Starbucks Test New Size ‘Trenta’ via The Daily Tribune

Starbucks is testing the new size ‘Trenta’, 31 ounce cup. They responded to customer demanding for larger cold beverages, they started testing 31-ounce iced teas and iced coffees in Phoenix and Tampa as part of a limited market test, according to the coffee chain. Starbucks’ current largest size is a 24-ounce “Venti” cup used for serving iced coffee and other cold drinks.

Starbucks introduces a larger “Trenta” drink size via Geek.com via Time

If you enjoy purchasing the largest cup you can get from convenience stores and drive-thru windows, Starbucks would like to have your attention for a moment. For those who enjoy Starbucks on the go, the Seattle-based company is unveiling a new “Trenta” size cup to satisfy your enormous thirst for its caffeine-laden goodness.

Sizing-up the new cup, the Trenta contains 7 more ounces than the current “Venti” 24-ounce cup and will cost about 50 cents more per beverage. The only catch is the Trenta cup is reserved for cold based beverages only like iced-teas, iced-coffees, and lemonade drinks. Probably a wise move by Starbuck’s, considering dumping a 31-ounce cup of hot Joe in your lap would result is a very substantial skin graft.

The new Trenta size drinks will become available starting on Tuesday in 14 states including Alabama, Arizona, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia, New Mexico, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Hawaii, and Nevada. California will get the new Trenta on February 1st, while the rest of the nation should see the 31-ounce cup by May 3rd.

Starbucks’ new Trenta will totally own your stomach via Below the Scroll

Starbucks announces the Trenta, a 31-ounce drink (almost a quart) that launches in the South this week but probably won’t make its Lincoln debut until May. CNN

National Post has made a discomfiting infographic comparing the size of the Trenta to the size of the human stomach.

The New Starbucks Trenta Cup Is Bigger Than Your Stomach via Gizmodo

To satisfy the unquenchable gullets of America’s brand-name coffee drinkers, Starbucks will introduce a 916ml Trenta cup. That’s more than the average capacity of the human stomach, and enough caffeine to stand in for a defibrillator.

Of course, it’s not much—if any—different from a Big Gulp or any movie theater’s large beverage container. But for some reason coffee’s just that much more insidious. You’ll be able to sample one for yourself when the Trenta rolls out nationwide by May 3rd. [Image credit: National Post via Laughing Squid]

Starbucks Trenta, Illustrated: How The New Size Compares To The Human Stomach

Just how big is Starbucks’ new Trenta size? The Trenta, available only for iced drinks, will be in every U.S. Starbucks by May 3.  The 31oz addition to the Starbucks lineup is 325mL larger than Starbucks’ previous largest size, the Venti. At 916 mL, the Trenta is actually larger than the average capacity of the adult human stomach (900mL). From the National Post

Starbucks Trenta, 31-Ounces, Launches in South This Week via WalletPop

Starbucks may have long prompted ridicule with its Italianisms for “medium” (Grande) and “large” (Venti, or “20″ in Italian) but it made no attempt to relieve the eye-rollers with its newly-announced size, rolling out beginning Tuesday in 14 states and in the rest of the country by May: the Trenta, a 31-ouncer. “Trenta” is Italian for “30″; Starbucks has not yet explained why it couldn’t call the size the more accurate “trentuno.” But for that matter, the company has not yet explained “Tall.”

The size will only be offered in iced coffee, iced tea and iced lemonade beverages, allowing Starbucks to neatly skirt the obvious criticisms that the drinks might contribute to our nation’s obesity crisis; even the sweetened versions, they say, can’t be more than 230 calories. And as these are some of the least expensive drinks on the menu already, the company can’t be criticized for raising prices even further — the prices for the Trenta will be 50-cents more than the Venti. The biggest legitimate criticism comes from the National Post, which has printed a nice infographic showing that the Trenta (916 ml) is larger than the average stomach capacity (900 ml).

So, it’s clear that (as one jokester mentioned) Starbucks in the mostly-Southern states which will get the new sizes first — Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona — the major impact to the financial and physical health of its customers will be in their need to use the restroom. Let’s not raise the alarm flags quite yet.

