Starbucks in an Instant

It had been a while since I had written a blog on coffee or Starbucks and I know that some of my readers were probably suffering because of it so leave it to Starbucks to oblige me by announcing the launch of their latest coffee related venture which is certain to have a fairly significant impact on the coffee market if their early market tests are any indicator. Starbucks is probably the one company most directly responsible for unleashing the concept of coffee snobs to the mainstream. Prior to the rise of Starbucks the number of people who could tell you what the difference between a cappucino and frappucino probably ranked somewhere in the dozens and now it ranks up there in the thousands. What also set Starbucks from those of us who still do enjoy making instant coffee or brewing our own was that every cup (at least in the early days) was hand made. As soon as you ordered it they ground the beans and then went from there. In that way it made sense that they charged more for coffee since it was hand made at the time you ordered it. And there was what set Starbucks apart, it was hand made for you.

But now with the advent of Starbucks's latest product it seems that you'll be able to hand make your own coffee. Via, a small packet of instant coffee produced by Starbucks is due to be released around the world in the next year. Already being tested in Chicago and Seattle, the mini packets of instant coffee resembly small tubes of sugar served in many restaurants these days. Early blind taste tests have shown that drinkers (even those who consider themselves the snobbiest of coffee snobs) have been unable to discern which coffee is brewed fresh at Starbucks and which was stirred up just moments before being served. That just goes to prove that most people, despite liking to put on airs of being a coffee snob, that they have no clue.

Sure there are those occasional drinkers whose palate is so refined to fine coffee drinking that they could tell you from which tree in the farm the particular bean of coffee was plucked just as some wine drinkers can do the same with different bottles of wine but for the rest of us I think we're content to drink what tastes decent and can keep us awake at work when we're stuck in long boring meetings. I think the step into instant coffee by Starbucks is something that has been a long time coming but has been a hard road to cross because of the fact that Starbucks has always branded or billed itself as a place for gourmet coffee (or at least something better than McDonalds) but I think the fact that people started flocking to McDonalds and were content with 'instant' coffee drinks that were nearly three dollars less than the equivalent size at Starbucks showed the company that perhaps hard economic times can have an impact on drinking coffee.

Though I enjoy the occasional cup of coffee from Starbucks I am not that particular that I can't enjoy a cup made at home using instant grounds and hot water. Now the question that I have though is whether I will find the taste of Via instant grounds so superior to something like Taster's Choice or Folgers that i'm willing again to shell out more money for fewer servings. I'm not a complete cheapskate when it comes to purchasing but neither am I foolish enough to spend on a luxury more than my dollar's worth. On average you can get a bottle of instant coffee for around $9 or $10 at the most in a lot of places. For about $10 I can get 12 servings (or mini packets). A bottle can probably give you twice that many number of servings, so once again the question comes up whether or not you have money to burn on somewhat of a luxury.

Starbucks has been struggling to find itself for sometime now. They had branched out (a bit oddly I might add) into the quick foods market at one point offering up sandwiches and lunch options (again for a much higher price than the average grocery store) and now in light of the fact that so many coffee drinkers are going to places like McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts for a cup of coffee. I suppose that if prices again came down or that the taste and caffeine high produced by Starbucks products was high enough to win back some drinkers then they could start winning back some of the market shares that they have lost as the markets have gone up and down like a ship in rough seas. I personally hope though that the company isn't looking to invest in something that will ultimately cause them to lose even more money. We shall see.