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Five Hawaii Starbucks Closing

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So Hawaii Starbucks locations weren’t completely safe from the massive closures nationwide. In this complete list of stores that will be closing, Hawaii is losing five current locations – three on Oahu, one on Maui, and one on the Big Island.

The three SBUX going away on Oahu are:

  • Malolo Sand Island. I heard there was a Starbucks on Sand Island. Never went there.
  • Victoria Ward Center. With four stores on the same street, the Ward area is saturated with coffee. Not sure, but this one might be the small one by the theaters.
  • Hokua. In the luxury condo Hokua by PF Changs, this location is one of the Starbucks bookends of Ward. I always meant to check it out, but never made it past the Starbucks in Borders.

Come to think of it, of the four Starbucks at Ward, I only go to the one in Borders and the Gateway location by Wahoos and Sports Authority. I guess I’m not the only one if the other two are closing down.

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No Starbucks Specials for You!

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Well for Hawaii residents anyways. There are quite a few on-going regional specials that Starbucks is offering, but I don’t see any for Hawaii.

For example, in New York Metro, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Boston and Detroit, you can get a free iced coffee on Wednesdays. In Atlanta and Indianapolis, hot or iced coffee is free on Wednesdays (if you have a special coffee card). You can see a list of regional promotions on Starbucks’ blog site that doesn’t act like a blog site. There are no permalinks to link directly to a post so you have to scroll down and look for the post titled “New Value Promotions.”

However, this doesn’t mean that generous SBUX employees in HI won’t honor these regional promotions. So if you happen to have a Free Iced Brewed Coffee Card, you can try it out around town.

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The Vivanno Cometh

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No, it’s not a car, but Starbucks’ new nutritious blended fruit drinks launching today. The Vivanno Nourishing Blends feature flavors like the Orange Mango Banana and Banana Chocolate and contain at least one serving of fruit.

And yes, you can customize these drinks like adding a shot of espresso. Not sure if I’ll try this drink (unless it’s free). Would rather get a Frappuccino or an Orange Dream Machine from Jamba Juice.

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Tracking Starbucks Pick of the Week

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Just keeping track of the Starbucks musical Pick of the Week that I come across:

  1. Orchestra Baobab – Pape Ndiaye (song)
  2. Johnny Flynn – The Box (song)
  3. Jessie Baylin – Was I On Your Mind (song)
  4. Ersi Arvisu – El Arbol (song)
  5. Ledisi – Alright (song)
  6. My Morning Jacket – I’m Amazed (song)
  7. Sonya Kitchell – Here to There (song)
  8. Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis – Rainy Day Blues (song)
  9. Tristan Prettyman – Madly (song)
  10. James Hunter – Jacqueline (song)
  11. Pacifika – me Cai (song)
  12. Sergio Mendes – Funky Bahia (song)
  13. Priscilla Ahn – Dream (song)
  14. Duffy – Mercy (music video)
  15. Sia – Day Too Soon (music video)
  16. Jakob Dylan – Something Good This Way Comes (song)
  17. Adele – Chasing Pavements (song)
  18. Carly Simon – So Many People to Love (song)
  19. Hilary McRae – Every Day (music video)
  20. Counting Crows – Washington Square (song)

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Starbucks Music Has Fallen Apart

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News around the Net is saying that Starbucks is getting out of the music sales business. Instead of selling a variety of CDs in stores, Starbucks will focus on a very few titles showcased right by the cash registers.

Yesterday I complained about Starbucks’ faltering partnership with iTunes. That relationship will continue however with Starbucks offering iTunes promotions. And hopefully by cutting back on CD sales, Starbucks can apply more resources to its lagging Pick of the Week program.

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Starbucks Musical Pick of the Week is Falling Apart

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While I love the fact that Starbucks continued their partnership with iTunes and morphed their previous Hand Picked Song of the Day promo into a more manageable Pick of the Week, it might very well be time for Starbucks to call it quits. For whatever reasons, the coffee giant cannot sustain the Pick of the Week throughout its stores and even its own web site.