However, it’s one of those moves that certainly leaves the door open for future Trenta-sized beverages whose caloric content could end up rivaling the famously-retired Supersize sodas. At about 410 or 420 calories for a 42-ounce Supersize drink at McDonald’s, many Venti beverages already outdo that number; the Caramel Brulee Latte is 430 calories, an Eggnog Latte is 610, and a Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha is 590. You and I can both do the math; even an “ordinary” flavored latte, in a 31-ounce size, would be about 500 calories; the sweetest versions of the drinks would be over 900 calories.

Sure, it’s just a little more ice and caffeine; and it’s not like customers can’t create drinks now that top 1,000 calories if they really want to. A soldier in my husband’s unit would order a Venti mocha with five shots of vanilla; skinny, that ain’t. But do we really need a reason to spend more than we already do on big plastic cups of caffeine and sugar? The answer to that is a resounding “no.”

Starbucks test markets the 31-ounce Trenta for iced tea or coffee via USA Today

Move over Venti. Starbucks is test marketing  the Trenta — a  31-ounce serving of iced teas and iced coffee.

Reuters says Starbucks’ announcement comes as some McDonald’s restaurants continue to offer a 32-ounce sweet tea for $1.

The new 31-ounce Trenta is being tested in Phoenix and Tampa. The iced coffee version sells for $3.30 and the iced tea for $2.60.

Starbucks says unsweetened Trenta drinks have fewer than 5 calories, while sweetened versions have less than 200 calories.

There was no word of the potential impact on nerves.

Starbucks trenta: Because what we really need is MORE CAFFEINE!!! via Chicago Tribune

Word of the day: ‘Trenta’

Starbucks is sampling 31-ounce cold drinks under that name in two markets — Tampa, Fla., and Phoenix. The trenta, “30″ in Italian, is an extra large in Starbucks-speak. The chain coffee retailer currently offers the venti/large (24 ounces cold, 20 ounces hot), grande/medium (16 ounces) and tall/small (12 ounces). All with multiple milk choices, various syrups and sweeteners and …. Ahhhhhhh! They really should not mess with highly caffeinated people this way.

Gulp! Starbucks testing big 31-ounce Trenta size via the Orange County Register

Step aside Venti. Welcome, the Trenta.

Starbucks is testing a bigger drink dubbed the Trenta in two major U.S. markets. The new 31-ounce size is good for only iced coffee ($3.30) and iced tea ($2.60) drinks. The super-size cup is sold in cafes in  Phoenix and Tampa, Fl.

“It is simply a new item we are testing in response to our customers (asking) for larger iced tea and coffee,” Starbucks said in a statement to the Register.

The big drink option comes as McDonald’s challenges Starbucks in the morning with its new McCafe drinks.  It’s unclear if Trenta will come to Southern California.

Starbucks declined to talk about future test markets.

The Trenta is seven ounces larger than Starbucks’ biggest cup, a Venti. Though the size is bigger, Starbucks was quick to point out that unsweetened Trenta beverages are less than 5 calories. Sweetened iced coffee or tea in a Trenta cup would be less than 200 calories, the company added.

Even though Richard Laermer does not agree, I love the new Starbucks logo.

It boils it all down into the essence.

We have all been so completely inculcated in STARBUCKS==COFFEE that the only logo better than the minimalist 2011 Starbucks logo is the original 1971 Starbucks logo — with bare breasts and all!

Then, the 1971 logo circa 2011 could well have updated “Coffee Tea Spices” with “Coffee Hookers Blow” or whatever it evolves into — have you seen Idiocracy‘s take on the ‘Bucks?

Good luck, Starbucks!  I always look forward to a “Venti Mild” or a “Quad” any chance I get so I always want you to be ubiquitous and I hope I will be able to drink more Starbucks on my trip than I will need to drink Truck Stop or Dunkin Donuts coffee, both of which I hate with a passion.

I am checked-in and my too-huge, over-weight XL Filson Duffle is checked (at the normal fee) and I am sipping a quad expresso at the upper-level ticketing floor Starbucks overlooking gates 23-34 and I saw this pretty little photo, wishing I had my Nikon N95s with fisheye lens. Where T&A and TSA come together: modern body scanning at airports!

