"Seattle and Illinois will be the first markets where Starbucks Corp. will roll out its new Via instant coffee, with stores in those markets selling the new brew starting March 3. Phoenix may have to wait until the fall."

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoeni...02/16/daily15.html

WOW - thanks

First Blagojevich and now this!?!?!?

Forbes just picked Chicago as the 3rd most miserable city in the US. I thought they were nuts; now I see they were prophets

I bet more than one PBC will mess up a clover by doing just that.

I can't verify this, but the natural gas pipeline that was going to run from Alaska to the US, with impetus supplied by Palin was just a subterfuge. Starbucks is opening a huge brewing plant with vessels like are found at an Anheiser-Busch brewery and will be using that pipeline to transport their coffee into the U.S., pre-brewed. As the global climate continues to change, and civic water systems fail, they will buy the local pipelines and plumb them into their coffee supply. Homes will have their taps serving regular coffee through the hot tap, and the cold for decaf.

..what's next for these people? Are they going to take the tobacco industry's 1950-60 model and make coffee flavored baby formula to get folks addicted at as early of an age as possible?

another_jim wrote:Forbes just picked Chicago as the 3rd most miserable city in the US. I thought they were nuts; now I see they were prophets

Well, the critics loved it in Chicago: http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/thestew/2009/02/starbucks-new-instant-coffee-tastes-almost-like-brewed.html

What a coincidence.

Starbucks brewed coffee tastes almost like brewed coffee.

Nothing like consistency for mass-market appeal.

Now they just need the Ken Davids review with >90 points.

And you gotta love that SB managed to capture that burnt flavor! I knew they wouldn't let us down!

There's a bit in Sivetz's Coffee Technology where he claims instant is horrible not because it is instant, but because it is based on such an overextracted brew (in current instant, the coffee is brewed for several days and has a solids extraction of around 50%. The book is out of date, now the coffee is brewed only a few hours, but at 20 bar or so, and the solids extraction is up to 65% ). He said if the instant is made from properly brewed coffee, it tastes acceptable (although still with no dry fragrance, and little wet aroma -- the aroma is typically added by spraying volatile coffee oils into the container).

In other words, commercial instant coffee is not just instant, but also dishonest. Who knows, Starbucks may be making it from an honest brew. That would be a big improvement.

mivanitsky wrote:Nothing like consistency for mass-market appeal.

Actually, this is an upmarket product, 8 to 10 times as expensive as mass market soluble coffee.

The main target is Europe and Asia, where soluble accounts for 80%+ of coffee sales. I'm not sure what their aim is in the U.S. other than capturing more home and office sales. As the Chicago Tribune article notes, this product will even dissolve in cold water, making a quick iced coffee drink at your desk. For office workers who have lately cut back on Starbucks visits, this could recapture some lost sales.

Apparently weak and insipid. But given the taste of most instant coffee, that could be good news.