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You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “[Review] Starbucks Willow Blend: Different Roast, Same Bitter Taste?”.
About Mike
You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “[Review] Starbucks Willow Blend: Different Roast, Same Bitter Taste?”.
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.