My Verdict on Pike Place Roast

I understand why they did it. Getting back to the purity of coffee. Getting back to the fundamentals of what makes a good coffee, or coffee good.

Fresh roasted is best. Blue Bottle knows this. That guy built a coffee company with fresh being the core concept. Coffee older than 48 hours is not fresh, and he gives it away. Starbucks started out small, with fresh roasted coffee, then exploded into a coffee empire, offering pure roasts, exotic blends, and a confusing array of lingo and ordering styles. You're average Joe gets his cuppa and likely ruins the taste with splenda and soy. Wait, I mean the average Joe uses milk and white sugar, carbo queens go for the splenda and soy..

Joe likes the whoosh of a can, not the whirl of a grinder. Joe doesn't care if the coffee is from Latin America, or if it's a Yemen. (Yemen, being my all-time favorite coffee).

Starbucks proved that they can master blends and roasts. They are good, but mass production of blends can't be best, because by the time you get those coffees to a consumer, they are no long have freshness. Local coffee roasters offer freshness.

The idea is great. Mass roast one blend, and bring back freshness. The Starbucks I visited yesterday had coffee roasted on 3/29. That's pretty decent.

That one blend is Pike Place Roast. I think it is very mediocre. But that's what they needed to do. Find one blend that east coast coffee wimps would drink, but not too dilute that hardened west coasts fanatics would avoid. I think Pike Place Roast accomplishes this...

That's my opinion.