This thread reminds me that Peet's has recently started selling and hyping its new "medium roasts." I see them on grocery store shelves all the time now. Has anyone tried them? I'll assume that "medium" should be taken with a grain of salt (as with "blonde") until I hear otherwise.

Wait, did they say that "second pop is the sweet spot for blonde roast" ?? I assume SB's dark roast is well past 2nd crack, but does this new roast really only go down to 2nd crack?

And here I thought that my roasting in the popcorn popper was the pinnacle of specialty coffee roasting.

Thank you, Jim...That's all I can say...

sweaner wrote:And here I thought that my roasting in the popcorn popper was the pinnacle of specialty coffee roasting.

He called it "the pinnacle of the specialty coffee industry", so he obviously doesn't compare S'ucks with small local roasters around the corner or home roasters, and you may still regard your roasting as pinnacle

What's sad to me is their Roaster Master of 18 years and Roast Specialist of 15 years actually believe what they're saying. Calling it Blond Roast and at the same time saying it's at 2nd pop, ridiculous. And sadder still is the power their marketing machine has over the populace making real coffee education of customers so challenging.

If the coffee was any good they wouldn't have to create this video in the first place.

Hold up on the cackling. Blonde roast is already here (well "here" if you live in Oslo) and getting people's attention. Oliver Strand's report in the NYT: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/ristretto-coffee-in-oslo/. I doubt, though, that Starbucks' blonde will fall very close to Tim Wendleboe's on the Agtron scale.

miKe mcKoffee wrote:What's sad to me is their Roaster Master of 18 years and Roast Specialist of 15 years actually believe what they're saying. Calling it Blond Roast and at the same time saying it's at 2nd pop, ridiculous. And sadder still is the power their marketing machine has over the populace making real coffee education of customers so challenging.

That's what frustrates me about Starbucks. Fast food is all fine and dandy but when you blatantly lie and say that what you are doing is high quality/gourmet/pinnacle of anything, then that's ridiculous. It's like if McDonalds claimed to be a high quality gourmet burger joint, the best around. They know they are fast food but that's their thing. Starbucks on the other hand think they are the best and have much of the population convinced that they are the best. After working at Starbucks for a couple years though, I have seen the customer base shifting dramatically. Many of the customers are the same type that eat McDonalds daily. I think it is only a matter of time until the entire population recognizes that Starbucks is just fast food coffee.

My wife still works at Starbucks and they are tasting the Blond Roast tonight. I'm going to have her bring some home. I am curious about it. From her it sounds like it is just a much much milder coffee. So if that is the case, then it is not what we are looking for when we want a light roast. We don't want a milder coffee, just more origin flavors than roast flavors. I don't think Starbucks gets that. Otherwise they wouldn't have an 8 month shelf life on their whole bean, especially their "Reserve" coffee's that sell for $18/12oz.

Starbucks on the other hand think they are the best and have much of the population convinced that they are the best.

As much as I dislike Starbucks coffee, I can't fault a company for believing in their product and being successful in its marketing. That the better small coffee producers (both bean and drink) have a vibrant and growing market is a bright spot in the darkness of the shadow of the green siren.

Shoot, if it wasn't for Starbucks abandoning the Linea, would the specialty coffee market exist at all? How many of the great baristas and roasters of today got their start with an ex-Starbucks Linea?

The coffee we enjoy, no matter how convinced we are that it is "the best" out there, isn't necessarily what the middle market wants. A line that sticks in my head is from H-B member malachi, writing on God Shot

Coffee people like sour coffees - consumers with educated palates do not.

The most controversial coffee was one which was alternately described as "sparkly, tart, with lovely bright acidity" and "sour, painful, harsh and thin."

Our wine and food professional commented of this coffee, "this is the kind of coffee that you coffee people love - but the rest of us hate."