Starbucks Pike Place-Does any one know the blend?

[lovethatcoffee]

Does anyone have a good idea as to the blend starbucks uses to make Pike Place? It sees like a Melange of south and Central American beans, but, I am new to all the profiles and their flavors. thanks!

 

[eldub]

Never thought about it. But I 'm guessing they are cheap, mediocre beans at best.

 

[PinkRose]

What do you like about the Starbuck's Pike Place coffee? Are you trying to duplicate using other beans?

 

[lovethatcoffee]

Maybe 3-4 beans, Columbian, Costa Rica, Guatemala, ??

 

[lovethatcoffee]

I think that it is a good "crowd pleaser". I am also trying to teach myself about blending and feel that it is a good basic latin american blended coffee that every one has experience with. It has a very pleasant nut/chocalate aroma and the finish is long with out any unpleasant "carbon" flavors. I think this is interesting considering that starbucks is considered to be on the darker side of the roast spectrum. I feel that if I can replicate it it would be a good learning tool for blending.

 

[eldub]

So, are you roasting coffee beans?

The reason I ask is that as a coffee roaster, desiring to match most any of Starbuck's blend profiles is setting the bar at a pretty low level, imo.

 

[lovethatcoffee]

I'm roasting at home and am having a little difficulty getting the depth of flavor like I am used to getting from blends from our local shops (and starbucks for that matter). My reference to Starbucks is only to give a point of reference for any helpful comments since people are on this forum are from around the country (world?) I know that most serious coffee drinkers are anti-starbucks for a lot of reasons and I am not inferring that they are the bench-mark for coffee flavor.

 

[eldub]

Maybe some work on the roasting technique is in order. Would you care to share with us your roasting method, times and beans used?

Maybe we can help you develop the flavor profiles of your beans before getting into blending.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I'm roasting at home and am having a little difficulty getting the depth of flavor like I am used to getting from blends from our local shops (and starbucks for that matter). My reference to Starbucks is only to give a point of reference for any helpful comments since people are on this forum are from around the country (world?) I know that most serious coffee drinkers are anti-starbucks for a lot of reasons and I am not inferring that they are the bench-mark for coffee flavor.

As far as I am concern, they should be bench mark. They sure do sell more then anyone I know. Do you know anyone who bought 580 million pounds of coffee last year? I sure don't... lol..
But I think it won't be hard match their flavor or exceed. You just need to keep on trying.
Share with us what you are roasting and your roasting profile.

 

[eldub]

When we blend, we like to use a top, middle and bottom note, or at least a top and bottom.

Top notes tend to get lost in an equal ratio blend, so some of our blends use two parts top to one parts middle and bottom note.

I consider Ethiopian yirgacheffe and sidamos to be top notes along with the costa ricans we have experience with. The mexican Chiapas we are roasting "light" also makes a nice top note.

We use Guats and Costa Ricans for mid notes and sometimes bottoms, depending on the circumstance.

Sumatras are great bottom notes as well as certain offerings like Peruvians and Bolivians, (when roasted dark.)

Most of our blends contain two or three beans. (We roast and then blend.)

Our espresso blends are made up of low-acid beans roasted to different levels starting on the dark side of a medium roast. My favorite espresso blend is made up of three arabica beans and a small percentage of a high-quality robusta.

 

[lovethatcoffee]

That's very helpful. Right now I have a Costa Rica Terazu, Columbian Supremo and Guat Huehuetenego. I think that the Costa and Guatemala, individually, have aromas and flavors that are in the blend. I think the Columbian would give nice body but am not sure. I was using al most equal parts of all, so lessening the Guat might be a place to start? Based on what you said, i'll make the Costa the Top note?

 

[eldub]

It depends on how you are roasting the Costa Rican, IMO. We like to roast the cr as lightly as possible while still developing the sugars just to the point of tasting like coffee and not tea/grassy. At that level there is still sufficient acids to make a viable top note, IMO. We generally toast our guats to medium and Colombians to the dark side of medium.

I would start with two parts cr to one part guat and one Colombian.

We also like the results of equal amounts of guat and Colombian roasted to the levels outlined above.

 

[lovethatcoffee]

I will do that. What do you roast on? Do you have a bean temp when you roast? I am using a Behmor, which I am enjoying, but, I feel like I don't have total control without a tryer or thermometer. How much do you rely on bean temp for your decision to drop?

 

[eldub]

I pretty much go strictly by temps on our US Roaster Corp's 12 kg machine. (We roast professionally.) Without knowing roaster air temps and bean mass temps I would be lost.

lw

 

[eldub]

Btw, I really doubt Starbucks is using Costa Rican beans in their blends. My guess would be that the ingredients are much more generic and from countries where beans are available in massive quantities on the cheap.