By the time our coffee arrives in your cup, it has been on a long journey, from farm to mill, from origin to roaster, and ultimately into your hands. At Starbucks, we help oversee a lot of this process, because it’s important to know not only how the coffee’s being handled from a quality standpoint, but also to know how much the farmer is being paid. These two factors – quality and what we call “economic transparency,” – are the two most important factors we consider before making a coffee purchasing decision. Our own verification process, C.A.F.E Practices, has measures for these factors, but another process does too, one that I know you’ve heard about … more »

Attention all readers! I’m Nikkole Denson and I manage the book program for Starbucks. We have been listening to all of your Book Club ideas such as start a book club , Starbooks Club , book circle , and hundreds of others. Today, we are pleased to announce that we are starting our first Starbucks book club, called the 1st Readers Club , for those of you who enjoy books, coffee, and great conversation! We hope this is the start of a very big thing, but we are starting small. We have created a 1st Readers Club on Starbucks V2V and everyone is welcome to join! The first book is The House at Sugar Beach , by Helene Cooper. The idea is to snuggle up in a comfortable chair, read this book, connect … more »

Some of you on MSI have mentioned that you would like a charitable give back component tied to a Starbucks Card or other products. We wanted to share a couple of examples of implementations of this idea. First, as many of you have probably heard, we recently launched the (STARBUCKS) RED campaign, which will donate five cents from the sale of every Starbucks Exclusive Holiday beverage in the U.S. and Canada to the Global Fund to invest in programs in Africa. This program begins on November 27th. Second, the Starbucks Duetto® Visa® Card has had a donation tied to it since it launched in 2003 in the U.S. and 2005 in Canada. When a cardholder makes their initial purchase using the Starbucks … more »

FREE AT&T Wi-Fi access is now available for Apple iPhone users at Starbucks equipped with a hotspot. Users can relax and access music, email and web browsing services with their favorite coffee in hand from the comfort of their nearest location. Find an AT&T Wi-Fi location near you . This is how iPhone customers get started with Wi-Fi: • Activate Wi-Fi from the settings icon on your iPhone • Select "attwifi" from the list of available networks • Enter your 10-digit mobile number and check the box to agree to the Acceptable Use Policy. Tap 'continue' • You will receive a text message from AT&T with a secure link to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot. You … more »

On April 1, 2008 we launched Starbucks V2V, an online social network about community. In eight months, we've grown from 1 partner to more than 10,000 partners, customers, and community members – from one country to more than 60 countries – from one virtual store to more than 15,000 virtual stores! Believe in the power of 10,000 partners who worked to help rebuild New Orleans just a few days ago – the power of 10,000 V2V members – the power we all have to achieve our goal of more than one million community service hours per year in the communities where we do business. Log on to V2V at www.v2v.net/starbucks , find someone you know or who inspires you, and send them … more »

My name is Mark Molaro and I host the online feature interview program The Alcove with Mark Molaro . We are known for smart and thoughtful conversations with fascinating and diverse guests like Naomi Klein, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Arianna Huffington and many others. Several months ago it was brought to my attention that a member of the MSI community had suggested adding my program to the cultural offerings supported by Starbucks for its customers. This idea, called ‘ Great Conversations ’ seemed to want to make the coffee house more of a hub of social and human interaction, which I found intriguing because it was by far the highest voted customer suggestion on the entire MSI website … more »

Today, election day, we launch Starbucks®Thanksgiving Blend in Starbucks stores around the country. An update of particular note for the MSI community is that we intend to brew this bold coffee until 5pm in all U.S. company and licensed stores through Thanksgiving. The coffee team here tells me this new coffee "combines lush herbal accents of full-bodied Sumatran beans with the subtle spice and cocoa notes of Guatemalan beans from the famed coffee-growing region of Antigua". I'm sure that's all true, I just know it's great! The development of this coffee was also pretty interesting. It was created as a culinary project between the Starbucks green coffee quality team … more »