Blogging fuel

The first Starbucks

circa 1975

I was at a Starbucks the other day getting a frappuccino and bought the 10th anniversary release of their Ray Charles, Genius Loves Company CD. It was displayed right by the cash register for impulse purchases. These duets were the last things Mr. Charles recorded, produced by Starbucks with big stars like Elton John, Nora Jones, and Willie Nelson. Of course Ray has departed us now, but no matter, they reissued his album and included a new DVD featuring the performers reminiscing and of course, Howard Schultz, talking about the Starbucks Coffee Empire. 

There was some film footage of the original Starbucks store, which really took me back.  This place is a shrine now and a major tourist attraction down at the Pike Place Market. But I thought how cool that I can remember going in that store, when there was just one Starbucks in the entire universe.

There were probably ten varieties of coffee offered in the open bins, which seemed like an overwhelming choice at the time. They preferred to sell whole bean but would also grind your purchase, although they were pretty fussy even then. They asked your method of brewing, and that's what you got: espresso or drip grind. No arguing. The manual Melitta and Chem Ex filters were the favored methods. Remember the anticipation of pouring fresh boiling water over fragrant coffee grounds?

I kind of miss that old coffee-making ritual.  The Mr. Coffee machine was invented in 1972, but only rich people had them.  If you wanted a drink at Starbucks back then, the choices were latte, cappuccino, espresso and Americano. Maybe they would throw some espresso over ice in the summer.  The words "barista" and "frappuccino" hadn't been invented yet in Seattle. But I have to say, they took their coffee making seriously right from the beginning.

Speaking of coffee, don't look for a blog early tomorrow morning.  I have to go in for one of those routine cholesterol screenings that requires a 12 hour fast. Who cares about food first thing in the morning? It's the cruel lack of coffee that gets the day off to a very dull start.