I chose the Park Avenue COSI to spend my dollars today because I had access to an A/C power outlet where I could handily charge my dead Blackberry Bold 9700.

5 Starbucks didn’t have any left — the few that they had were over-utilized and over-subscribed — quite the octopussy mess.  I posit that cafes in NYC and elsewhere would be able to fill their cafes during dead time like 2-5 PM or 10-12 AM with people who are needing to top up their iPhones, iPads, Androids, Blackberries and other thirsty 3G phones.  Cosi got my business because I could find a single plug 5 tables away from where I sat — desperately hoping that there isn’t a New Yorker worth his salt who would ever steal a Blackberry — why would anyone want a BB when the iPhone exists!

I have been curious as to how good the new premium Starbucks VIA instant coffee is — and I have not tried it yet — but I think it is a win, according to the gang at What’s Up Below Deck, Starbucks VIA instant coffee taste test. Is it as good as they say?

The VIA claim more or less stands up. In terms of appearance, aroma, mouthfeel, and taste, VIA is pretty close to the Ground Italian Roast and miles different and better than Taster’s Choice. Lots of body, no off-notes and no artificial flavor. We both agreed that sample #2 (the Ground sample) had a slightly richer and more distinctive taste than sample #1 (VIA) but nothing that either of us would have picked up without a side-by-side comparison. I think it’s fair to say that Starbucks has successfully reinvented the instant coffee category and shown what’s possible.

My buddy David Gelles is now a Technology reporter and blogger for the Financial Times and I was so happy to see David writing about Twitter PR, something very dear to my heart, Companies use Twitter to pack PR punch, including Scott Monty of Ford as well as the gang from PepsiCo’s Pepsi Max controversy:

Companies use Twitter to pack PR punch 
By David Gelles in San Francisco

Published: December 30 2008 19:16 | Last updated: December 30 2008 19:16

Twitter, a booming micro-blogging service, is inspiring business to manage its message in 140 characters or less.

Its streams of short text messages, publicly broadcast over the web, are being treated as the new frontline of internet conversation. Companies including Ford and PepsiCo have been dousing public relations fires with pithy communication bursts to the Twitter community.

“There’s a rapid-fire element to Twitter that causes conversations to go viral when something bad happens with a company,” says Jackie Huba, co-founder of the Society for Word of Mouth, an organisation that monitors social media. “Companies that have a Twitter account are prepared. If something goes wrong they can respond.”

PepsiCo turned to Twitter this month after users began posting criticisms of a Pepsi Max advertisement, which depicted a cartoon calorie committing suicide.

Huw Gilbert, communications manager for PepsiCo International, “tweeted”, or posted a public message, in reply. “Huw from Pepsi here,” he wrote. “We agree this creative is totally inappropriate; we apologise and please know it won’t run again.”

Critics saw Mr Gilbert’s post, with one “tweeting” back: “Thank you?.?.?.?for having the guts to get on Twitter on behalf of Pepsi and give us an update on the suicide ad.”

Such personal interaction from a company representative helps defuse a crisis, says Ms Huba. “People like feeling like they’re being heard,” she says.

Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motors, used Twitter to deflect criticism away from the carmaker after it filed suit against an enthusiast website that was selling unauthorised Ford decals. Fans of the site posted angry messages but Mr Monty used Twitter to explain the company’s position.

“Part of my job is to humanise the company – you want to interact,” Mr Monty says.

Starbucks, Comcast, JetBlue and Home Depot are among companies using Twitter accounts to promote products and provide customer service.

Bob Pearson, head of communities and conversation for Dell, said his company had generated $1m in computer-related sales through alerts posted to Twitter.

San Francisco-based Twitter is also becoming a platform for a range of media and social networking start-ups using its tools to develop communities and content rapidly, and at low cost.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

Photo by my uncle Jack Abraham

Happy holidays! I am writing to you from the Hackenscher Markt Starbucks here in Berlin. The mayor called Berlin “poor but sexy”, a perfect description for this place. Recent news for me is that I’m blogging for the AdAge Global Idea Network about global culture, trends, brands, ideas. I’d like to blog and guest blog more in 09 so let me know if you’d like to give me a shot.

