Customer : Starbucks Reserve

Cameroon Mount Oku – a Taste of My Father’s Homeland

Stephen Fusi — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:00:00 GMT

The opening stanza of the Cameroon national anthem begins, “O Cameroon, thou cradle of our fathers.” This is literally true for me, the son of an immigrant from this small West African nation.

While I’ve lived most of my life in the United States, I did spend my teenage years in Cameroon. Ever since I heard that Starbucks was launching a coffee from Cameroon, I’ve been alternately anxious, nervous and proud. That coffee is Starbucks Reserve® Cameroon Mount Oku.

When my family relocated from Wisconsin to Cameroon in the late 1980s, we became fully immersed in Cameroonian culture. It was the first time we could physically embrace my father’s extended family, and our immersion included our mealtime routines.

For a tween/teenager, it was exciting to try new foods such as achu – pounded cocoyams with red palm oil soup. And breakfast no longer meant pancakes or cereal. Instead, we ate much more colorfully – puff-puff (sweet, fried dough) with hot peppers, beans and rice stew, and dodo (fried plantains with salt and pepper). We also drank lots of Cameroon-grown tea with freshly baked bread from local bakeries and locally sourced chocolate or peanut butter spreads for our morning meals.

What we did not drink is coffee. In retrospect, this surprises me, but I don’t recall drinking any coffee or seeing anyone else doing so for the five years I was in Cameroon. Robusta coffee is the nation’s fifth largest agricultural export, but the country is better known for world-class soccer, cacao, bananas and rubber.

My father actually tended some robusta coffee trees in his youth, and our family is from northwest Cameroon. This is the only region in West Africa with suitable climate and elevation for raising high-quality arabica coffee.

Starbucks has never offered a coffee from West Africa. Thus, I had no frame of reference for how the Cameroon Mount Oku coffee would taste. When the day came to finally taste it, I had spread the word among my fellow partners, family and friends. I was invited to be the “guest of honor” at a small coffee tasting and really hoped the coffee would be good. Otherwise, that would be a difficult conversation! At the same time, I was so proud to see “Cameroon” written in such a beautiful way on a beautiful package.

The coffee did not disappoint! The aroma presented an interesting floral note but the taste was nutty and chocolaty and rich. The surprise was the peppery finish, which I thought would go perfectly with some pepper soup and ripe plantains. This coffee has now become my favorite –at least while it is available. I also bought a case and sent some to my father and other family in Cameroon and around the United States so they could share in my excitement.

Ethiopia Sidamo is Here for a Limited Time

sbx_bean — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:50:00 GMT

Many of you have told us that you miss Ethiopia Sidamo in our stores. Through the Starbucks Reserve program, this special coffee is back for a limited time. This organic coffee offering is an elegant East African coffee with a distinctive bergamot aroma, lemony flavor and a hint of spice. It is one of my favorite coffees. If you're a Sidamo fan like me I encourage you to enjoy a cup at a Starbucks Reserve store or order a bag at StarbucksStore.com. Feel free to share your tasting notes with us. We would love to hear from you.

To learn more about the story of this coffee visit Starbucks.com.

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Jamaica Blue Mountain®, Back by Popular Demand

Leslie Wolford — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:00:00 GMT

It’s that time of year again when all is blue, the weather is warm and the sun is shining. We’re brewing up yummy cups from our Clover® brewer and stocking the shelves with bags of Jamaica Blue Mountain® for all who are delighted as it makes a return appearance. We discovered this was a coffee that folks buzzed about when we featured it last season. Well, we listened to you, and it’s back!

The coffee takes its name from the Blue Mountains that cover the eastern part of Jamaica. Elevations here climb to over 7,000 feet. The higher the elevation, the mistier the mountain interior gets, which gives the mountains their blue appearance.

Coffee carrying the Jamaica Blue Mountain® name must be certified by the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, which supervises all stages of coffee processing – pulping, drying, sorting and grading. Every coffee is quality-tested by certified tasters before export, ensuring that only the best is placed in the iconic wooden barrels used for shipping.

I think those familiar with this coffee will enjoy its return. For those of you who haven’t discovered it yet, I encourage you to try it for yourself. It’s a coffee that has great flavor with citrus and milk chocolate notes. We’re pleased to bring it back again this year, but don’t wait too long because it is very limited and we want to you to enjoy it as much as possible. Cheers!

