Finding Mu

I was down in San Francisco a week ago, flying on United. Still have yet to write something about the trip. But, while flying something happened I thought was blog-worthy.

When the guy was coming around to serve coffee, he'd go around to every seat saying: "Starbucks? Starbucks for you? Starbucks?" Whatever happened to just saying what it is, coffee?

So, obviously Starbucks and United did some deal, but a pretty detailed one: the flight attendants must actually use the word "Starbucks" instead of "coffee". Sneaky eh?

Reminds me a lot of Kleenex and the way the extreme success of that brand eventually led the the word being used to refer to the type of product itself. Nobody says "can you pass me some facial tissue?", they say "pass me some Kleenex." It's the ultimate win in marketing it seems, building a perfect cultural association between the brand and the product itself. iPod is another good example.

Could it be that someday you'll wake up in the morning and say "time for some Starbucks", and head over to the nearest coffee shop, whether it's Starbucks or not?

Posted by at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Starbucks just recently opened a location in my building, the Columbia Center, in downtown Seattle.

But, this isn't just any Starbucks. The thing is, they already had a location in the building. And, why settle for just one location per building? And, why only hang out with the rest of the ("less cool") food businesses in the cafeteria area?

So, Starbucks went ahead and opened a new location on the 40th floor. Yes, the 40TH floor! Right next to, oh, a couple likely-super-high-priced law firms up in the sky. This is quite simply the most amazing Starbucks I've ever seen. There's an excellent view of downtown Seattle, and you can even see downtown Bellevue and far into the Puget Sound. Beautiful. My $1.91 "Tall with room Americano" was overpriced, but the view was worth it.

I told the cashier, "You know, you work in the coolest Starbucks ever," to which she replied, "Yeah, it's not too shabby, is it?" No, this over-the-top Starbucks isn't too shabby at all. Not one bit.

Posted by at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thought all of you still living in the homeland might like this. ;)

Posted by at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I saw this commercial lately where these 40ish year old women are travelling the world together looking for the best cup of coffee. I forget what the commercial was for, maybe a credit card or something? Anyways, I do remember that the women visited at least 3 cities, and one of them was Seattle.

So, since I'm living in one of the well-known coffee capitals of the world, and I know at least a bit about the coffee "scene" here, I thought I'd throw together a list of my current top favourite coffee shops in Seattle. The top 5 contenders:

1. Macrina (Belltown) - The lattes are like crack, seriously, 'nuff said
2. Cherry Street (Belltown) - Seats are super uncomfortable, but the coffee makes up for it
3. Vivace (Capitol Hill) - What can I say, I make the trip to the Hill just to drink coffee there!
4. Top Pot (Belltown) - Always good coffee, and location is convenient
5. Cafe Vita (Capitol Hill) - Pretty good coffee, super artsy crowd :)

Now go get some caffeine!

Posted by at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)