Starbucks' Pike Place Roast is just OK, says Consumer Reports

Jim Romenesko's Starbucks Gossip blog today linked to a Consumer Reports story about the new Pike Place Roast blend, which tasters say is "a smooth cup of coffee with some bitterness, but not particularly complex." Because it is so mild, they recommend drinking it black, so one may appreciate "the subtle floral notes."

Notably, the tasters at Consumer Reports say the roast is named after "Starbucks' first store, which opened in 1971 in the Pike Place Market in Seattle." As Crosscut writer Daniel Jack Chasan has explained, the real story is a bit more complicated:

The location was at the corner of Virginia and Pike Place, where this first-ever Starbucks was in business until January of 1977, when it moved to its current "original" store one block south.

• Lisa Albers is deputy editor of Crosscut and a Seattle freelance writer. She can be reached at lisa.albers@crosscut.com.