On Being a "Regular"

I work a block from a Starbucks (these days who doesn't?). This is great news for the world's coffee growers, but bad news for my family's economy. Let's just say I'm in this Starbucks more than I should be. It's not at all stretching it to say I'm a "regular". My wife and I even went in on our wedding day, in our wedding clothes, between the ceremony and the reception (yes, this was partially a cheap ploy to get free coffee - it worked).

Normally I have a great experience in there, but today they screwed up.

I learned a few years ago that if you are going to be a regular at Starbucks, it makes good sense financially to pay with a Starbucks card (Not a credit card, but a gift card you load and reload yourself and use to pay with). If you use a card that you have registered online, you're not charged for flavored syrups in your drinks, and you get free refills on brewed coffee in the store. You also regularly earn free drinks. You can also pretend that it really is a gift card that someone has given you, and then you can feel artificially special every time you pay. The Starbucks card app for IPhone makes this even easier. You can reload your card from your phone, check your balance, and even pay by having them scan your phone. If you pay this way, you will often arouse the curiosity of people in line behind you who still use terribly outdated green slips of paper to barter for goods and services. (The ones who don't express their curiosity are silently judging you for your pretentiousness).

So today I went in to get a coffee and a scone, and the barista who took my order and rang me up has worked there for years and knows me and is one of the only ones who likes to try and anticipate my order (I'm not real consistent). When I went to pay, he scanned my phone but something went wrong and he had to try again. After the second scan, which went through, I glanced at the register and noticed the total seemed kind of steep for what I ordered. I asked about it and he determined that the first time the scanner had actually scanned a packaged cookie near the register and added it to my order. He easily refunded my card for the price of the cookie. When he handed me the scone I got a quick glance in the bag before the top closed and I thought something didn't look right. So as I was walking away I opened it up and found a blueberry scone, instead of the pumpkin scone I had ordered. By that time he was already helping another customer and so I asked another barista to make the swap for me. As I started walking out, the original barista yelled after me and handed me one of their free drink coupons to make up for my troubles.

This should just be a simple story of "business screws up, business makes it up to customer", so I was a bit surprised when I found myself more offended than appeased by this. First, I didn't need to be appeased - at no point in my dealings there today did I convey that I was upset, annoyed, or put out by the experience, because I wasn't. I've been helped by this barista many, many times and I know for a fact that he is competent, friendly, and extremely conscientious. So in one transaction out of 50 he made a couple mistakes, which were quickly rectified. I like to think that I have a relationship with this particular Starbucks and it's employees - a relationship that goes beyond trying to make me happy with one transaction so that I might come back again. In an ongoing business/customer relationship, you don't get worked up about petty things, you forgive. On the flip side of that, this is the kind of relationship where if I ordered a drink and realized i forgot my wallet, they would trust me to take care of it later. One time I got my coffee, got to my office and immediately spilled it all. I headed back over to get a replacement and explained what happened since they were curious why I was back so soon, and they wouldn't let me pay for the replacement. That's the give and take of being in an ongoing relationship with a business. There's kind of an unspoken pledge - if I want to be the kind of regular that gets treated like a friend rather than just a customer, I promise to not act like an impatient idiot when they're a little backed up and my drink is taking longer than normal; I promise not to get bent out of shape if occasionally they mess up my order or my drink just isn't quite right. So today I was just keeping up my end of the relationship, and I got handed a "please don't get mad at us" card that should be reserved for people who might get bent out of shape over one less than perfect experience. They sold me short, and it felt a little demeaning.

Now, having said that, don't misread my intention. This blog post is not at all about "how could they?", but more about "wow, I just got handed a coupon for a free drink and it kind of hurt my feelings - why is that?". Just like I wasn't going to hold it against anyone that I was overcharged or got the wrong scone (#firstworldproblems), I have no intention of holding a free drink coupon against anyone. Every human being screws up in their relationships. How often do we inadvertently  treat our spouses or our children as business partners or employees rather than loved ones? I don't even feel like I had misread my status at this Starbucks and was put in my place; The employee simply misread my needs at this point in our relationship, but I think we'll manage to work through it without seeking professional counseling.

Coffee Review - Over The Rhine Blend

When I saw the band Over the Rhine promoting their own special blend of coffee (roasted by Chuck Roast) it struck me as kind of gimmicky. But more than just their music, Over The Rhine has always promoted a particular aesthetic, a certain way and/or quality of life involving music, poetry, nature, wine, etc... A college roommate of mine once said, "yeah I like their music, but they're pretty pretentious". I took offense at the time, but in retrospect, there was probably some truth to that. A sticker on the back of the coffeebag tries to encapsulate this aesthetic - "This...coffee is inspired by our love of good music, good conversation, good laughter, good living and best-kept secrets - all of which are meant to be shared". Gimmicky or not, I couldn't resist. Good coffee is one of my top pleasures in life, and, pretentious or not, I generally enjoy the whole Over The Rhine experience, so I figured I give it a go.

