Summer Food and Drink series - 2011 rant #30 in stickiness · Wednesday July 22, 2009 by colin newell
The year is 2011. Vancouver. The former emerald gem of the Canadian south-west is in ruin. Several years of utter neglect and government sponsored raids on the community chest have left this former city of dreams in a patina of rust and deterioration.
A private police force cautiously roam the few streets not declared off limits by endless civil strife, skirmishes between resistance militias and the almost complete collapse of infrastructure.
Those people brave enough to venture into the chaos, bewildered in the crumbling streets, look for a reason for this nightmare – and a scrap of food not already sold off to the occupiers.
I gaze across this futuristic hellscape, and I spot a gas powered automobile from the early days of the 21st century. It’s burned down to the tire rims and largely stripped of every valuable piece of metal or wire – but I can still make out the bumpersticker… shown above
Available from CafePress.Com
Buy one of these now – while you still can. Place it on your still running automobile, bicycle, rickshaw, skateboard or burro!
And thank your lucky stars you still have a job and 3-square.
For now
Coffee blogging 2009 Chapter 1 Rancho Sao Benedito COE Lot 11 · Saturday July 18, 2009 by colin newell
We begin our series on coffee profiles with Rancho Sao Benedito COE Lot 11 from Transcend Coffee.
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Summer Food Fun and Drink 2009 Starbucks in decline - Chapter 5 · Friday July 17, 2009 by colin newell
The Seattle-based gourmet coffee chain said it is changing the name of one of its existing stores in its hometown to a name that reflects the neighborhood location.
The store will be called 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. It will open next week and will serve coffee and tea as well as wine and beer.
Isn’t that like McDonalds changing its Victoria area outlet names to Madame Elizabeth’s Crumpet and Tea house?
Or GM or Ford changing their name to Henry’s Perfectly Reliable Maker of Motored Carriage?
Someone should have told their marketing people that you can’t buy authenticity.
Many industry pundits feel that the Starbucks brand still “resonates” with those who drink coffee regularly. But with the recession now in its second year, the brand may be struggling more because it is considered “premium,” and therefore an expensive product, by consumers.
No. No. No. It is because (in my opinion), Starbucks coffee is not the Starbucks coffee of, say, 10 years ago. In 1992, I used to delight in an extra large black coffee from Starbucks; rich and hot, filled with body and mysterious flavors.
Now it just tastes like the inferior coffee beans that the real specialty coffee companies are passing on that maybe, just maybe, is not good enough. Dunno. You judge.
The fact is, better coffee has arrived in the form of Victrola or Stumptown or Vivace and Intelligentsia
Nobody is going to be fooled by this. Corporate coffee is corporate coffee however you slice it.
Starbucks needs to move aside and let the real coffee brew.
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Summer Food Fun and Drink 2009 Starbucks in decline - Chapter 4 · Thursday July 16, 2009 by colin newell
In a remarkably lame move, Starbucks is shape-shifting itself into a mom-and-pop neighborhood cafe in Seattle.
A Seattle outlet of the 16,000-store coffee behemoth is being re-branded without visible Starbucks identifiers, as 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.
And they plan on going head to head with the likes of Victrola, Vivace, Cafe Vita, Cafe D’arte and Stumptown.
From my perspective, I think this latest Starbuck bait and switch is the height of cynicism and breathtakingly shortsighted – even for a foundering behemoth like the jolly green caffeine giant.
Recently I have compared the following chain coffee recently and here is my score…
Lame- Starbucks – Watery, thin, unremarkable… Americano with a puff of whisper thin crema
Slightly Lame- Tim Horton’s – Like their gut wrenching doughnuts, Tim’s coffee has nothing redeeming about it. Coffee flavored mouth wash. Remember, don’t swallow any!
Not so bad- McDonalds – Drip coffee thick enough to plasma cut steel plate. Delicious with an egg McMuffin.
Continuing on Starbucks Seattle plans… they also plan on serving beer and wine.
This marketing move from Coffee Oz northwest is baffling, amusing and kind of sad in a way. In this economy (if I was Howard Shultz), I would be holding my cards real close. But what the heck. Nothing ventured – nothing gained…
Just ignore the aging wizard behind the curtain.
