Bold coffee as a digestive health issue...

Some of us have expressed our online frustrations over Starbucks' failure to have a bold coffee option available after the noon hour. It might seem like we're being picky, but the truth is we are far from alone in our complaints - see the chart above (click on the chart to see a larger version) - and for some coffee drinkers, the blend served is important to digestive health. Yesterday I was in Java City, a Starbucks competitor with shops all over the U.S. and in Asia, and one of their baristas explained to me that bold coffee has not only less acid but much less caffeine than the lighter brews. Most people will assume that just the opposite is true, that dark or bold equals heavy and strong...

You can do some quick research of your own. Using a search engine like Google, enter terms like Crohn's disease coffee caffeine; or Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) coffee caffeine; or Colitis caffeine coffee. You'll find that for persons with these digestive conditions, minimizing their caffeine intake is important. Bold brewed coffee helps in this respect, and every little bit helps.

So, here's a kudos to Java City and Peet's, two of the coffee companies that make a point of offering at least one bold coffee blend choice whenever their shops' doors are open! As for Starbucks, we're still waiting - and waiting and waiting and waiting - for them to get with the program.

Note: The chart above represents issues raised at My Starbucks Idea. As of early November 2008, over 17,000 respondents had expressed their desire - their idea in action, if you will - to have "Bold Coffee (Served) All Day."

The bitter truth about Starbucks...

Every now and then I go to one of the Starbucks-sponsored comment sites - like My Starbucks Idea or Ideas In Action - and post my latest critique of the company; and I'm far from alone in this. As we push one way, its natural that on occasion a young Bucks staff member or bearista pushes back. That's fine but I don't think they quite understand who "we" - me, Melody, Jolene and so many others - are...

So let me try to explain this here. We're the old flame, the one who first thought you were the best person (company) in the world until you let us down. Then we left or thought about leaving... but we haven't, actually.

We were your first and most loyal fans. We were with you when Starbucks was not "cool." We remained with you, in your cooler-than-cool state, when we had to wait the equivalent of two work breaks in line. We were still there when you became un-cool again. But, finally, enough became enough.

We have our memories of the early days... Days of great service, great bold coffee, innovative products, and the knowledge that we would always receive the highest quality of products at our local Bucks shop. Sadly those days are gone, long gone and we're hurt.

(From a music lover's standpoint it's like watching Rod Stewart go from Gasoline Alley to "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?")

One poster - menty66 - added this in response to a Seattle newpaper article on recent moves by Starbucks: "For years sbux touted its cultural standing. Now it's slowly slipping down a stripper pole to McDonald's level."

Menty66 wrote that on February 4, 2009 and I've kept it because it rang so true.

OK, so we still think about you. We don't ignore you which means somewhere in our caffineated hearts and souls we hold out a glimmer of hope... It's not like the final time we shopped at Sears or Penney's, decided to never return and truly never thought of those places again.

So please try to actually listen to us, and not just say that you do. And hire bearistas that will do the same. And please, please, please, please brew us a bold coffee when we tell you we really and truly need it.

Why? 'Cause time is passing, none of us is getting any younger, and there's a guy out there named Peet who is offering some really good times!

Starbucks Continues to Stumble...

I regularly visit two Starbucks shops. Both now have in stock only one of the "The Way I See It" quotation cups - the one explaining that sudden success can be more dangerous than failure. I wonder if they see the irony in that?

One of the shops is out of sleeve holders, those cardboard grips you add to your to-go cup so your hands don't get burned. More problems with the supplies.

Interestingly, the CEO of Starbucks acknowledged just last week - at a coffee convention (who knew there was such a thing?) - that he's heard and read the criticisms... He even knows about Melody of Seattle, the activist attorney blogger who leads the bold coffee movement (whom I now consider to be a friend). More on Melody in the near future.

OK, let me supply this preview... As noted in the online-only version of the Seattle Post Intelligencer (Seattle P-I), Melody is one of the most frequent posters on My Starbucks Idea - where links to several of my own bold coffee comments are posted - and on the Starbucks Gossip site.

Enough said, almost... Keep on requesting those bold coffees, even after the noon hour strikes! If they won't serve you one, head on over to Peet's.

No sleep 'til Brooklyn.

Photo: flickr (nooni)