Business-wise, my firm, Abraham Harrison, is going into its third year, doing online brand promotion focusing exclusively on earned media. We routinely earn over two-hundred blog posts per client outreach. If you’d like to know more about my day job, ping me. I don’t want this to become salesy and lame.

I am still in the AdAge Power 150 (122!) with my personal blog and am always up for hearing about interesting stuff to write about. On that note, you can also pop me stuff via Twitter where I am active and @chrisabraham.

I hope you’re having an amazing holiday season. Sure, German druids may have invented the Christmas tree but there’s just something about being home for the holidays so I’m heading to DC for Christmas for a proper experience. I plan to be there from Christmas through January and would love to meet-up if you’re on the East Coast. Hell, I’ll train it to meet. And make sure to let me know if you have any plans to be in Berlin anytime in 2009, I’ll show you around.

UPDATE: I shared this post with them and they wished me well on my trip to Aspen! They live out in the corn fields and, aside from someone’s basement at someone’s house, they practice here at Starbucks!  I am having quite a lot of fun here in Topeka, Kansas!  I love the way these kids roll!

According to an online quiz on Details, “Are Your That Guy,” I am totally that guy: a total douchebag, apparently.

1 You initiate fist bumps.
Yes
No

Someone told me that high-fives are passe so I have replaced them with bumps and regular, manly, handshakes.

2 You order foreign dishes in an accent.
Yes
No

I ask for foreign dishes, yes, properly. If the dish is French then I order it in French and if it is Mexican, I pronounce it in Spanish. And in Germany, I sort of need to order it in German. If you do it right, you don’t really draw much attention to yourself.

3 You shave your head at the first sign of balding.
Yes
No

I would totally either shave my head or crop it close if I started balding.

4 You use any word Stephen Colbert invented.
Yes
No

I use as many words as I can remember if they were coined by Stephen Colbert.

5 You have an elaborate bedtime ritual on planes—with neck pillow, sleep mask, and noise-canceling headphones.
Yes
No

People with sleeping rituals of any kind need to lose their guy card immediately.

6 You have a downloaded ring tone.
Yes
No

I am quite amused with classic, normal, default ringtones; however, I really enjoyed sporting the “bring out your dead” skit from Monty Python.

7 You wave someone along even though they have the right of way.
Yes
No

I think I have forgotten who actually does have right-of-way at 4-way intersections, so if I feel like I arrived a millisecond later than another, I will wave and wave.

8 You say the name of the town where your Ivy League alma mater is located instead of the name of the school.
Yes
No

If I had actually gone to an Ivy League school, I would totally say New Haven or Boston or wherever.

9 You own a Manchester United jersey.
Yes
No

No, I am afraid not. I almost bought a Norwich Canaries jersey but decided not to.

10 You quote Borat, Zoolander, or Anchorman, or reference “TPS reports” and “pieces of flair.”
Yes
No

I don’t have the best memory for these things but I made a Zoolander reference just the other day — a Blue Steel reference.

11 You put your BlackBerry on the table when you sit down at a restaurant.
Yes
No

Yes.  In fact, all of my friends deBerry and dePhone the moment we sit down for food — not to show off but because I always have too much shit in my pockets.

12 You talk baby talk to your girlfriend on your office phone.
Yes
No

I don’t have a girlfriend presently but all indicators point to “yes.”

13 You offer to buy a cigarette from people outside bars.
Yes
No

No, I have too much of a problem with entitlement — I would never offer to buy.

14 You order “off-menu.”
Yes
No

Food isn’t really my bag and restaurant-going isn’t my bag, and I am pretty much omnivorous, so, like a diesel, I can run on anything.

15 You own a reptile.
Yes
No

Spike, God rest your little soul

16 You say “My bad.”
Yes
No

I hate that I say this. My bad.

17 You describe your relationship status by saying “It’s complicated.”
Yes
No

With me, it always is.

