El Salvador Pacamara

Today was an all around fantastic day. I had the rare opportunity to attend a coffee tasting at the Starbucks Senior Support Center (SSC). And that was the second best part of the day.

One our regulars at our store is a man named Major. Now Major is kind of a major deal. He is the Senior Coffee and Tea Educator at Starbucks. When I first started working at my store, I knew that Major was a partner down at the SSC, but I had no idea he was as big a deal as he is. Regardless he invited myself, my Assistant Store Manager and Store Manager to the coffee tasting as well as arranging an highly educational learning opportunity before the tasting. He hooked us up with Brad and Brian who are the main roasters for Starbucks Coffee Company. These two fine gentlemen walked us through the process of taking a green coffee bean to the dark, glossy coffee bean that we all know and love. The coffee was roasted right in front of us! We heard the first pop--when the coffee bean literally bursts open like popcorn. We witnessed the second pop--which sounds like rain. It was incredible! Here is a chart that shows how the progression from green coffee to coffee beans, a process that only takes 11-15 minutes:
During the roasting process, as the 6 of us are huddled around the roaster, Dub Hay--the Senior Vice President of Coffee at Starbucks--came over to check in with us, shake our hands, ask us what store we worked at and such. My favorite part was pulling the hot beans from the hopper, watching the 20 pounds that were roasted JUST for us go through the cooling process and become ready to put in bags. We scooped the coffee into the bags ourselves. This is the freshest coffee one could possibly get. The only way to get fresher coffee is to go to El Salvador, pick the cherries and roast them on the spot. The name of 'our' coffee is El Salvador Pacamara. I have to wait for it to de-gas, but come Thursday I cannot wait to brew it! Here is a picture of the roaster used for our coffee:

As if that wasn't enough, we still had the coffee tasting to look forward to. Starting next week, Starbucks is introducing a brand new coffee to our brewed coffee lineup---Pike Place Roast. Today was the first time the partners at the SSC had the opportunity to try this transformational coffee. They had a little presentation, including a speech by Howard Schultz. This my first chance to see him in person and I have to admit, it was pretty exciting for me! The Pike Place Roast is incredible--it is so totally different from any coffee that I have tasted. After the tasting I got the opportunity to just hang out at the SSC for awhile and talk with different partners.

And it couldn't have come at a better time. I've officially made the decision to leave my other job and take on Starbucks full time, starting May 1st. I've finally found something that I am passionate about and that gets me out of bed at 3:30 in the morning.

I'm so excited.

I'm so terrified.

But as Howard Schultz tells us...ONWARD!