Starbucks - Clover Machines

Well it's official, I'm writing about Starbucks on LTH. I might as well open a thread on McDonald's - Nuggetty Goodness next, but I digress...

The scene was yesterday morning, bitter cold outside and in need of something hot and caffeinated I walked out the door of my office building, heading towards Lavazza for a triple espresso machiatto (I have a caffeine issue.). However, the first wind that hit me, sent me back inside to the Starbucks. I'm not a fan of Starbucks; in fact, a heavy detractor, but in this instance, the McDonalds of Coffee could help me out.

I walked in to find on the board that they had three 'real' coffee, that would be made with a clover machine. Just like the Intelligentsia by me used to have. Long story short, I ended up getting a 'grande' of the Ethiopian and it was actually pretty good. I'm no coffee snob, but I vastly preferred this to Starbucks normal blend, which I can barely stand.

I think the clover machines are at very few Starbucks, but they are now installed in the Starbucks in my office building:

Starbucks
180 N. LaSalle St.
Chicago, IL 60601

Starbucks bought the company that invented the Clover a few years ago and they've been slowly rolling them out to stores ever since.

I'm sure that, properly calibrated (probably by someone in the corporate office), the Clover is able to extract the best things out of a Starbucks' bean. Sadly, they can't work magic.

Their "normal" blend is Pike Place. You can ask them for something else. Usually I say "Anything but Pike Place." Now, I am not a daily or even semi-regular Starbucks drinker, so my experience may not be normal, but they always accommodate this request.

I happened to be at Northwestern Hospital* yesterday AM in desperate need of coffee. They have a Starbucks inside the Feinberg Pavillion, and that Starbucks has two Clovers. I had a coffee made in the Clover and it was very good, very rich, and nicely hot. My previous experience with coffee made in the Clover was at Intelligentsia on Broadway, and I found it thin, weak, and never very hot. I never got what the fuss was about.

Now, it's quite possible that the Starbucks version was not done correctly, and that they used so much coffee that I wasn't able to catch the nuances, etc. but I liked it and was really glad to have that as an option for the brewed coffee.


* not to worry, everything is fine

The Starbucks at State and Adams has a Clover. The staff there is very friendly, and they always try to talk customers into getting a Clover. It takes about five times as long as getting a regular drip coffee, but worth it if you're there. Intelligentsia still has my favorite beans, that I now purchase at Stanley's Market for $9.99. They've lost my walk-in business, over priced beans, and that coffee in the filter method that takes forever.

I've only briefly read what the Clover is, so this might be naive, but how does the coffee differ from an Aeropress? It sounds like they do basically the same thing. Admittedly, the Clover is probably able to better maintain temperature and pressure than an Aeropress.

The clover is very precisely computer controlled. Amount of coffee, duration of brew, temperature of water can all be preprogrammed (centrally, even, at starbucks HQ) with specific options for each bean/roast.

The actual brewing technique is nothing novel. What's new is the extreme control over the process.

nicinchic wrote:The Starbucks at State and Adams has a Clover. The staff there is very friendly, and they always try to talk customers into getting a Clover. It takes about five times as long as getting a regular drip coffee, but worth it if you're there.

Maybe the NU Hospital folks are doing it differently, it didn't take that long for me. Longer than a regular drip, but less time than the froo froo latte whatever the person ahead of me ordered.

I guess it was too good to be true. No more Intelligentsia at Stanley's.

Still available at Stanley's, there was a missed delivery - they move through the beans quickly!

Ugh, I just spent $60 at the Jackson store! But, that's awesome news. It's kind of incredible that they move that amount of beans too. There wasn't one bag left. And I asked people at Stanley's and Cafe Intelligentsia what was going on, and nobody had an answer.

Yeah, that is a busy spot! Hmm, I work for Intelligentsia btw...I think the reason they didn't know is that our drivers do all the ordering for them, there was a mix-up on our end and we missed a delivery. We appreciate your support and business, glad you didn't go without!

Thanks, I went to Stanley's today and picked up two bags. El Gallo. They didn't have it at CI. So, I was happy I made the trip. And, any difference between the white bag and red bag?

No difference, just a wintry bag!