18 You say “We’re pregnant.”
Yes
No

I would love to say this — I will totally be that guy, if that guy says, “we’re pregnant.”

19 You have destination-related car stickers like MV, NTK, PVT, HMP, or NPT.
Yes
No

I might actually get myself a vanity plate. I never have, yet, but I aspire to.

20 You make a show out of tasting wine.
Yes
No

I tried to make a point of being fussy over coffee and cheese, but what’s the use.

21 You preface statements with “spoiler alert.”
Yes
No

I am Mr. Online and have been beaten down by spoiling, so I have learned my lesson.

22 You don’t wash last night’s admission stamp off your hand.
Yes
No

I am not likely to scrub off the thing.  Does that mean I am preserve it or am I just dirty?

23 You use abbreviations like TBD, ASAP, and BFD in conversation and sign off e-mails with “thx” or “cheers.”
Yes
No

I have been signing emails with “Cheers, Chris” forever.

24 You wear flip-flops, Croakies, Crocs, or board shorts in the city.
Yes
No

My only excuse here is that I grew up in Hawaii and I never used to wear flip-flops (rubber slippers) in the city until it because ubiquitous.

25 You have a nighttime wardrobe that includes a going-out shirt, concert merchandise, or limited-edition sneakers you bought in Tokyo.
Yes
No

I pretty much wear a uniform, no matter what the situation. I have “dressed up” and “dressed down” and “dressed up with jacked.”

26 You say “I need my Starbucks.”
Yes
No

It might sound a little prissy until I tell you that most of the coffee you drink, especially from Dunkin’ Donuts, is really a lot lot worse than Starbucks. You may think Starbuck’s coffee is “burnt” but the truth is, you just have poor taste in coffee. You’re decidedly “truck stop” class.

27 You refer to the woman you’re casually hooking up with as a “friend with benefits.”
Yes
No

28 You pretend not to know who Spencer Pratt is.
Yes
No

I actually don’t know who Spencer Pratt. How do I answer? Yes or no?

29 You offer advice to women on their “form” at the gym.
Yes
No

30 You call friends and colleagues by their last names.
Yes
No

I call David Gelles “Gelles” — but one is enough. I should start colling Andrew Curry, “Curry,” but I don’t.

31 You refer to a date/girlfriend’s having done some “print work.”
Yes
No

I am not much of a modelizer.

32 You describe anything good as “sick.”
Yes
No

I have referred to things as “sweet,” — where does that fall?

33 You refer to your wife as “the ol’ ball and chain” and say “I’ll take the request to management.”
Yes
No

I might never refer to my wife as my wife.  She is “Stephanie” or “Michelle.”

34 You refer to a trip to the gym as a “legs day.”
Yes
No

35 You go to a show to see the opening band.
Yes
No

If I like the opening band, I go to a show for the opening band.

36 You think Hayden Panettiere is hot.
Yes
No

As a huge Heroes fan, who in the hell wouldn’t think that  Hayden Panettiere is hot?

37 You put your kid in a Che Guevara T-shirt.
Yes
No

I love Che.

38 You include the names of your kids and pets in your home outgoing message.
Yes
No

I would, the moment I can find a woman who might be willing to breed with me.

39 You refer to money as “Benjamins,” “dead presidents,” “ducats,” or “coin.”
Yes
No

I like to be as colloquial as possible when it comes to coin.

40 You bitch about your contractor at parties.
Yes
No

I totally bitch about my contractors, who are actually employees!  Not a lot of bitch about these days — they’re a well-oiled machine, yo.

41 You talk about a record “dropping.”
Yes
No

I am actually old enough to remember when you would stack records on a record player and they would drop down, get played, and then another would drop, and it would be played, too.  The “record” version of a multi-CD player.

42 You half-tuck your shirt.
Yes
No

I think the half-tucked shirts look cool but I am not cool enough to pull it off.

43 You have a goatee.
Yes
No

I am either clean-shaven or I have a beard — sometimes, just scruff.  Never a goatee. Back in the day, though, my girlfriend Michelle demanded her beoyfriends have goatees (what’s up with that) and I complied.