The mail-order beans arrived pretty promptly, and the next morning I put on OTR's latest CD "The Trumpet Child" and set about making a pot. I'm sad to say, I've never had worse coffee from an independent roaster. I've tried 3 pots now, using different amounts of beans, and they all come out tasting like something you might get at Dennys. The flavor is very flat - not rich or flavorful in the least (disclaimer - I like my coffee very, very strong/bold). Not a suitable accompaniment to any of their music. Maybe a suitable accompaniment to a Grand Slam or Moons Over My Hammy. The rest of the bag will be donated to the general coffee supply at work.

Coffee Reviews Part 3 - Disappointment

In my quest for the great cup of coffee I discovered the concept of cold brewing. If you're not familiar - you drip cold water through grinds to create a coffee concentrate, which will keep indefinitely. The supposed advantage being that the result has considerably less acidity than traditionally brewed coffee. When you're ready to drink, you add hot water to taste. You could rig up your own, but never the DIYer, I purchased the Toddy Coffee System.

It was kind of a pain just to get to the point where I was ready to brew - you do a pound at a time. So first, I went out and bought a pound of beans, as I normally would. I soon realized I should have gotten those beans ground at the store as trying to grind a whole pound in a small home grinder is quite a chore. So, I delayed and waited to go buy some ground beans. When I finally brought home so ground coffee, I realized I hadn't gotten the right grind - this requires a very course grind. So once I finally got the right beans with the right grind I had to find a time when I could start brewing and be available twelve hours later - the recommended brewing period.

The result was definitely a non-acidic coffee with a very unique taste. Just not a taste I care for in the least. I played around a bit with the amount of hot water I added, and brewed a second batch to just to make sure I hadn't done something wrong the first time - nope, it tasted the same.

I do plan on making at least one more batch for iced coffee, which I drink quite a bit of during the summer (and tend to add cream or milk to, which I don't to add to hot coffee). But if that doesn't do anything for me, I'll have a Toddy Coffee system available for sale.

Coffee Reviews Part 2 - Coffee I Hate

I have friends who have long been unofficial promoters for the Coffee & Tea Exchange. I've been in a handful of times and it's kind of a unique and interesting place. They have these large open bins of beans, and you decide which you want and then an employee scoops it and bags it for you (and grinds it if you need that done). They have weekly specials and a couple of weeks ago B told me about a big sale right when I was running out of beans, so I checked it out. It only took me a few seconds to decide on "Steve's Espresso", which was on sale for a good price (and I tend to brew espresso roasts as regular coffee - I haven't been brewing my own espresso drinks lately, though that will soon change as the office has ordered a very low end espresso machine, at my request).

So I don't know who Steve is, but apparently he likes his espresso light and crappy. If I had bothered to look at the beans before I bought, I could have saved myself the trouble. They were extremely light brown - some almost green. No oil at all. A look at their website reveals that they do consider this to be a lighter espresso roast, but they also say it make great drip coffee. Not true. They have a columbian espresso they claim is the "darkest cup of joe you'll ever have". I may have to see if that's true.

Coffee Reviews Part 1 - Coffee I Love

In all the years I've been a coffee freak I've never really settled on one bean that I would choose as my all time favorite - until now...and I'm very surprised that it's coming from a grocery store. It's Allegro Extra Dark French Roast from Whole Foods. I think Allegro is an independent roaster that Whole Foods has adopted to be their main roaster. These beans are amazing - dark and bold, but not at all bitter. Perfect really.

I haven't tried any other beans from Allegro, but probably should see how their other roasts are.

Battle of the Corporate Lattes Pt. 2

Strangely enough, the newest latte at Starbucks is the "Dulce de Leche". I've had 2 (whole milk, no whip), and don't find it to be quite as good as the Cinnamon Dolce. Once again, I believe the flavoring is just a special syrup, though the website does promise "toffee sprinkles" which I am yet to experience or identify (it's possible I'm forfeiting these when I banish the whip cream). It would be better if they used real caramel instead of a flavoring.

I thought I was done with hot drinks until fall, but that good old Chicago weather got cold again.

Battle of the Corporate Lattes

Starbucks Cinammon Dolce Latte (skim, no whip cream) - Very Good

Seattle's Best Honey Cinammon Latte (skim, no whip cream though I'm not sure if they even usually put it on or not) - Pretty Bad