Starbucks Gossip

Starbucks to start showing calorie counts on menu boards

Starting June 25, all Starbucks stores will begin posting food and drink calorie counts on its menu boards. The coffee chain is taking this action ahead of a federal regulation that would require it to do so.

A Starbucks exec says: “Menu labeling is yet another step to extend our commitment to wellness, ensuring our customers and partners have the information they need to make informed decisions and understand all the ways that they can customize their Starbucks® beverages to be within their desired calorie range."

* Starbucks to start posting calorie information | Read SBUX's announcement

Are your Starbucks drive-thru customers allowed to smoke while waiting for their drinks?

Starbucks barista Andrew writes to Starbucks Gossip:

"At my store, we’ve been told to tell customers in the drive-thru that they can’t smoke because it is within 25 feet of the building. This seems like a really awkward thing to say to someone sitting in their car and most of us have avoided [so far] telling anyone in the drive thru [that they can't smoke]. Would you ask other baristas at drive-thru stores what their experience with this has been?"

OK; baristas: have you been ordered to tell drive-thru smokers to put out their cigarettes? Drive thru customers: have you been told not to smoke in your cars in the drive-thru lane?

I've asked Starbucks corporate to tells us what the official policy is. (UPDATE: No response more than a day after requesting comment.)

* Earlier: Starbucks bans smoking within 25 feet of stores

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Sympathies to the Starbucks barista who had to clean up this bathroom!

From the news story:

A 21-year-old man was taken to the hospital Monday after he was found locked in the restroom of a Geneva (Ill.) Starbucks, surrounded by packets of suspected heroin and a hypodermic needle. ...

When the officer entered the bathroom, he found a cellophane wrapper, and several tinfoil packets containing heroin on the back of the toilet seat. A needle was found on the bathroom floor.

One of the saddest things I've seen at a Starbucks is a "very proper" barista with a Master's Degree heading to the bathroom with all of his cleaning "tools."

* Man faces drug charges after friend found locked in Starbucks bathroom

Yet another plea for a Starbucks 'express line'

Comedian Greg Schwem writes:

"I silently vowed this would be the day I emailed Starbucks with my long-simmering suggestion to create a separate line for anybody whose drink order contained more than 10 syllables. It would please millions of customers like me who frequent the chain in search of a 'tall black coffee.'"

Stand in line with the many others who've suggested an express line for drip coffee customers! Your idea is great -- but not unique. Here's a similar Starbucks Gossip post from 2009.

* Starbucks children: One shot chocolate, one shot annoying

Bostonians explain why they go to Starbucks -- or Dunkin' Donuts

"I'm here, I've got my little gold card... which, again, I don't really feel comfortable saying about myself."

* People of Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks

Is this the three-group super automatic Clover?

"It is speculated that this new product is the long-awaited three-group super automatic version of the company’s Clover® Brewing System," reports Sprudge.com. "This new machine will automatically grind, dose, and brew a cup of coffee, and then self-clean. According to the document’s claims, the device can brew coffee in 'under thirty seconds.'"

Read more about this machine here.