If you live in a major city, you’ve probably seen the ads for Starbucks new Pike Place Roast coffee…and perhaps you got a taste of the free coffee given out on April 10, the launch day. The name honors the location of the first Starbucks coffee emporium (way back in 1971) in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. The goal was to provide Starbucks customers with a signature, “every day” coffee. Starbucks offered different daily choices of its 25+ different blends and single origin coffees. But research showed that many patrons wanted the same taste every day.
Now, Pike Place Roast will be brewed from freshly-ground beans, every half hour. It’s an excellent blend: robust enough for serious coffee drinkers and moderate enough for moderates. After a week of enjoying a daily cup, we conclude that the company has done a great job of appeasing both camps.
A blend to appeal to everyone…and to pair perfectly with coffee cake, cookies and chocolate-based foods.
Everyone will note that there’s a smoother finish and softer acidity in this arabica blend. Coffee geeks or super palates (take your position on the podium of your choice) will note nuances of cocoa and toasted nuts. While it’s a universal cup, the flavor notes pair well with foods that have chocolate, cinnamon or nuts (coffee cake, chocolate chip and other cookies, almond toffee, chocolates and chocolate desserts).
Equally as important as the flavor, IOHO, is that Pike Place Roast is the first of Starbucks’ coffees to bear a new mark symbolizing the company’s ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability, through an expanded relationship with Conservation International, an organization that works in 40 countries to protect plant and animal diversity. Coffee bearing the new mark is purchased from C.A.F.E. Practices-verified suppliers. In 2003, Conservation International and Starbucks joined forces again to design Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, a set of environmentally-, socially- and economically-responsible coffee buying guidelines to support conservation and make a positive difference in the lives of farmers and their communities—similar to the goal of Fair Trade Certified practices (Fair Trade Certified is a trademark of Fairtrade Labeling Organizations (FLO), an international monitoring organization whose U.S. auditor is TransFair USA).
Free tastes are still being given out over the next two weeks across the country. Find an event near you at Starbucks.com. See more of our favorite javas in the Coffee Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.
Yesterday, a New York Times headline blared, “Sticker Shock in the Organic Aisles” (Section C, page 1). The newspaper questioned if the cost of organic food—which can be 20% to 100% higher than conventionally-produced food—is “prompting some consumers to question their devotion to food produced without pesticides, chemical fertilizers or antibiotics.” Obviously, those with budgetary constraints need to shepherd their dollars, but organics rarely end up in the shopping carts of such shoppers, much as they might like them. The article emphasizes the high cost of organics by citing $4.55 (on the high end) for a loaf of organic bread versus $3.79 for conventional bread, $4.99 versus $2.99 for a half gallon of milk and $6.39 versus $3.59 for a dozen eggs. This may be more of a rise than regular groceries are experiencing; but with the truly shocking rises in gasoline and real estate, to name just two items, is the increase in organic food a “shock?”
Even if your household consumes twice the amounts of the staples cited by the Times each week, the difference is $11—a blip for many of us who pay $4.50 for a daily cappuccino, have cocktails after work and/or buy imported water. In a country where many people spend so much money on recreational trips to the mall to buy extraneous apparel, beauty products and home accoutrements, it’s not a hardship to divert $50 a week to organic food. In fact, it’s an ethical choice. If each American ate 10% organic food, it would curtail greenhouse gas emissions that are the equivalent of taking two million cars off the roads each year. It would have been informative for the Times to offset quotes such as “The prices have gotten ridiculous” and “Man, $6.99 for a gallon of milk is pushing it,” with a couple of sentences explaining that many people who choose organic products do so to help save the environment. On Earth Day, April 22nd our Viewpoint will address this subject in depth. Here’s the New York Times article. Read more about organic issues and trends in the NutriNibbles section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.
April 19th is National Garlic Day, and we’re celebrating with three of our favorite garlic products:
– Garlic Pepper Jelly from Aloha From Oregon, a savory jelly that’s great on frankfurters and everything else (and a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week)
–Garlic Aïoli from Restaurant Lulu, a garlic mayonnaise that’s perfect for for seafood, sandwiches or dipping those frites, (and another NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week), and
– Garlic Valley Farms Garlic Juice, which jazzes up any dish (and wasn’t named a Top Pick Of The Week only because our Top Pick selections have always been a bit more glamorous than a spray-on garlic juice—but it’s amazing on salads, pizza, pasta, fish, eggs, anything)
Your purchase of Tumai Water helps people worldwide who have no safe drinking water.
Tumai Water is bottled at a spring in Alton, West Virginia. But proceeds from its sales help the neediest people all over the world. Tumai means “to hope for” in Swahili. Millions of Swahili speakers in Africa are among the estimated 1.1 to 1.3 billion people on the planet who lack basic clean, safe water. They are forced to drink parasite- and bacteria-polluted water that causes widespread disease and the death of an estimated 4,500 children per day. It’s easy to ignore these statistics in a country that spends $15 billion a year on bottled water, where virtually every citizen has access to a safe municipal water supply. Tumai Water is a new brand that wants to leverage America’s appetite for bottled water to return a portion of sales to projects that bring safe water to those people who so desperately need it. The mission is similar to that of Ethos Water, a spring water brand that is sold at Starbucks cafés throughout the country (it tastes similar to Ethos Water, too). Tumai Water currently lacks such a powerful distribution partner—but they will ship the water to your home or office by the case. If you are planning to buy water to give away at an event, or want to stock the shelves of your store with something that will inspire people who buy bottled water, the message on the bottle is powerful, and will earn you goodwill among those who receive one.
On the one hand, we want people to reduce their carbon footprint by learning to accept their local tap water (which can taste much better with the simple installation of a water filter). On the other hand, we know millions of Americans enjoy bottled water or insist upon the convenience. Let those bottled water purchases do good on this planet. Visit TumaiWater.com.
Today, you can buy a piece of decent chèvre in any major city. But in the early 1980s, few people knew what chèvre—goat cheese—was. It was then that Allison Hooper learned how to make chèvre, as an apprentice cheesemaker in Brittany, and returned to Vermont with a passion to make it in the U.S. Fortunately, she found a business partner and an audience of chefs—then consumers—eager to serve her products. Vermont Butter & Cheese Company became a leader in the American artisan cheese movement, and Americans learned how to love chèvre. At VBC, as the company is fondly known, the goat cheeses were joined by European-style cow’s milk dairy products also relatively unknown to Americans: crème fraîche, mascarpone and even quark. And then came the great artisan cultured butters, higher in butterfat than American contenders and the zenith of butters, as you’ll read in detail in the full review. All of the cow’s milk products are certified kosher by KOF-K, are carried by fine retailers nationwide and are available online. Join us in exploring these award-winning, artisan dairy queens. Find more of our favorite butters and cheeses in the Butter & Cheese Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.
Crottin, the classic goat cheese shape from the Loire Valley of France, as made in the U.S.A. by Vermont Butter & Cheese Company.
