A Tribute to the “Almost Heaven”ly Blondes

Every year I find myself sometime in February realizing that I haven’t started working towards a single one of my New Year’s Resolutions and that’s the whole reason I try to refrain from even setting them to begin with. Sure, I’m only one month into the year so I have plenty of time to correct my bad behavior and make the best of the rest of the year… but I don’t. I’m so focused on immediate short-term goals that I forget about all the other stuff I set forth to achieve.

Thus, my first blog article in two months.

The launch of Blonde Roast has been quite successful in my area. Tons of regular customers at my store took part in our “Find the Roast You Love the Most” tasting event and have “made the switch” to Blonde from their daily Dark Roast or Pike Place Roast. Seems to me that Starbucks has hit another home-run with this coffee. For those of you who don’t know, our daily drip coffee offerings consist of Veranda Blend, Pike Place Roast, Decaf Pike as well as a Dark Roast offering.

Speaking of Starbucks hitting home-runs, Casi Cielo finally hit stores February 7th and has been flying off the shelves ever since. After promoting and drinking so much of the Blonde Roast in the weeks leading to Cielo’s release, this years blend tasted rather bold to me and took several french presses to get my palate back to remembering why I love this coffee soooooo much. Such a rich, decedent coffee.

Which leads me to-

After high demand for it’s return and I’m sure tons of hate mail, Starbucks will be bringing back Tribute Blend on March 6th, 2012. *insert squeal of excitement here*

Tribute Blend launched March 8, 2011 as a Tribute to the Customers and Communities and celebrating 40 years of growing together over a cup of coffee. A delicious post-roast blend (meaning that they are blended after roasting to bring out the specific flavor characteristics) of beans from Papua New Guinea and Colombia with Aged Sumatra and Sun-Dried Ethiopia, Tribute Blend was a cup bursting with cherry flavors and hints of spicy note. My mouth exploaded with favor and I immediately fell in love. Frantic after being told it was a “one-time thing”, I stockpiled all the Tribute I could get my hands on and prayed that this blend would take the place of wretched Pike Place.

I am honestly surprised at the lack of hype leading up to the return of this amazing coffee. With all the demands, requests, tears, rants, etc. that the company received at the end of the run last year, one would think Starbucks would jump on chance to dangle this coffee in front of the Coffee Zombies ready to kill to get to the Tribute Blend. I’ll admit, I’m first in line. Even though we have it in stores now (since we’re less than two weeks from it’s launch date), we have specific instructions not to mark it out or purchase it before March 6th, so every day I go to work and see this coffee and drool knowing that soon my mouth will dance with the most magical flavor over-load.

What seasonal coffee (or core coffee) gets you most excited? Feel free to leave a comment below and let me know!

~* Above pictures were taken from the Starbucks.com Coffee Menu and Photoshopped together for my personal use. It might be a crime. Not sure. >.< *~

Blondes Just Have More Fun

I hope everyone had an awesome holiday full of fun, love, family, friends, laughter… and mostly coffee.

The Starbucks I work at was open for the very first time this Christmas, and I volunteered to open the store. To my surprise and delight- after many long hours and busy weeks – we were blessed with a smooth sailing, steady-but-slow morning. Everyone was in high spirits and customers were simply delighted that we were open on the holiday and shared in the Christmas cheer. It was one of those this-is-why-I-do-this shifts that make my heart just swell.

Now that Christmas is over and done with (I’m not sorry to see the Christmas music go… bah-humbug whatever), we’re rapidly approaching the New Year. As you may or may not have noticed, your local Starbucks has probably started selling their whole bean in the new packaging. This is all leading up to the launch of Starbucks’ new lighter roasted coffee- The Blonde Roast on January 10th, 2012.

While it seems to me with the package change and the target at the new “Dark”, “Medium” and “Blonde” Roast profiles will likely steer the customer away from the “Geography is Flavor” motto (I am a fan of African coffees for their bright, fruity flavors), the introduction of the Blonde Roast is sure capture the hearts of the light roasted coffee consumers and open up an entire new market for people seeking a more mild cup of java at their local Starbucks.

The new Blonde Roast will have two new coffees under the category:

Willow Blend
- a blend of Latin American/ African beans
- also available in Decaf

Veranda Blend
- a blend of Latin American beans
- also available in Starbucks VIA Ready Brew

I had a chance to try the Veranda Blend at a store Holiday meeting back in November. From what I can recall, the coffee had a sweet taste to it and was easily drinkable without cream or sugar. I am most excited about the Willow Blend though, as I am a fan of both Latin American and African Coffees (Starbucks Kenya and Casi Cielo being my two favorite whole bean coffee offerings) and it has such potential of being a fantastic iced coffee.

Speaking of Casi Cielo- don’t forget in all of the hullabaloo over Blonde Roast that this exquisite seasonal whole bean offering hits shelves around the same time the new coffees launch. Looks like 2012 will have several reasons to register that Starbucks gift card your got in your stocking and stock up on some delicious coffee!

Happy Halloween!

It’s my favorite holiday of the year! And although I’m too broke/ old to dress up and go out this year, I did carve my own pumpkin!

The year’s Pumpkin Carving Contest was quite successful!

Originally the contest was going to have 3 prize-winning pumpkins, but I feel all five of these entries deserve to win, so they will! A HUGE thank you goes out to these guys for participating in TheCoffeeNinja’s Second Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest!

The Coffee Ninja’s Second Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest!

I know it’s a little late, but here it is:

The Coffee Ninja’s Second Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest!!!

Ahh, Halloween. It’s my favorite time of year. Fall setting in (at least here in Texas), all of the fun decorations, hours upon hours of trying to decide what to dress up as for all of the festivities, candy, Pumpkin Spice Lattes… oh, and Pumpkin art!

Last year’s contest was slightly a bust, but still quite fun!

The Rules are pretty simple:

1.) Pick your pumpkin – Any size, shape, color, or even material (yes, it doesn’t have to be a real pumpkin if you get grossed out by the seedy guts). Computer generated graphics will not be accepted.
2.) Get to carving! Creativity counts in this contest, so really express yourself!
3.) Please incorporate your name, twitter handle, website, etc. or take a picture of you with your pumpkin. I only ask this because it’s far too easy to find pictures of carved pumpkins online, and nobody likes a cheater anyway.
4.) Submit all entries by Sunday, October 30th by 9pm CST to be considered for the contest. All entries will be incorporated into a article on My Blog posted on Monday, October 31st. Be sure to include your name and valid contact info in your submission so I can notify you if you won.

You can email your submissions to contests@thecoffeeninja.com

The top three winners will each win a Starbucks gift card.
1st Place – $20
2nd Place – $10
3rd Place – $5

Invite your friends to join in! The more the merrier, but only if you play well with others.

Remember, we’re looking for creativity and staying within the guidelines. Feel free to email if you have any questions!
Let the carving begin!