Starbucks Reserve Galápagos San Cristóbal

I’m a bit of a coffee snob. I’ll admit that. I also rarely drink coffee at Starbucks, as there are better options around the city and, frankly, I think I make a better cup of coffee at home with my drip coffeemaker and beans procured from a local roaster or merchant. Starbucks does, however, sell beans, and sell a whole lot of them, and as of a couple of months ago, has moved into what they consider to be the “ultra-premium” market — sourced from exotic locales, these are rare, limited-quantity coffee beans, which of course carry a much higher price tag than conventional coffee.

This is why I gladly accepted The Feisty Foodie’s offer of an 8-ounce bag of Galápagos San Cristóbal, procured from Starbucks PR.

However, note the price tag: I get excellent beans from the Galápagos for about $10 per pound at Porto Rico, in town. This 8-ounce bag of beans: $12.50. These had best be something really, really special. (Hey, they’re kosher!)

Well… the beans certainly look pretty. On top of that, they smelled good. Really, not a significant trace of the acrid, burnt signature aroma of the standard Starbucks dark roast. Lots of earthiness gets through, a richness I get from better-quality roasters. So Starbucks passed the first test.

I like seeing a little oiliness on top of a fresh-brewed cup of coffee. It’s kind of a signature of really freshly-ground coffee that I look for, even if I can’t taste it as such. The taste of this cup? Surprisingly good. Very little burnt roast; a lot more care went into these beans, no doubt. The taste is surprisingly full, too, rich and, dare I say it, all about the raw flavor of the coffee. I brewed a pot of this, perhaps a little on the strong side just to make sure that burnt, bitter expression didn’t surface, and it really didn’t.

To put it simply, if this were a regular offering on the Starbucks coffee menu, I could be persuaded to purchase it occasionally. I hope they have this at one of their Clover-equipped stores; I would travel for that.

In summary, I like this new coffee from Starbucks, but for home use? I have to balk at the price. I guess this is going to be positioned as a gift item, since “real” coffee connoisseurs — of which I am not one — wouldn’t typically bother buying beans at Starbucks, though their friends and relatives would. At least in this case, price equals quality, but if it’s going to take $25 per pound to extract a very good cup of coffee from Starbucks… maybe that says something. Still, I would gladly accept it as a gift, and if I ever see a Reserve coffee on the board at a Starbucks, I won’t hesitate to grab a cup.

Please note that this coffee was courtesy of Starbucks. I received no monetary compensation for this review, nor was I obliged in any way to post about the beans, positively or otherwise. This is my own opinion and I feel it was unbiased; you are free to take from this what you will.