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Re: Starbucks

Dear David,

Thank you for being an SCAA member.  By supporting your trade
association with member dollars, you strike a blow for good coffee and
the thousands who represent it across the country.

Starbucks raises passions in coffee lovers.  The purpose of my
alt.coffee post (above) with which you took issue was just to keep the
conversation on track.  It was not meant to start a donnybrook.  I’m
sorry that you were offended by my remarks, but the points I made were
factual.  The existence of other opinion on the matter does not change
anything as facts are stubborn things, as John Adams said, “ …whatever
may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion,
they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”  You have
mentioned that you prefer to be sparred history lessons, yet it is
knowledge of our history, including coffee history, and our ability to
marshal that knowledge to the benefit of our coffee, and the consumer,
that raises our products above those of the elephantine corporations
that stride across the coffee landscape.

Starbucks is my wholesale competitor.  Mr. Schultz’ company has a
slight size advantage over my own enterprise (Stbx sales are about $9-
billion, my company’s sales are to be kind “somewhat less”) I am a
small player in the coffee business, but I am devoted to my trade and
I have learned much about things coffee during my time around it.  I
am not a Starbucks fan, nor am I a Starbucks denigrator.  I make an
effort to see them objectively, as it is only by dispassionate
observation of the beast that I can hope to understand it.  I became
aware of Starbucks existence c. 1976 when Jerry Baldwin called me and
we struck up a friendship.  In the intervening years I have kept an
eye on them.  They have accomplished a great deal.  They are
remarkably good at some things they do.  In other areas they have
fallen short.  Replacing baristas with Franke’s was a good business
move guaranteeing among other things consistency of delivered beverage
quality throughout the chain, but it guaranteed that a great shot was
now beyond their grasp.  Still, a Franke, can produce a pretty good
shot consistantly in every store all day and all night, and baristas
just can't do that.  If you are a reader of Tea & Coffee Trade Journal
you might find my upcoming article on Starbucks to be of some interest
(I’m not sure in which issue it will appear).

It is a simple thing to demonize a company or a person perceived to be
in one’s path.  It is complicated to find good in the actions of those
who would benefit from one’s demise, but I strive to learn especially
from those who are most threatening to my survival.  Starbucks buys
good coffee.  That is an objective fact.  We may not want to
acknowledge it, but there it is.  We can learn from that.  What we
learn is that we must strive to source ever better coffees.  Good
isn't good enough.

About crema; as an expert in espresso hardware you know that arabicas
brew an excellent beverage, and fall short in the crema department,
while adding robustas add a great crema while denigrating some taste
qualities in a blend.  Coffee, as life, is filled with trade-offs.
The arabica roaster trades depth, complexity, and nuance for crema.
Starbucks is an arabica roaster.

I can not comment on the quality of goods produced by Caribou, and
Coffee Bean and Tea leaf, as I have not made a recent visit to their
operations (they do not operate in New York).  I do follow Peets even
though they are not in New York, as I retain a fondness and respect of
many years for Baldwin, and Peet’s green coffee buyer Jim Reynolds.  I
admire guys who give their all to what they do.  They are among the
very best coffee people I know, which does not mean that you must
enjoy Peets very dark roast profile.

I do not appreciate either Starbucks very dark roasts, but it is their
signature roast profile, and I can appreciate the quality of the good
green coffees they buy, and the effort they pour into making a product
that they believe is the world's specialty coffee standard.  The basic
hard-roasted Starbucks product is not to my personal taste (this is a
different criteria from my professional understanding of quality) and
that is OK.  Cicero (I think) wrote, “de gustibus non est
disputandum.”   He had a point.  There is no accounting for taste.

There is still, almost a half century after coffee raised its head
from the post war slime of muck-in-a-cup, a quantity of poor quality
coffee served in the US, but coffee generally has come a long way from
where it had been when I was a boy, and the strides in the last thirty
years, lead by the specialty coffee community that you support as an
SCAA member have been significant.  An American coffee person can
travel anywhere in the coffee world today and not have to make excuses
for the American cup.

I did not write that Schultz invented coffee.  What I wrote was,
“Howard Schultz did not invent coffee.  He did not even invent
Starbucks…”

There is a “Gold Cup® Standard for coffee.  It is a trademarked
scientific standard based upon the measuring of soluble solids in
solution, created by the coffee scientist Ernest Lockhart, while
working for the Pan American Coffee Bureau’s Coffee Brewing Center and
endorced some years ago by the SCAA Tech. Standards Committee (as
previously mentioned).  For the elusive perfect cup of drip coffee the
CBC standard calls for a coffee to water ratio of 18 ounces fresh
water (volumetric measure) for each avoirdupois ounce of fresh ground
Coffee. Starbucks drip brewed coffee is brewed to specifications that
represent a standard higher than the CBC standard.

There is nothing sinister only something convenient about pre-ground
portion controlled coffee.  The keys to the kingdom of good coffee
from pre-packaged grounds are bean, roast & grind quality, freshness,
throw-weight accuracy, water quality, equipment cleanliness, time and
temperature.  There is no scientific standard for when the point of
degradation is crossed in the negative, but it is generally conceded
(and stated in the CBC standards) that coffee should not be held on a
warmer more than 60 minutes.

A “B” is an 80% score.  An “A” is a 90% Score.  “B+”  is a pass
ing
grade.  It is nothing much to write home about.  By generally accepted
standards in the specialty trade a coffee must score no less than an
80 (“B”) just to make the grade.  Starbucks passes.  It is for the
rara avis that we leave the scores in the range above 90.  Venice
Italy’s Caffe del Doge comes to mind as being in that rare class.

I am not a sarcastic man, nor do I trade in dead-pan humor (only
coffee).  I take that back.   I am, on the subject of coffee,
occasionally too wordy, which may be accepted as “b.s.” by those who
choose to be unkind. You may accept the statement made earlier,
together with the one above, to quote your remarks on alt.coffee, “as
if he really meant them.  duh.”

Sincere best wishes,

Donald N. Schoenholt

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