

It should be remembered that while many enjoy calling the West coast
inspired trend toward dark roasting by pejoratives, this relatively
new roast style (1966) has brought millions of new coffee drinkers
into the fold through specialty coffee shops in the last years.

David has mentioned that I have not responded on the issue of
Starbucks espresso quality.

That the discussion is actually one of superautomatics such as
Schearer (used by Dunkin) and Franke (used by Starbucks) versus
baristas pulling shots than it is specifically about Starbucks.  On a
shot by shot basis in a contest for quality my educated guess is that
a good barista will outperform a superautomatic on a one-to-one
beverage quality basis, but in the long run, in multi-unit operations
the superautomatic will have the advantage; a level of consistency in
beverage production, attendance, and longevity of service that a crew
of individual baristas just can’t duplicate.

Specialty coffee accepts a cupping grade of 80% (“B”) as minimum
passing grade to be called a coffee specialty. My experience and
experimentation grades the best of the superautomatics as producing a
consistant B+ quality beverage.  As I wrote earlier, “B+ is a passing
grade.  It is nothing much to write home about.”

Starbucks, by whatever measure we apply, has helped to change the
coffee landscape in the US for the better.  They are many times larger
than their closest competitor, and considering their size, and the
fact that they had to create their own business model to succeed, they
have done well.  Along the way decisions, compromises and mistakes
have been made, competitors have been swept aside mercilessly, a new
language for coffee has been invented, ten of thousands of jobs have
been created (with medical benefits) and millions have been introduced
to coffee beverages of which they might never have dreamed had it not
been for Mr. Schultz’ vision and drive.

I end by mentioning again that I am not a Starbucks fan, nor am I an
antagonist.  I am a Starbucks observer, trying the best as I can to be
objective in my conclusions.

If you will forgive me know, I think I have written more on this
thread than on any previous topic in memory, and so I will end my
contribution to this thread with this post.  I leave you to continue
the discussion, which was well under way before I posted.  I am sure
that each of the contributors and those new readers who find the
thread will have more to say on the subjects raised.

-Donald Schoenholt

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