The Starbucks Story...
Coffee lovers everywhere are confronted with an increasing array of choices when selecting coffee to enjoy. Most specialty coffee roasters offer blends and varietals, regular and decaffeinated, and there is a seemingly endless supply of confusing, specialized lingo. This common coffee language (doesn't everyone offer Columbia Nari‚o Supremo?) can obscure the dramatic differences between Starbucks coffee and all others.
The story of Starbucks coffee begins in Sumatra, Costa Rica, or Kenya. On occasion, the climate, the elevation and the soil are just right, and people who care work incredibly hard at growing great coffee. When all these things happen in just the right combination, Starbucks coffee buyers become very interested.
Our coffee buyers busily roast and taste small samples of coffee, considering thousands of offerings each year. Only those representing the very best of each coffee origin are selected. Some of those we buy are offered as varietals (coffees of single origin); others find a home in one of our blends.
The first time you see green (unroasted) coffee, it is hard to believe that these inert-looking green pebbles can be transformed-- by applying just the right amount of heat, over just the right amount of time -- into amazingly flavorful and aromatic coffee beans. This transformation is the result of thoughtful roasting by people who are passionate about coffee. By most any standard, the Starbucks Roast® is on the dark end of the spectrum. But the Starbucks Roast® is not just a color; it is the cumulative, positive result of "listening to the coffee, and bringing all of its attributes into balance. The color can be duplicated, the taste cannot.
After roasting, our beans are rushed into our flavor-lock bags, which seal the coffee within their thick walls, guaranteeing freshness. Each bag is equipped with a special valve. Carbon dioxide, released by freshly roasted coffee beans, is allowed to escape, but no flavor-robbing oxygen is allowed in. The flavor and aroma of your coffee are locked inside the bag, waiting for you to open and enjoy.
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