Starbucks launches Tribute Blend, new pastries for 40th anniversary

Starbucks is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, and has rolled out a whole variety of new products this spring in celebration of that milestone. I was fortunate enough to attend the launch for the whole new lineup – both drinks and pastries – and got to try everything out just as they were released. The launch of these products actually marks the first time that Starbucks has done a global launch of new items, releasing everything to all of their stores world wide at the same time (although different areas/countries may have slightly different pastries according to local tastes).

The headliner is the Starbucks Tribute Blend, a bold coffee that is a post-roast blend of four different beans and is one of Starbucks best coffees to date. The blend includes aged Sumatra (my favorite), sun-dried Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea and Colombia beans. The coffees in the mix were chosen primarily for the way the combined into one well-balanced brew, but were also chosen because they represent the diversity of Starbucks coffee beans from different parts of the world.

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How to Make Instant Coffee Seem Gourmet

Instant coffee has had a bad reputation of late, largely because the one-dimensional flavor is nothing compared to what you can get from a coffee shop. Fortunately, products like Starbucks Via are raising the bar for instant coffee and letting us take advantage of the convenience of a product like that without throwing flavor out the window. Still, there is nothing like a big cup of freshly brewed coffee, so it never hurts to have a few tricks up your sleeve that will make that instant coffee seem gourmet when you’re using it and Sugar Savvy put together a list to get you started:

• Add cocoa - cocoa will introduce some complexity to a one-note coffee, and it will turn inexpensive instant coffee into an easy and inexpensive mocha with a little sugar and milk.
• Add spice – cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices will also add some complexity to instant coffee, and peppermint will really perk it up on a cold morning.
• Add ice – you can very easily control the strength of your coffee with instant, so making it extra strong and pouring it over ice will give you a very refreshing drink.
• Add milk – milk rounds out the sometimes papery flavors of instant coffee, especially if you don’t mind splurging on a little half and half instead of skim milk
• Add sweeteners – sugar might be the sweetener you reach for most, but brown sugar and maple syrup can make a cup of instant seem a lot more interesting.

And two more tips that I’ll add to the list:

• Add vanilla – if you drink your coffee with milk, add a small amount of vanilla extract to the milk. Vanilla extract doesn’t blend that well with coffee on its own, but the mellow notes of vanilla work really well when you’re already adding a splash of cream. Vanilla sugar and vanilla syrup are other great additions.
• Steam that milk – heat up your milk in a microwave and whisk it well with a small whisk (or stir very vigorously) to froth it up and give your drink a latte feel.

I use instant (Via) over ice all the time in the summer, making a very concentrated brew and pouring over a big cup of ice, then adding syrup and milk. What are your favorite ways to fix up instant coffee, or other coffees that are less-than-great to start out with?

Coffee and Chicory, and how they go together

Chicory is a type of bushy plant that has many culinary uses. The leaves of many types of chicory are used as salad greens, and the roots are dried and ground up for use as a coffee substitute. The root is commonly cultivated in parts of Southern Europe, where it is a readily available and inexpensive coffee substitute, but the most notable example of chicory for many Americans is the signature coffee of Cafe du Monde‘s chicory-spiked coffee so popular in New Orleans.

Just as many plants and herbs besides tea can be brewed like tea to become herbal tisanes, chicory brews similarly to coffee. It has waxed and waned in terms of popularity over the years, but enjoyed periods of great popularity during times of depression or when coffee was scarce. This was particularly true in the South after the Civil War, when it was used to bulk up existing coffee supplies. It became very popular in New Orleans even after regular coffee was widely available again and definitely has its fans – like the famous Cafe Du Monde – to this day.  Chicory has a somewhat licorice-y flavor to it, although fans will often praise its smooth, chocolaty notes and the way that it rounds out a very strong cup of coffee (especially when accompanied by a plate of Cafe du Monde’s popular beignets).

Irish Coffee

If you look carefully, you can find an official day for just about anything. For instance, January 25th was National Irish Coffee Day! Irish Coffee is a hot coffee drink, where freshly brewed coffee is spiked with enough Irish whiskey to give it a kick, then sweetened with sugar and topped with whipped cream. It is a classic and, although I might be a day late to the official party, any excuse for an Irish Coffee is a good one.

Irish coffee is a drink that I like to serve for dessert after a dinner party or even to make for myself on a cold evening when I could use a very cozy, warming drink. I don’t want to offend any purists, but I’ve been known to add a splash of Irish cream to mine, too, just to sweeten things up! I generally go by taste, so as you follow the recipe below, feel free to adjust the amounts to suit your own preferences.
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Starbucks Card Mobile: Pay with your Phone!

Every time I’m in the grocery store, or any other store for that matter, I hear people complaining about how many cards they have to carry around in their wallets and about how many rewards programs they have to join. The Starbucks card is a little different because you can charge it up and pay for your coffee with it (not just use it to get a normal price on an overpriced box of cookies at the market), but it is still one more thing that you need to carry around with you. But Starbucks is going mobile with their cards and if you have a smart phone, you can download an app to access your card digitally. The app will tell you your balance and, when you press the button to pay, a barcode will appear that the barista can scan. Your bill will be deducted from your balance and you won’t need to fish around in your purse or wallet for yet another card (because we all know that we keep our cellphones handier than anything else, for the most part).

I still like my Starbucks card (which is from 2001!) a lot, but I’ve used this type of system for airplane boarding passes and have to admit that it’s pretty convenient, so I just might end up downloading the app myself. It is currently available for iPhone and Blackberry, with an Anroid app coming soon.