Enjoy a sneak peak of this coffee in our Starbucks Reserve Clover Brewed stores before it launches on July 12 – check with your barista for more information.

A Rwandan Coffee Worthy of Attention

Leslie Wolford — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:32:00 GMT

The coffees from Rwanda have been winning awards and capturing the attention of coffee enthusiasts around the world. Our latest Starbucks Reserve™ coffee, Rwanda Gakenke Fair Trade Certified™, is especially worthy of our attention – and yours too.

Gakenke is the district located in the central highlands of Rwanda’s Northern Province. The cooperative that provided this coffee is comprised of roughly 4,400 small holder farms. In that mix are about 300 women who contributed. It’s exciting to see more women smallholders emerging in a landscape traditionally held by men. It feels good knowing this coffee is a collaborative community effort.

I have always loved the diversity of flavors from coffees of East Africa, and Rwanda has proven over time to be a coffee I look for and celebrate. Rwandan coffees often highlight a lemony acidity, with notes of red or dark fruit and sometimes chocolate.

We dark–roasted this particular lot ever so slightly to focus on the warmer, deeper notes in the coffee. It captures a delicate floral aroma that plays up to the layered flavors of chocolate, lemongrass and baking spices. The coffee is balanced and smooth. It invites you to linger and enjoy it and celebrate its flavors.

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A Trip to Kona

Anthony C — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:00:00 GMT

Probably one of the best contest prizes you could win is a trip to Hawaii. Well, I am not running a contest but I can get you to Kona. It’s just going to come by way of a very beautiful cup of coffee rather than an airplane.

We often talk about a coffee having the ability to take us to the place from which it came. Starbucks Reserve™ 100% Kona Coffee is no different. When describing 100% Kona Coffee we talk about her gentle acidity, medium body, aroma of caramel and flowers, and flavors of citrus and nuts. All these attributes are very evident in the origin as well as the coffee. Hand-selected from the highest grade of Kona coffee, these Extra Fancy beans are cherished for their large size and density which contribute to the rarity of these beans.

I have had the opportunity to spend time on the big island of Hawaii and the first things that come to mind from a flavor memory perspective are the sweet papayas with a squeeze of juicy lime. The citrus and sweetness balance perfectly. I also think of Macadamia nuts. They are everywhere; in salads, cookies, bread and on fish.

Gorgeous and fragrant flowers abound in Hawaii. Magnificent botanical gardens and lonely roadside plots contain thousands of remarkable scents and floral experiences.

The gentle breeze from the ocean is constantly cleansing the air, delivering new sensory episodes, sensory episodes that create the beautiful memories and visuals that can transport one to Hawaii in a moment.

Taste Starbucks Reserve™ 100% Kona Coffee and you will be transported to this land of startling beauty and rapture. Taste the coffee, its layers of elegant flavors will deliver you to the islands in a single cup.

Mahalo!

Anthony

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Java, Coffee Island

Anthony C — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:41:00 GMT

Joe. Jet Fuel. Go Juice. JAVA!

Probably the best-known and most-used slang term for coffee, Java is also the most populated island in Indonesia and the world. It’s also the island that produces this winter’s unique Starbucks Reserve™ coffee, Organic Blue Java.

Named for the blue-tinted unroasted coffee beans, Blue Java is a spectacular coffee that we were enamored with from the minute we encountered it in the tasting room. It has been a significant amount of time since a coffee from Java has been in our lineup, so it is very exciting to be offering this amazing cup of coffee after such a long hiatus. (We last bought significant amounts of Java coffee in 2004. A decline in the island’s coffee quality drove us away from and caused us to discontinue offering our long-standing Arabian Mocha Java blend.)

This bold coffee produces an epic cup, one that unfolds with medium acidity, good body and deep herbal notes. The processing of this coffee is unique in that it combines two traditional methods of green coffee drying. The combination consists of first partially drying the coffee bean after fermentation. Then the coffee parchment is removed from the bean and the drying process completed. Combining these two processes produces an interesting combination of acidity and body with flavor depth and clarity not usually experienced together in a cup. Traditional drying methods would consist of fully drying and milling the parchment following fermentation (the “fully washed method”) or no fermentation and milling of parchment (“semi-washed method”).

The Coffee Quality team here loves this coffee and we think you will too. It is truly a rare experience, one that will continue to support Java as not only the best-known slang word for coffee but will help to reintroduce the island as an ultra-premium coffee-producing origin. Enjoy!