Friday, February 10, 2012

Jury's Out

Just as I was pulling into a parking space at work this morning, the man in the office down the hall came out of the building. I got out of the car as he pulled level with me, and he said, "There's no coffee in the building. I'm going over to Starbuck's -- want anything?"

I do not function at work without my morning coffee, so I hopped back in the car and followed the guy over to the nearby Starbuck's, where I discovered that sometime in the last few months (I don't go to Starbuck's often) they've completely remodeled, and also that they've introduced a new, mild blonde roast, which matches most other companies' medium roast and completely unhinges my complaint that Starbuck's coffee always tastes burnt (for no purpose, even, as a quick search will confirm that a longer, darker roast does not increase the amount of caffeine the bean releases).

I considered caving to the temptation of the pastry display, but the longer I stood in front of it waiting for my turn to pay, the less appetizing they looked, so in the end, I just got the cup of coffee. So I guess that's a win.

I did cave to the temptation of the Free App of the Week (which is something else that I didn't really know about, wherein you can snag a code each week to get a free app from the iTunes store) because the app this week happens to be Bejeweled, which is a great game that's easy enough for the kids to play. Which, combined with this blonde roast (which I'm sipping as I type this and is actually quite yummy) may result in  making a weekly Starbuck's run just to check out the week's offering.

So I'm not entirely certain if this counts as a good start to the day or a worrisome one. Whichever, I expect it'll be interesting.

1 comment:

Gris said...

"Come to the Dark Side, we have coffee"? *grin*

If you REALLY want the caffiene kick, ask 'em for a quadruple espresso. ;)

I suspect dark roast is preferred by some simply for the flavor, the same way that some people prefer a chocolate malt to a blonde malt in beer (which doesn't mean it CONTAINS chocolate, just that the barley's been roasted within an inch of its life, producing a very dark color and a flavor note surprisingly similar to dark chocolate), and dark roast has just become Starbucks' "thing."

Personally, ALL coffee tastes like icky burnt stuff to me. :P