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The Drink: Starbucks Willow Blend
Type: Whole Bean Blend – Medium Roast
If it wasn’t for a Starbucks location near me while I was in college, I may be writing a tea blog now. Okay, that’s crazy talk, but I have to give the corporate giant credit for introducing me to the next level of coffee back then.
I enjoyed their calorie filled latte drinks, but rarely their coffee so after I cut out the sugary indulgences I also stopped visiting them. Not that they’ve given me many reasons, their customer service has fallen to the level of McDonald’s (don’t get me started on their PR people) and their coffee disappointed with flavors of burnt to the crisp and extra bitterness.
I’ve been meaning to give their lighter roast, their Blondes a shot and to see if it was any better. Last week, when I had absolutely no coffee in the house, I picked up a bag of their Willow Blend and it was time to give them a chance to see if the lighter roast made a difference.
Background From The Roaster
We’ve gently coaxed the sparkling flavors out of this blend of Latin American and East African beans with a unique lighter roasting style. Starbucks Blonde Roast was developed by our master roasters especially for those beans whose delicate flavors reach their pinnacle at a shorter roast time. The bright, crisp flavor and subtle complexity shine through beautifully to create a breezy, deliciously easy-to-drink cup.
Tasting Notes: Bright & Clean
Region: Multi-Region Blend
Review
I’m not going to complain about how those aren’t really tasting notes and that the origins of the beans is really, really vague. I’m not, I swear. Nor am I going to complain about how they make up their own names for roast levels, hey it works for them.
I opened the bag, half expecting to find their burnt beans, complete with chaff. However, the beans were a brown honest to God medium roast.
As far as the actual coffee, it didn’t start bad. It greeted my nose with a pleasant aroma, but not much stood out in it. There were bland hints of chocolate, honey, spice and a herbal mix.
The body reminded me of a light syrup. Then I discovered that bitter taste that reminds me all too much of Starbucks. It did smooth out some when it cooled down, but there was still a noticeable bitterness there.
As far as taste, nothing really stood out there besides that often complained about roasted, smoked flavor. There may have been hints of spices…maybe.
I do all of my reviews with the French Press, however this time I did a second batch with my Chemex this time to see if it would bring out any other flavors or change the levels of bitterness. The characteristics of the tastes was just about the same but it did reduce the level of bitterness to drinkable.
A pound of Willow Blend will cost you $12.95. The price tag is mostly for the logo on the bag, for that amount I can think of about a hundred other coffees I would have before this one.
Final Score
Starbucks Blonde Willow Roast earned a less than average 2.5 on the Daily Shot Of Coffee scale. Sure it has caffeine and it’s better, than their overly roasted regular coffees, but that isn’t saying much, From the lack of flavor and degree of bitterness, I’m guessing that these beans are nowhere near the cream of the crop.
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Fine Print.
maybe one solution is for SB to push for their local locations to be the roast center for ALL or most of the
coffee they sell customer direct.
leave the admin offices for online sales and
corporate planning etc.
that would decentralize the process
drive excess time and delays out of the process
provide shorter raw bean to customer delivery
and improve the local experience
i’d support that change.
SB does have inconsistent coffee so i agree with you
and Daniel.
That would definitely decentralize it, however, roasting is an art and I don’t know if they could ever have enough quality people on staff. The only time they seem to really focus on quality is with their premium season single origins and blends. The rest of the time the origins of the beans (a common sign of quality that I’ve seen) is fuzzy or missing completely.
ok now that we who read this know that SB has issues with taste and roast levels… what is it about a multi billion dollar corporation that procures and sells this product?
is it planned that way?
i’d think they have a taste test panel in house.
you know… ‘…gee this is bland and bitter and has an off taste…’ lets’ pack and sell it.
i can’t figure this out.
the coffee is fresh dated in much the same way that
other commercially packed coffees are so the
dating system can’t be that far out of wack.
howard, I think the problems could range from being to focused on the bottom line and quality to it just being too much coffee to have a constant level of quality. I mean it is in every Starbucks location across the country, that’s a lot of beans.
It’s a shame the packaging is better than the coffee, but great review, Mike. At least you gave it a chance. My readers will be checking it out.
http://www.coffeekrave.com/web-picks-wednesday-3/
Hey Mike,
I enjoyed your review, thanks for doing that so the rest of us can know!
I have tried the blonde roast in the Canadian SB and I quite enjoy it. I find it smooth and mellow without the bitterness that characterizes SB’s darker roasts. Maybe the whole bean coffee wasn’t fresh?
Thanks again!
I was wondering about that too Ian. However, if that’s the case, I have to hold that against them too. They should have only fresh coffee for sale. Of course, I know it doesn’t like this in the real world, but I’m an over demanding kind of customer.
These “Blonde” roasts, are a little lighter, but just as bitter in my experience. I was excited when they came out, but they are bland and bitter, like most of their coffees!
Mike, you could’ve warned me ahead of time! Just joking, like you I was hoping for something different.
FIRST OFF -> ‘…when I had absolutely no coffee in the house…’ how in the name of god did you allow that to happen Mike?
seriously this must have been an off day.
2nd -> i’ve tried the SB ‘Blonde’ roasts as they call
them in a Via form and found the coffee to be a
bit bland as well. it turned out hot but not really
remarkable or taste differentiated.
fully monty’ed coffee drinks [perhaps with a lot of the other ingredients SB uses to up the price of
a simple cup of coffee} may be their current
approach to the market.
is this a new PR thing?
i’d agree to disagree with how they approach
the buyer. they seem to sell coffee by color on the bag rather than by individual varieties or regions.
you know? we’ll sell a BLONDE coffee.
that’s where they are now in the stores
i frequent.
an afterthought – i have approached the
Blonde SB coffee by using 2x the amount
of beans/grounds per cup of water that
i normally would. that seems to put
more definite tastes into the end product.
can’t really say i have tasted burned
or overroasted flavors in these …
you are a more highly trained coffee
cupper than i am for sure.
I know howard! I should be ashamed. I wasn’t paying attention to my coffee supply!
You have a great point, outside of their limited edition coffees, a lot of them are sold by the roast level, with little if any real info about the origins of the beans.
When it comes to tasting off flavors, unfortunately I think I’m better at that then picking up the positive flavors.