Starbucks Challenge - Westfield Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand
The other day Jim Hughes pointed me to Starbucks Challenge 2.0, so whats a guy who loves his coffee, but constantly finds himself drinking an overly milky beverage from the great Satan to do? Join in the challenge thats what!
Now, theres four Starbucks venues down the road from work, one up the road from the flat (todays challenge), and about four others in the various malls and shopping haunts I often find myself in - so there all going to be challenged - even the tiny Starbucks mini-cart store, but all in good time.
This mornings challenge finds me up the road at the Westfield shopping mall in Pakuranga. I was lucky to get myself a freshly hatched new employee who I thinks only been at the store a week or so and casually asked for a "cup of fair trade coffee", without a beat she responded with "was that 'Filter Coffee'?" and true to the challenge I come back and correct her with "FAIR TRADE", after a momentary confused look she asks the main barista girl who points to the cupboard behind her - "that'll be $4 thank... it'll be a few minutes..." and I'm off to find a seat in the comfy leather chairs...
...Five minutes later I'm still waiting...
...Another five minutes I look up and a third barista asks what I'm waiting for - "a cup of Fair Trade coffee"... "It's just coming up sir, we'll bring it out to you... what milk do you want with that?"...
...Two minutes later a full pot of coffee is delivered to me, along with a mug, and a shot of milk. I'm sitting here listening to the latest episode of the Coffee Geek podcast and can't help but notice the Bodum French Press being used (why am I taking notice of product manufacturers more???), anyway - back to the coffee.
The mug's a little large, and I seem to loose the entire shot of milk in coffee and its still a deep dark colour (ironically, its just at this time that Mark from Coffee Geek explains his main Starbucks pet hate - overly dark roasted beans) but my god - this was the BEST EVER coffee I've ever had at a Starbucks before, that being said it wasn't overly different from my own presspot coffee's at home.
Once the cup was over, I still had 3/4 of the pot left, so I thought I'd take the challenge to another level - drinking it black. I've never been one for black coffee, and on its own I didn't really find this to my liking either, on a whim I added the spare sugar packet I had lying around and wow - now THIS is the best coffee I've had at Starbucks - hands down.
It was also the cheapest, bonus ;-)
I took a photo of the presspot/mug on my phone being annoying and not sending it to me :(
On to the next challenge...
Comments (5)
your coffee is shit its always cold! muffin break coffee is the best!!!
Green LA Girl - you're right, the counter girl did ask me what cup size I wanted but I left it up to them to decide (it's all part of the challenge in my mind...).
And Lin - thanks for the spelling correction... Next venues on the target list are Bottany Downs (one store, one micro-stand at the movie theater), Onehuna (in the Dress Mart mall), West Field St Lukes, plus the four on queen street. I might have to take my time thou, that much coffee will keep up awake for years :)Cool! Now try spelling the suburb name correctly! It is "Pakuranga" instead of "Pakaranga" 8) Are you going to try other starbucks in Auckland?
Yey for New Zealand :) They should actually let you get the cup size of your choice, but then again, it sounds like you enjoyed the whole pot :) Thanks for joining in :)
If you want lovely coffee in Auckland, which I have never had at Starbucks, try Take 5 in the middle of St Lukes, Servo at Te Atatu Peninsula, or Wasp on College Hill Rd (motomail store). If you travel and want great coffee then The Store at Kekerengu (not sure on spelling) between Blenheim and Kaikoura is outstanding or 5 Rivers Cafe south of Kingston on way to Te Anau or Invercargil are all worth a visit.