Well, Starbucks is in the news again.  It seems the stories just keep popping up everywhere!  Just this past week, a new advertising campaign began with Nescafes Tasters Choice instant coffee.  The campaign basically questions why exactly it is that Starbucks instant coffee sticks are costing consumers about 400% more than Nescafes Tasters Choice brand.

But……there is a far more interesting story here, and the one the title of this post speaks to.  Often enough, when walking into small cafes, I wonder just how clean the facility is kept.  Are the coffee pots cleaned regularly?  What kind of sanitization procedures are used when cleaning dishes used by customer?  Well, it seems that it isn’t just the smaller stores that seem a little unkempt that we should be worrying about!

A Chicago Starbucks location, the shop located at O’hare International Airport has been shut down by the Daily Dumpster task force.   The problem with the shop first came to light on June 4th when health inspectors paid an impromptu visit to the shop.  An infestation of flies was found……flies were everywhere and inspectors ordered the Stabucks management to correct the problem within five days.  Well, five days passed and the inspectors returned only to find that the problem had not been corrected at all!  In just a matter of minutes, inspectors counted no less than 40 flies on the ceiling, walls and around sink drains.

The Starbucks was cited for inadequate pest control and failing to correct a serious violation.  How management would overlook such a problem in the first place is beyond me.  It seems this is simply an example of corporate management and lack of care.  Fortunately, the shop will be required to undertake a complete pest removal program and will have to be inspected once again by city health inspectors before it can reopen for business in the airport.

Sickening, isn’t it?  A massive corporate coffee giant being the dirtiest cafe around!

Some pretty funny comments posted on a couple of news stories about this:

• Elmotot wrote:
  ill take a grande mocha “LARVAE” and a piece of raspberry lemon cake….YUK!!
• Placidian wrote:
  Waiter, there’s a fly in my soy latte!
  gross. =(
• swag wrote:
  But a recent Zagat survey shows customers of fast food coffee places prefer Starbucks’ flies to the flies of their competitors.

Officially, instant coffee sticks have now hit store shelves.  Will this new product replace the old jars of other brands of instant coffee?  Do we need another form of freeze dried coffee??

It wasn’t that long ago that Starbucks popped a new, instant coffee product onto store shelves, and now the “Ready Brew Stick” packets have hit the shelves.  Apparently, these have been touted by nescafe’s Tasters Choice as being much tastier and quite a bit cheaper than the Starbucks instant coffee.

Nescafe’s instant coffee sticks are currently retailing for about $4.00 at supermarkets, which are sold in boxes of 20, making each cup about 20 cents.  Starbucks is selling their single cup instant coffee packets for around $10.00 for a dozen packets, or about 85 cents per cup.

The Chicago Tribune ran a few taste tests, blind of course, with six panelists.  They served up both brands of instant Colombian coffee along with a pot of drip brewed Colombian coffee.  The results were obvious.  The winning cup was the drip brewed coffee, offering the ‘most complex notes’.  In second place was the Starbucks instant brew.  Tasters commented that the Tasters Choice coffee sticks were weak, thin bodied and had an unpleasant ‘cardboardy’ flavour.  One taster commented that the Starbucks cup was bitter and sharp, and prefered the Tasters Choice cup.  It was however unanimously agreed that instant coffee has come a long long way from the days of old!
The Chicago Tribune also left a few recipes to make some instant Iced Coffee seeing as its the season for cold beverages now:

• Sprinkle a packet of instant coffee over your favorite soft-serve frozen yogurt, custard or ice cream for a bitter counterpoint to the sweet, creamy treat.
• Empty a packet into a glass or carton of milk.
• Stir a packet into a blender full of shaved ice to make an easy granita.

I must say……….you’d still be hard pressed to have me consuming instant coffee for any reason at all!

Sources:  Chicago Tribune