from staff
Starbucks is offering more for the dollar by selling and teaching coffee to their customers.
Many Starbucks in Jacksonville have created a coffee class at the beginning of every month to train customers on how to make different types of coffees, how to properly taste the coffee and the origins of the coffee beans. The classes started about four months ago and are during the first week of the month, said Downtown Starbucks store manager Michele Olyphant.
Each course has a different theme. Olyphant, who is also a coffee master, held the August class Thursday night where she introduced two new types of summer coffee beans: Terraza, which is from Africa and South America, and Gazebo Blend, a citrus floral flavored coffee from Africa. Both were served hot and cold.
The customers were trained to first smell the coffee, then sip it to find out where the taste lands on the tongue.
“You smell it to see what you can pull out of it,” said Olyphant. “It’s the same way you taste wine.”
Olyphant was also training her customers on how to use a French press coffee machine. The coffee grinds sit at the bottom of what looks like a glass cylindrical pitcher. After the grinds sit in hot water for four minutes, a screen at the top of the pitcher is pressed down into the coffee grinds. Olyphant explained the technique does not require a filter because the screen allows for the purest form of the coffee to rise.
“I felt it was very entertaining and it was a good presentation,” said Valynda Turner, who sampled the coffee for the first time.
Olyphant said the class offers an insight into the variety of coffee beans and preparation of Starbucks coffee.