Sunday, February 26, 2012

Starbucks new blend - BLONDE - now you see it, now you don't!

Some of you may have seen the new BLONDE blend by Starbucks being rolled out in January, sampling events, sample giveaways, via being advertised in the BLONDE blend etc. I usually do not subscribe to blonde jokes, but the problems Starbucks faced with this blend are now reaching the level of a commercial disaster / joke. I personally tried the BLONDE blend early in January and really like it because it has a smooth flavor and it is a coffee I can drink without adding cream to it.

image obtained from here

Well, after using up my free refills for January, I ventured into a regular Starbucks again this week and wanted to treat myself to a freshly brewed cup of BLONDE. No success - turns out Starbucks has not been selling us properly brewed BLONDE in January. Not sure whether the C-level executives at Starbucks thought the coffee was too weak or too strong, but it turns out the spoon used by your barista to measure the BLONDE ground coffee for brewing in house is IMPROPERLY SIZED. Good heavens, I had no idea I could like a coffee that was not measured properly, after all, we all use properly sized spoons at home when brewing our coffee since we know that being short an ounce of ground coffee in a 8 cup brewer makes all the difference in the world (sarcasm oozing out of this last sentence).
I had several samples of the BLONDE blend throughout January, took a couple of sample bags home and used them at home, never realizing that I was drinking subpar Starbucks brew and my tastebuds for coffee are obviously severely compromised - the shame!
Anyway, if that was not strange enough, Starbucks will not be able to provide the correctly sized spoon for proper brewing of the BLONDE blend to their Starbucks stores until April! So if you want to finally taste the proper BLONDE blend brewed in house at Starbucks, either you need an invitation to their C-level executive events (hoping that they at least have access to the properly sized spoon) or you need to wait until April to get BLONDE freshly brewed at your Starbucks.
Meanwhile the question comes to mind, what to do with my remaining sample bag of BLONDE at home? Will Starbucks offer specially sized spoons for the home brewer so we can be sure to enjoy the properly brewed BLONDE blend at home or is this drama one more gimmick by Starbucks to convince us that any coffee needs to be purchased brewed in house at Starbucks to get the proper flavor?

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