44 You refer to anything as “small-batch” or “artisanal.”
Yes
No

Like I mentioned before, I was well into cheeses and into hams and into other foodie things and I was very much into getting as many whole milk cheeses as possible. And, when you want to get whole milk goat cheese of and elite quality, you need to go “artisanal.”

45 You refer to any last-stop bar as “the 19th hole.”
Yes
No

I refer to as many things as possible as “the 19th hole.”

46 You’re a Caucasian with a tattoo in Asian lettering.
Yes
No

Tatoos appal me.

47 You Evite.
Yes
No

I have Evited people for years and year by now. I love it.

48 You own a wine Rabbit.
Yes
No

I am a huge fan of the very basic “Waiter’s Friend” or the Laguiole knife/wine opener.

49 You proselytize about carbon footprints.
Yes
No

I am very anti-climate change hypocrisy.

50 You name your kid after a character in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Yes
No

My son or daughter will surely be named after some character or actor. I am a huge film-lover and also have a degree in American Literature with a minor in creative writing. It is bound to happen.

51 You use the phrase flyover states.
Yes
No

52 You use the word bicoastal.
Yes
No

Yes, but when I use the term bicoastal, I mean American and Europe; Washington, DC, and Berlin, Germany.  Bicontinental, I guess.

53 You pretend to like country music.
Yes
No

I actually do love country music, especially bluegrass.

54 You wear DJ headphones.
Yes
No

Nope. Just simple buds.

55 You use a Bluetooth headset.
Yes
No

I drive in Washington, DC, and do most of my conference calls enroute. I own two bluetooth headsets: a Motorola and a Jawbone.

56 You call muscle groups by shortened versions of their technical names, like “lats,” “traps,” and “pecs.”
Yes
No

I used to be a wrestler and also a college rower, so you sort of just do call them traps, quads, lats, pec, etc.

Bob Garfield on My ooVoo Day, originally uploaded by Chris Abraham.

I got to host On the Media‘s Bob Garfield and represent crayon LLC and ooVoo today during My ooVoo Day today at the offices of MSHC Partners thanks to the kindness and generosity of Michael Bassik. The entire day went swimmingly and many a fine feathered friend ooVoo’d in to say hello and to participate. Very cool. You’ll see my cute-as-sin x61 ThinkPad with my cool wee notebook webcam by CREATIVE. Note the Caribou Coffee cup — there are still alternatives to Starbucks in this town, Washington, DC.

Scott Monty, BL Ochman, Mark Harrison, Christina Greene, and Jonathan Trenn, etc, are all lined up for mirth and happiness! Check out the sweet notie with the cool cammie and the hip offie! We’re attached via a brightly-colored lannie.

Virtual Chris Abraham in Real Life, originally uploaded by Chris Abraham.

A rare peek at Chris Abraham in real life hoteling at a downtown Washington, DC, Starbucks. Photo by Gary Cohen.

Ham, egg, and cheese: 500 calories, 24 g of fat; Sausage, egg and cheese: 410 calories, 21 g of fat; Low fat turkey bacon etc: 330 calories, 7 g of fat.

Clay did the required research here at the office and found out the caloric information of the Starbucks breakfast sandwiches:

“Took me an email and a phone call, but I found out the nutrition info for 3 of the new Starbucks b’fast sandwiches (3 because I had to ask for each one individually, and it took a long time, and I don’t care about eggs florentine or the mushroom one).

They’re actually not as bad as they could be:

Ham, egg, and cheese: 500 calories, 24 g of fat Sausage, egg and cheese: 410 calories, 21 g of fat Low fat turkey bacon etc: 330 calories, 7 g of fat.”

The folks around the office have been gushing about Starbucks’ breakfast sandwiches. I finally tried the $2.99 ham, egg, and cheese “Egg McMuffin” myself and here I am gushing* right along with them. I really hate Starbucks’ lunch menu. It is offensive to charge over a fiver for a cold prepackaged sandwich. Everything changed last month. No, lunch still sucks at Starbucks, but they introduced breakfast sandwiches. No joke.