While the Pick of the Week is supposed to be the same for each and every Starbucks retail store, that’s far from the truth. Some stores are more diligent than others and tend to keep up. Some seem not to care at all as in the case with my local neighborhood Starbucks. I go there once in a while for coffee but no longer expect to find an up-to-date Pick of the Week. The Starbucks near work is much better, but even they suffer with incorrect musical freebies. Just how many weeks is Priscilla Ahn’s Dream the Pick of the Week? It’s a great song, but going on three weeks is too much.

So what is the current Pick of the Week? You can’t even tell. The Starbucks Hearmusic web site used to show the current free single, but now that too is unkept. Right now, the site is showing Sia’s Day Too Soon music video available from June 3-10. Uh, we’re going to June 25.

So all in all, while the free music is great, this promotion is too inconsistent to keep up with and perhaps Starbucks will do better letting this one go.

Liveblogging Drinking a Starbucks Doubleshot Energy+Coffee in a Can

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While at a Starbucks the other day, I noticed they were selling their Doubleshot Energy+Coffee drinks in a can. This “premium energy coffee drink” comes in vanilla or mocha and is around $3 for 15 oz (200 Calories per can).

So after a long, long week shackled to PowerPoint and tied up in practice sessions, why not indulge but also share the experience with the fans of pulp, passions, addictions, and young man candy.

I give you a live blog rundown as I partake of some coffee, B vitamins, guarana, and ginseng.

  • 12:18 drink is chilled and ready to go, giving it a good shake
  • 12:19 too much shaking, drink erupts when opening it. Good thing I had it covered. Foamy top.
  • 12:20 very mocha-y, reminds me of the Coco Puffs cereal? Can’t quite make out the espresso shot flavor
  • 12:21 the mocha overwhelms the coffee flavor. The little Doubleshot canned drink has more of a punch to it though is more rough on the stomach
  • 12:25 caffeine or thought of the caffeine rush is kicking in as I try to multitask a bunch of things. Oh, another IM message…
  • 12:29 must check email again, update RSS feeds, oh, another IM message…
  • 12:31 feeling some stomach pangs from all the stimulants. Where’s some water? Oh, another IM message…
  • 12:34 eating a candy bar to help fill the stomach
  • 12:36 now the Doubleshot taste is way off after the sweetness of the candy
  • 12:48 feeling the jitters or maybe it’s because I’m using a Windows machine
  • 2:23 still going. got to pee.

That’s it. Liveblogging is done. I doubt I’ll buy this drink again, but I will try vanilla to see if that one is better.

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Nakedness and Coffee?

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How do you educate coffee drinkers about the qualities of pure Kona coffee? You’d get naked and pimpstrong a calendar of your nakedness of course. In the “Naked Truth,” female Kona coffee farmers tastefully show off coffee farming activities in a monthly calendar in order to promote the truth of labeling Kona coffee.

The calendar is available from the Kona Coffee Farmers Association web site and goes for $12. Just imagine the likes of Jessica Alba, Jessica Simpson, Grace Park from Battlestar Galactica, Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Biel, Elisha Cuthbert farming coffee in the buff. Only imagine they’re all in their 50’s. And imagine that none of these stars are in this calendar. Oh well… still a good cause and conversation piece.

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Black Cherry Streusel Cream? Um, no.

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I went a little coffee cream crazy a while back, buying the new Coffee-mate flavors, Hazelnut Biscotti, Tiramisu, Italian Sweet Creme, and Black Cherry Streusel. I just tried the Black Cherry Streusel, and this flavor just doesn’t do it for me.

First off, this cream looks watery, pouring a little too freely from the bottle. My so-far-new-favorite, Italian Sweet Creme, pours “thicker” making it look richer and creamier. You can definitely taste the hints of black cherry in the cream, but its flavor is forced. There’s the coffee then there’s the fruity black cherry. The streusel part doesn’t bridge the two tastes.

I’ve been on the lookout for a good, fruity coffee cream since they sound so refreshing. The best I’ve had so far have been the Chocolate Raspberry and Coconut Creme. I won’t be adding Black Cherry Streusel to this list.

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