Ice-Cold Blonde at the Grocery Store

I drink coffee. Do you drink coffee? If so, you can read about coffee that I've drunk, right here every Sunday, so you can decide if you want to drink it, too!

STARBUCKS CORPORATION: ICED BLONDE ROAST, UNSWEETENED

If you've read my Coffee Log (which is probably the most boring page on the web), you already know that I've been avoiding Starbucks and other such outlets since the middle of 2021. That doesn't mean Starbucks hasn't been getting some of my money though...

Not too long ago, I was grocery shopping when a big, brown bottle caught my eye. It was in the cooler with the cold coffee-themed drinks in cans and little glass bottles and it declared itself to contain Unsweeteend Iced Blonde Roast coffee from Starbucks. It was $6 for 48 oz., so I figured I'd give it a try. If I didn't like it, I could bring it to work to share... and everyone would think I was being generous!

As it turns out, I don't so much like the magic bean juice in the brown bottle as love it. In fact, I think the results I get at home with the unsweetened Iced Blond Roast is superior to both what I recall the iced drinks tasting like, as well as a comparison to my recent return to an old favorite, the Pike Place Roast.

True to what is printed on the bottle, this coffee very much mellow and smooth. It's so smooth that I liked it with just a single packet of Stevia added. Like white coffee, blonde roasts have very little of the bitterness that is typically associated with coffee. It also has a high caffeine content, so it's perfect for someone like me who doesn't like their coffee black--because of the bitter taste--but who wants the caffeine. 

Unlike most other reviews you'll read here, since it's made to be consumed cold and over ice. In addition to trying it straight (which was okay) and with a packet of Stevia added (which was better), I've had it with the usual Unsweetened Almond Milke and sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer. I also mixed this the Iced Blonde Roast with Unweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, sugar-free French Vanilla creamer, vodka & Unweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, Unsweetened Chololate Almond Milk, and probably some mixings I'm forgetting at the moment. I probably should also try it with dashes of various fruit juices to see if I can approximate some of the Bones Coffee flavors while I'm at it...

Basically, at the moment, when my tumbler doesn't contain something iced that I'm drinking for review purposes, it holds iced, blonde-roast Starbucks coffee from a bottle that comes off the grocery store shelf.

Seattle's Best House Blend

Once upon a time, I was a self-employed writer/editor/game designer, working out of my home. When I got tired of  the scenery outside my office window, I would grab my laptop computer, drive down to a nearby Seattle's Best shop, get a large cup of coffee, and sit there and write. And when I was at home, I would also drink Seattle's Best Coffee, because I bought bags of their medium roast in the store and made my own coffee blends. With this latest coffee review, I return to those days... sort of.

 

SEATTLE'S BEST COFFEE: HOUSE BLEND

The subject of today's review came to me via the grocery store when I caught sight of it. I used to go to Seattle's Best all the time, pay table rent (in the form of a Large Coffee or Large White Black-and-White Mocha), and sit their and write all afternoon and into the evening. The staff knew me and would chat, some of the other regulars knew me and would chat... it was an oasis of friendliness in the otherwise stand-offish Northwest. But then Starbucks purchased Seattle's Best and over the space of a year, things changed and the store was closed (to eventually reopen, remodeled and rebranded as a Starbucks location). This was the fate of all the Seattle's Best locations. Except in airports.

But the Seattle's Best brand name lives on in the grocery store. The other day, I noticed bags of Seattle Best's House Blend. This was, basically, the coffee I always got there, either with a bunch of creamer and sugar added, or as part of the aforementioned Black-and-White Mocha. I decided to take a trip down memory lane and bought a bag.

Given the negative experience I had not long ago when I tried the Starbuck's Pike Place Roast for the first time in several years, I did not have high hopes for this, but, as will all media items or coffee I review, I start from a place of expected to enjoy myself; I'm never going to waste my time on something I am certain will be disappointing.

As it turned out, I was not disappointed. The House Blend was every bit as smooth and tasty as I remembered it. As I expected, it's not a coffee that I am happy drinking straight, but a couple Stevia packets fixed it right up... and when I added some Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, it was great!

The House Blend works for me on the level that it works for the many blends from Bones Coffee that I've been reviewing. It's got a strong coffee flavor, but it doesn't have the bitter edge that darker roasts have, so it mixes perfectly with a range of creamers (like my favorites--sugar free Vanilla Creamer and sugar free Italian Sweet Cream creamer) and serves as a great foundation for my home-made chocolate coffee (which is a mix of dark unsweetened cocoa powder and coffee). It also works nicely iced with just unsweetened Vanilla Almond milk added... or as part of my own half-assed spin on a "Black Russian"... which is iced coffee, chocolate almond milk, and vodka.

The House Blend was every bit as good as I remember it, and I enjoyed blending my own flavors as much now as I did back then. I was particularly happy with the chocolate/cinnamon/coffee concoction I came up with and drinking a "Black Russian ala Steve" for the first time in years was a real walk down memory lane.

