Spoiled Coffee- The beginning of the end

I, Chris, have been traveling the last week or so to Shanghai, Wuhan, and Beijing with the hope of making some progress in the area of coffee. As I have been learning more often than I would like, things are not always as they seem here. I hope that most of my observations on this blog do not seem negative or with a sour spirit. I write about these things that happen purely because of their humor. Although many things don't work out the way I like there are a lot of things that work out wonderfully. The things that usually go wrong just simply make me laugh. To some it might irritate or frustrate, but I find myself laughing and smirking even when my pancakes are topped with ketchup. I guess that makes me a good fit for living here.

My trip to Shanghai included a visit to the Shanghai Coffee Fair 2007 which turned out to be the "Yoga, Karaoke, security system, and dash of coffee Fair 2007."

Unless I am planning on using these things in the above picture for part of my interior shop design, there wasn't much for me at this fair. In fact, I finished in 13 minutes and that included a second walk through the building just to make sure I hadn't missed any coffee vendors that were hiding. Although I didn't find coffee products or equipment I did find this to await customers at the entrance of our first Chicago Coffee shop. Go figure.

It’s official. I believe that Starbucks has lost the "it" factor they once had. But before you chalk me up with all the other naysayers against Starbucks hear me out. I am a BIG fan of their coffee. I will always enjoy their coffee and will continue to search for the nearest one as if on my own personal search for the holy grail. So even though I will never feel overly negative towards them, I do think they have lost "it".
It hit me at this exact moment on Wednesday last week when I sat down in this Starbucks pictured above. I no longer felt that extra skip in my step when I entered in. I think it hit me when I was ordering and I no longer felt the romance of the beans and aura of the atmosphere. Honestly, it felt much like a visit to McDonalds. It had that mass production assembly line feel. There was no longer anything special about it. They sacrificed too much so they could open 13,000 stores as fast as possible. They may always have excellent coffee, but they will no longer have that little extra something that makes it magical. I love the consistency of the drinks but why is every single store exactly same? I have been to probably 40 plus stores now in many cities, countries, and continents and they are all the same.

And then there is this. The Red Bean Frapp. In China red bean is the big thing. I understand that you need to adjust your menu and what you offer depending on the customer base you are appealing to. Green Tea Latte…ok. Red bean scones…fine. But since when does Starbucks start mixing espresso and Red Bean??? I just recently read the Starbucks book “Pour Your Heart Into It” where CEO Howard Schultz explains that they won’t offer flavored coffee beans despite the market demand because it sacrifices the integrity of high quality coffee. So Red Bean? I tasted it and it has a wonderful cough syrup flavor. I even saw Chinese people making faces when trying the thing. That never happens!

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