pike place roast

i really love coffee & i enjoy visiting new coffee shops too. recently i've visited a number of coffee shops here in austin. did i mention i've been drinking soy caffe lattes too? way to expensive, but oh so good!

today i ventured out to starbucks to try their new pike place blend. i thought they were serving cups all day beginning at 11 AM CT for free (as stated in the austin biz journal & on NPR this morning). it turned out they were simply offering a free tasting (read tiny cup) from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM CT. i stopped in after lunch around 1:30 PM to find this out. the starbuck's crew behind the counter turned out to be pretty cool & hooked me up with a short cup (i'll introduce this later) regardless.

the pike place blend is a medium roast that i wasn't too crazy about. it had a very weak after-taste & it just felt to light. starbucks is obviously excited about this new blend - it's their back to the basics approach. howard shultz (returning CEO) is trying real hard to turn the company around. starbucks even developed new branding on all their cups to promote this new blend - they really want us to know that they've got it!

a fun little fact about starbucks that i learned while having lunch with the CEO of one of our vendors. he said starbucks has a 'short' cup size. it's one size smaller than the 'tall' & about $0.50 less for any drink. if you've ever ordered a to-go pot of starbucks you should be familiar with the 'short' cup. funny (upsetting) how they don't promote it on their menu though...

the more i think about coffee & visit new coffee shops the more i think i should start a coffee shop review blog. i want to do it right & currently i don't have the luxury of time to start such a blog. it's something i (& you) can look forward to when this full ironman training is over with.