The House Blend also mixed nicely with some of the Bones Coffee blends that I found too intense for my liking. I brewed pots of coffee made from House Blend and half Peaches and Scream, and half House Blend and half Strawberry Cheesecake, and I ended up with some very tasty flavored brews that were nearly perfect when I added some sugar free Italian Sweet Cream creamer or Unsweetened Almond Milk. I liked the results whether I drank they hot or iced, with a slight preference toward drinking them iced.

I liked the flavor of the House Blend so much that I can't help but wonder if the horribly burnt-tasting cup of Starbuck's Pike Place Roast I got during Free Coffee Day was more the fault of the barista who made it than the coffee that was used? I also loved the great results I had mixing it with other coffees and beverages, and I wonder if I would find the same level of fun and enjoyment through the Pike Place Roast?

I always preferred Seattle's Best over Starbucks Back in the Day, so experiments with the Pike Place Roast might not be as successful, but I won't know until I try.

Watch the space for updates!

She's watching for Steve to arrive with bags of coffee for experimental brews!

Starbucks Coffee's Pike Place Roast

It's National Coffee Day, so here's a bonus coffee review! (You can see other ones I've done recently by clicking here.)

STARBUCKS CORPORATION: PIKE PLACE ROAST

I have never considered myself a coffee snob, nor anyone who cared all that much about what was in my cup. Recently, I have discovered that is not true. At least not anymore.

I think my transition away from "so long as it has caffeine, I'll drink it with as much milk or creamer added as needed" began when a friend brought me Costa Rican coffee that had been roasted in Costa Rica; it was literally the best coffee I'd ever had.

Lately, I've been drinking a lot of coffee from the Bones Coffee Company, including their Costa Rica blend. While it wasn't quite as good as what my friend brought me, it reminded me of the coffee that was literally Costa Rican in every way.

I have known for years that my preferred coffee is a medium roast. My favorite used to be a couple varieties from Seattle's Best--one with vanilla flavoring and one that was straight. When they got absorbed by Starbucks and those were no longer easily available, I have regularly gotten Starbucks' Pike Place Roast and was quite happy with it... so long as I loaded it up with creamers and/or almond milk of various stripes.

Today, September 29, it's National Coffee Day, and Starbucks was giving away free cups of Pike Place Roast if you brought your own reusable mug into the store. So I did, they filled it, and I walked away happy. I hadn't really intended to do a review of the Pike Place Roast... until I tried it, for the first time since my experience with the Costa Rican medium roasts from some mountain-top roaster from Costa Rica and the Bones Coffee Company (not to mention the various flavored varieties which are mostly based on medium roasts).

Visiting the Starbucks Mascot at home (with Milo Manara)

I took my travel mug full of hot Pike Place Roast and added some sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer--roughly the same amount I added to the Costa Rican blends mentioned above, and what I've been putting in the flavored coffees I've been posting about. I would like to say that I enjoyed my free beverage, but I can't say that I did. At least not as much as I've been enjoying the Bones Coffee Costa Rica blend... or the Sumatra blend for that matter, which was a dark roast.

Until today, I've often been insulted on behalf of Starbucks' roasters when coffee snobs complained about their coffee tasting bitter or burnt. To me, their coffee tasted great... or at least better than some of the stuff I'd get at 7-Eleven and gas stations. The bags I would get of Pike Place Roast for home brewing purposes generally also turned out tasting better than whatever random grocery store roast I picked up to try (barring that lovely Seattle's Best Vanilla whenever I'd spot it on the shelves). But, since I've been brewing and drinking Bones Coffee blends at home pretty much exclusively since mid-May, maybe my tastes have... changed? Become more refined? I now know EXACTLY what the coffee snobs meant when they said that Starbucks coffee tastes burnt.

The Pike Place Roast I drank today was the very definition of burnt. Unlike some of the subtly flavored Bones Coffee blends, and VERY unlike their Costa Rican blend, this coffee tasted bitter and burnt. For the first time ever, after being shocked at how bad I thought this tasted, I looked up what Starbucks says the Pike Place Roast should taste. They say it's supposed to be a smooth, well-balanced medium roast that carries flavors of chocolate and nuts. I've never really noticed any such thing, and I certainly did not notice it in the cut I drank today.

Bottom-line, I find that I am unable to recommend the coffee that used to be one I described as my favorite. Maybe I just got a bad batch--I went in around 2pm, so maybe it had been sitting there simmering all day?--but given that I now can identify with the coffee snobs out there who always dumped on Starbucks, maybe I've just outgrown my one-time favorite?

I will still occasionally end up at Starbucks, but I'll probably stick to the Chai Lattes. Maybe, in the not too distant future, I will get myself a bag of Pike Place Roast and brew up a pot for old time's sake... and to see if it's the coffee that's terrible or just the way they make it at my local Starbucks store.