Estima Mystery Solved, But Make Mine A Cup of FAILED Trade

LOCATION: Colorado & Bonnie, Pasadena
1687 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena CA, 91106
United States 626-578-7244

Oh my. One big win, but now one bigger-than-big booboo, and utter SBX failure. Sigh.

"May I have a venti fair trade coffee please?"

"Sure," said the Barista and turned to pour the cup.

"Whoooo Hooo ... oops," I thought, as he pulled the tap on a cup of Christmas Blend.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Your coffee?"

"Uh, no. That looks like, uhm, Christmas Blend."

"Yes."

"That's not a Fair Trade blend."

"Oh." Blank stare.

The completely blank stare left even me unable to bring myself to educamate the completely clueless partner on his own product.

Mark: FAIL

To be charitible the partner -- tall male (about 6'4"), mid-20's dark hair, dark eyes, on shift about 7:15 am) took the "Say Yes" training a shade too far, saying "Yes" without a clue as to what he had agreed to do.

And as an aside, I think the Mystery of the Missing Estima is solved: The other partner on told me, when I asked, that she thought Cafe Estima as Coffee of the Week was optional with local managers, and that they had a ton of the Christmas Blend left over that had to be moved first (thus it was the COW). Now I don't know about what is optional and what is not, but maybe they would have sold more Christmas Blend if it had been Fair Trade . . .

And oh yeah, Starbucks -- why stop at Christmas? Why not have a Bodhi Blend available only on December 8; or a Kwanzaa Pack, with eight FT African coffees; etc, etc. Just kidding. Well, maybe.

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Amused by the Starbucks Challenge? Me too. Now come see my real mission in the blogosphere: Easy Green and its companion journal, Observations, and such: Notes on the Kitchen Calendar