Every coffee has its story. You heard me right my friends! In a cup of coffee, there's always a story behind it. How it came to your cup and the people behind it. This article is not related to any cryptocurrencies. It's all about coffee and when I'm doing my crypto thing, it's always there for me. I'm just going to share the coffee that I've used in my Store Manager Panel Presentation (SMPP) here at Starbucks Philippines. To give you a summary of my Starbucks journey, I started as a Barista year 2008 and got promoted as a supervisor after 3 years. As a supervisor, I got a very long journey in assessing my personal performance until I convinced myself that my profession is really my passion. I was endorsed to step up for the next level (Store Manager position) mid-year 2017 and had my successful presentation last February 2019. For the presentation, you need a coffee of your choice to present with the panel and we call that Coffee Tasting Activity (CT). In this activity, you need to romance your coffee by telling its story and that's what you're going to experience today.
Good day readers and writers! Today we will be witnessing the courage and bravery of our coffee farmers from one of the largest islands of Indonesia, a country comprising several thousand islands stretching from Malaysia to Papua New Guinea. Let’s all together explore and witness how they ADAPT, IMPROVISE and OVERCOME with their unique environment. My friends, I present to you Starbucks Sumatra.
Just like the Sumatran tiger, this coffee makes its presence known. Its big and bold with distinctive earthy aroma and lingering low notes truly gives its identity. The heavy, full body and concentrated herbal spice notes are hallmarks of great coffee from Sumatra and the pride of our most seasoned roasters (used herbal objects on individual plating). This coffee has undergone with semi-washed processing method and can be best paired with cinnamon, oat, maple, butter toffee and cheese.
Adapt
11M people in Indonesia depend on growing coffee for their livelihood. 90% of coffee grown in this country comes from small, independent farms and since coffee is one of the main products in Indonesia, farmers focused on this and utilizes all the resources that they have in order to create a living. Thus, this is how they adapt with their environment. Same with our business, there are lots of changes and adjustments that’s happening right now and just like the Sumatran people we are adapting to these changes by understanding the Benefits and “Why’s” and Managing Effective Change to our partners.
Smelling Part
My dear friends, let us engage with the aroma of Sumatra. This brew gives us a vegetative scent similar to basil and parsley. The earthiness of this coffee is very evident like nutmeg with undertone of dried mushroom bringing us closer to the terrain fertile soils of our famer’s neighborhood.
Improvise
Because the demand for Arabica coffees in Indonesia is high, most farmers tend to grow this crop close to home and can be found directly on their backyards. Some farmers even mill the coffees themselves using hand-cranked pulping machines. Improvising is their way to sustain their livelihood. As “one” of the leading innovators in this business world, we tend to create insights from whatever resources we have in order to develop new products to offer with our customers aiming to excel from the competition and ensure customer satisfaction.
Slurp and Locate the Coffee Experience
So now, let’s enjoy this cup in 3 slurps. The intensity of this coffee makes its mark known, as the sensation lingers from the middle to the back of our tongue. On our 2nd slurp, its savour characteristic will give you a distinctive powdery mouthfeel just like eating polvoron along with a very low acidity as the coffee envelopes our tongue. And now, on our final slurp, to highlight the cheese flavor note of this coffee, have a slice of Japanese cheesecake. You’ll notice that as the cheesecake associates with coffee, its creamy cheese flavor is noticeable allowing us to experience an easy to drink full-bodied coffee.
Overcome
Being small lot owner farmers means having their own ways on growing their crop. Thus, this is what Sumatra overcome. To overcome the previous unethical coffee practices they had, through the help of Starbucks, they were able to elevate the quality of their production which ensures the benefit among all aspects involved in the process and uses a set of guidelines on how to nurture their farming, through the introduction of C.A.F.E. Practices (Coffee And Farmers Equity). As a result, with its high quality, the demand for the Sumatran Beans drastically increased causing to have a tight supply for all the buyers and this is a new level for Sumatra to overcome.
Just like what the Sumatran people did, in order to sustain their living, they adapt, improvise and overcome with their environment making them a fit description of the Sumatran tiger. Again my friends, Starbucks Sumatra! Strong coffee comes with a strong personality... :) :) :)