I took the bus from Bellevue after a teacher’s conference because it was turning out to be a very beautiful summer in a city I had never been. I came here to write coffee reviews and see what Seattle is all about. I am glad I waited because it was fun to see what Seattle was up to post-grunge (PG).

The scene is bubbling with buzzy drone-pop, sent over from the UK by Stereolab, Spiritualized, and Lush. (I couldn’t get either the new Stereolab or Spiritualized album anywhere on Capitol Hill!)

Attention. Grunge is passe in Seattle, but coffee is not, nor is Heroin. Neither are Vespas and Bandit motorcycles.

Attention. Seattle is a lot like London with Hills now – or is aspiring to be – and has not even tried to be like its cousin San Francisco or its stepmother Los Angeles. It went past New York and pressed its hypo directly into a British vein. Maybe not London, maybe Manchester – a fellow port town.

Funny because we had not a drop of rain.

The feeling of love is everywhere – but a demonic sort of love. It is a love requiring a body blue with tattoos and chiming with piercings. Love in a cage; a love temporary and desperate of open mouths and searching tongues.

The sort of love of groping children. A Samsara love… the love of never never land… the love of people so completely indulging their indulgences that 35 looks like 18 and 45 looks like 28 and the bodies lift and there are breasts and thighs and the buttocks and the movement is sensual and Samsara lives and it is a feeling of permanency of constant risk and constant highs.

With loud music and soft mummers; with willing kisses and smiles yet a desperation that time is passing and the skate rat might lose a knee; the hard-core punk might have a seizure; the junky might not be cool again….

In fact being a junky will never be uncool. Neither will the local espresso stand or the cup of joe. As a way to publicly take the edge off. And the coffee better be good because people meet each other at church in Seattle. NA meeting, AA meeting. Hello my name is C. Hello, my name is C. and I am an addict, I haven’t been to confession in three years.

Coffee is ubiquitous, but a ruse. Yes, people do drink the stuff, but its the least of the addictions permeating the goose-pimpled flesh of the Disco Queens and Liam & Noel wannabe’s. Pot is very strong and from Washington and British Columbia (the good stuff doesn’t come from Mexico but from Canada) and Ecstacy is available, but isn’t pure or very clean so people avoid it. It is China White. It is Tar. It is what makes you forget that your body is hamburger and your city has perma-rain.

This is not to say that the coffee isn’t superb! The coffee from the carts in Seattle is better than any of the coffee here in Washington, DC. It has to be, the clientele is very finicky, spoiled, and the competition is overwhelming. Any cafe with a weak shot or bad pressure or stale beans will quickly know what it is like to be put out of business. When I was asking around about where to go and what was cool I quickly realized that Seattleites are certainly connoisseurs of joe. But not just.

A friend mentioned that in a post university world, the only good place to meet contacts and lovers in a world of rugged individualists is at the NA meeting. Come here often? So, how many chips do you have? I am on my 7th!

Coffee is like Chamomile tea in Seattle. Soothing and non-invasive. It is pressed through an Italian machine and goes down in a hot sweet quickness. There is a perk there, but nothing along the lines of intravenous drug use.

A woman, a goth, said to me: heroin is the devil; heroin is the devil — it is what the devil is about: it consumes you and touches you with a gentle mouth like Sartre’s No Exit and the exit sign entering upon its infinite loop ad infinitum.

And so it goes. She said, I did heroin only once but think of him longingly like my first lover, my first real orgasm. An orgasm without parallel! The little death. It is the devil and it is so common, she says, and what is the most effed up is that is will always be cool: it is the risk: like the tattoos, like the Ducatis, like the single track or the mosh pit; like the late nights driving drunk.

Smack and drunk driving will ALWAYS be popular in the US because we rugged individualists love playing dice with the universe.

Our arms fly up and the larynx strains under the explosive mellow happiness of too many nights in the bar after hours where you and she and he and we descend the stairs with the blue smoke with the Kamel, with Radiohead playing in the skull and every detail noticed.

