Venti-Size Me Musing

An abridged version of an e-mail conversation:

____: Has Starbucks Lost its Soul? Ummm, yes.

(Apparently, espresso machines that have been ramped up to warp speed have robbed the coffee colossus of its prior romance and intimacy.)

From said e-mail: Using more efficient "automatic espresso machines," he (Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz) bemoaned, diminished the "romance and theater" of the earlier-era La Marzocco machines (misidentified in the memo as "La Marzocca"). The faster machines block "the visual sight line the customer previously had ... for the intimate experience with the barista." Stores designed "to gain efficiencies of scale" and to "satisfy the financial side," Schultz elaborated, "no longer have the soul" nor the "warm feeling of a neighborhood store." Schultz, the author of "Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time," concluded that "we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core ... to evoke the heritage tradition and … passion" for the "true Starbucks experience."

(some variation of this article can be found here)

Sarah: As I sit here, sipping my super-sized Starbuck's americano, I can't help but think that you're trying to convert me to ... some other coffee. And while I agree that Starbucks is the Wal-Mart of the coffee world, I really, truly, devotedly love their americanos. Perhaps I've sold my soul. But people have sold their souls for things much less worthy (or tasty) than hundreds of shots of espresso. If this is the case, in place of my soul is a somewhat affordable, caffeine-driven hyperactivity that rivals ADHD children not yet doped up on Ritalin. ... I'm already buzzed by today's small pot of coffee and the four shots of espresso that were in the drink I picked up on my way to work ... today was a bit of overkill, and I'm now hoping ... that the headache doesn't turn into nausea.

I remain soul-less but caffeinated in Laramie,
Sarah