Aged Sumatra is back in reserve stores this month, and I am so happy! Aged Sumatra is something I look forward to every year, and it’s what makes some of our seasonal coffees so special. The cedary and spicy notes you find in Anniversary blend and Christmas blend are due to the aged Sumatra. This lot, lot number 571, has been aging for 4 years! It might sound like a long time, but it is worth the wait. Maple and toasted marshmallow notes with a syrupy sweetness and heavy body….
Growing up, around Christmas time, my mom would always make her famous curry and serve it with a mandarin orange salad. It is probably one of my fondest food memories. I wanted to take that idea of curry and mandarin oranges and apply it to a coffee tasting. Ethiopia Gedeb is the perfect coffee for this. Ethiopia Gedeb has intense apricot and ginger notes to it, I knew those flavors would compliment curry very well.
I wanted to create a tasting that was a twist on a classic snack; french fries and ketchup….
Every Friday, my store does something called French Press Friday. This idea was adopted from another partner, Cookie, who is on the other side of the country. Thanks to social media, we were able to connect and she inspired us to commit to doing french press Friday each and every week. By doing this, we have completed our passports, and now are moving on to Reserve coffees! I am kind of a coffee hoarder. I’ll get a coffee, and keep it hidden until I have a special tasting or a meeting. Mexico Guadalupe Zajú is the Reserve subscription for October, so I really wanted to use that, but the idea for this tasting goes a bit further back.
In March, at the Starbucks shareholders meeting, I was able to sample a reserve coffee I had never seen or heard of before; Mexico Finca Nueva Esperanza. A few of the Roastery partners were sampling it on the siphon, and I was struck at how sweet and soft this coffee was, with vibrant notes of almond and lemon. I knew I had to have this coffee, and I knew that I wanted to make conchas, because the artwork of the card reminded me of the neon sugar paste. Getting this coffee was not an easy task…..
There is a small window, right before the Christmas mania begins, where Starbucks Thanksgiving blend appears in stores. Thanksgiving blend was created in partnership with Seattle restauranteur Tom Douglas in 2008. The goal was to create a blend that could pair with both sweet and savory foods, a culinary coffee to compliment a Thanksgiving feast. Ten blends were created, but Tom and master blender, Anthony Carrol, narrowed it down to two. Tom cooked a Thanksgiving feast, and paired the two coffees with the meal. When paired with the herbed stuffing, one coffee stood out.
Thanksgiving Blend has become a tradition is many homes over the past 8 years. It is a blend of coffees from Sumatra and Guatemala, spicy and full bodied with subtle herbal notes.
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Holiday is just around the corner, and that means my favorite coffees are here! Thanksgiving blend, Christmas blend, aged Sumatra and Holiday blend!
For a long time, Holiday blend was the same as Christmas blend, just in a different package. In 2013 that changed, and Holiday blend became it’s own blend of Latin American and Indonesian coffees. Holiday blend does not have aged Sumatra, and is a little less intense than our vintage Christmas blend. I know people say it’s too early, but as soon as I saw Holiday blend in the stores, I became so excited. It really is the most wonderful time of the year!
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With the holidays approaching, the amount of baking I do drastically increases. I love baking treats and bringing them into my store! A few years ago I discovered that you can bake directly in to sample cups, so doing this is a staple once the red cups come out. There is nothing more adorable than a peppermint mocha cupcake baked into a red sample cup. I am getting a little ahead of myself. While I was in Sacramento, we had extra sample cups. The baristas gave them to me, and you know I brought them all the way back to Michigan with a project in mind. Reserve cupcake pairing. So here it is; Colombia El Quebradón with snickerdoodle cupcakes!
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If there is one food I could eat for the rest of my life, it would be chips & dip. Hands down. Especially guacamole. I love a chunky guacamole, with loads of tomatoes and cilantro, just like Alton Brown taught me to make. One problem.. my husband hates cilantro 🙁 Some people have an allergy where cilantro tastes like soap. My poor husband is one of these people. We often clash on the subject of cilantro when I’m cooking dinner, so I have learned to work around it. If you think about it, a lot of the flavors in guacamole are found in Italian cooking; tomatoes, onions, garlic, and what herb goes better with those flavors than thyme? It’s thyme for guacamole :)…
“The only good thing about Saint Helena is the coffee.” –Napoleon Bonaparte
At the beginning of August 2016, the Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting room in Seattle offered a micro lot of Saint Helena. Starbucks purchased 1/3 of the islands yearly production (around 200 pounds), and only 20lbs of it was reserved for the Roastery to sell. It sold out very quickly, as one could imagine, but I was lucky enough to have a few ounces sent to me. This coffee was made available to reserve subscribers on the Starbucks online store, and sold out in less than 24 hours. ($80 for an 8.8 ounce bag with hand numbered card, for those interested)
At $10 an ounce, is it worth it?
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Ethiopia Gedeb launches in Starbucks Reserve stores on September 6th. I am so lucky to have friends from Seattle keep my coffee bar stocked with coffee from the Roastery, weeks before they launch in stores, so I am able to taste them and create recipes for partners. Ethiopia Gedeb is one of my favorite coffees released so far this year, and let me tell you, it makes an incredible cold brew! I wanted to create something that would pair well with cold brew iced coffee, so I thought a nice and light quinoa salad would be perfect!
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When I first started working at Starbucks in 2005, I was obsessed with the toffee almond bar. I think we all were. It was the most delicious blondie, with chunks of dark chocolate, white chocolate and toffee. It was, hands down, the best Starbucks pastry. Every once in a while, a conversation will come up about “What Starbucks thing do you miss the most” The list is long, but toffee almond bars (and valencia!!) are always number one on my list. So I decided to make my own, and pair it with the Paradeisi Blend from the Roastery.
This blend of three single origin coffees from Colombia, Uganda and Papua New Guinea carries flavors of chocolate, caramel and butterscotch, and is a perfect pairing with the toffee almond bars!
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