The feeling of exotica where the kiddies can decide never to grow up. My judgement: Seattle is where skaters; rockers; punks; hipsters; hippies; burnouts; britpoppers; funkies; bunkies and the like go never to grow up for there the supple navel the smooth skin made dark red like blood or the tail of the snake along the soft flesh of the arm under and alongside the smoothness of exposed breast. And the tongue and the thigh and the movement of a body under the influences of the Childish Game. And, you can never underestimate the power of a good cuppa.

– text by 1996 Chris Abraham

Image by maywong_photos via Flickr

I just returned from grabbing my my morning coffee. I usually stop at Starbucks for a Venti Americano. I believe its a few shots of espresso and steaming hot water. I drink it black. The obese woman ahead of me exited the store, at 9am, with a Venti Gargantuan Iced White Mocha Chocolate Frapuccino with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

What she was doing was neither drinking nor getting her morning cuppa. She was having dessert for breakfast. Okay, maybe I am not enough of a heathen. Maybe I am not passionate enough ala the Chocolates for Breakfast crowd. But I am! I endorse chocolate croissants and crepes with Nutella. Its just that the same person who would never consider eating chocolate croissants all day long doesn’t hesitate making these sugary caffeinated dessert confections into a daily staple.

I have spent some time living in Europe. I am also a coffee snob. There are a few rules that I would like to suggest for Americans now that the “European Specialty” coffee culture has been accepted whole-heartedly into the American zeitgeist. This is of course an amalgam of my growing-up American culture (thanks Mom) and my experience with French, Dutch, German, Finnish, and even English caffee culture. My mother told me never to drink soda (pop) before lunch. Coke is not a breakfast drink. Water, milk, juice, coffee, and tea are typically breakfast drinks. My mother might make me a breakfast drink like Ovaltine, but in general there would not be a milkshake or a hot fudge sundae sitting on the breakfast table before going to school.

Here’s the lowdown:
The drink that our morning Starbucks friend feasted on suffers from the following nutritional content: The venti Coffee Frapuccino (24 oz) enjoys 405 morning calories, 5 grams of fat, and 3 grams of saturated fat. Well, she might have had an iced venti Caramel Macchiato (24 oz) at 375 calories, 13.5 grams of fat, and 9 grams of staurated fat. At Au Bon Pain, the large Frozen Mocha-Blast (24 oz) has 480 calories. 4 grams of fat, and 3 grams of saturated fat. Bad? Well, the new Starbucks venti Tazoberry and Cream (24 oz) has 750 calories, 34.5 grams of fat, and 22.5 grams of saturated fat. Thats not the highest. Dunkin’ Donuts has the award with the large Vanilla Bean Coolatta (32 oz): 880 calories, 34 grams of fat and 30 grams of saturated fat.

For a comparison (using a half-cup serving), Dreyer’s/Edy’s Dreamery has 260 calories, and 15 grams of fat, Häagen-Dazs has 270 calories and 18 grams of fat, and Ben & Jerry’s World’s Best has 250 calories and 16 grams of fat. Per serving of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, 3 servings per box: 360 calories, 11 grams of fat.

Black coffee has almost zero calories. Its one of the allowed beverages in the American Heart Association Diet. I just found this on the web:

In terms of trying to lose weight, giving up soft drinks instead of coffee is a smart move since soft drinks contain about 150 calories for 12 ounces while the same amount of black coffee (no sugar added) contains practically zero calories. However, coffee calories can easily rise up to 340 calories if we are talking about a “tall” (12-ounce) Caffe Mocha with whole milk and whipped cream. That?s like having a slice of chocolate cake or a cheeseburger in a coffee cup!

Morning coffee in Europe is invariably coffee with milk or coffee with creme. Sure, a cafe au lait, a cafe latte, a cappuccino. Perfect. In the U.S. we have always been a drip coffee sort of bunch. Yes, there is the sort, like me, who likes his coffee black. But some milk and sugar (er, soy and honey) is just fine. It should be enjoyed and be enjoyable.

In the afternoon, the latte is put aside, and the espresso is preferred. Milky coffees are reserved for the morning, with breakfast. I wish you luck with your coffee. In its purest form, its one of the less offensive habits. Enjoy!