Edward Chuo: Manager at Mission Starbucks

Hello again! And happy Summer Time!

For those of you who come to our store know that we have a close knit group of partners. And the head honcho at Mission is Edward! I have asked our partners and my team to send in a quick blurb, talking about themselves. Because lets face it, we all love to talk about ourselves sometimes. I have asked them a few key questions. Why Starbucks? What inspires you? What is your favorite Clover coffee and what pairs well with it? I will also be posting more about Edward in the future, but below is his response to "Why Starbucks". I am proud to work with Edward. He has done well and cares very much for his team. He is motivating, driven to succeed and an inspiration to us all. He has over come huge obstacles larger than most, and every day he is in the store he always has a smile on his face! You go Edward.

Why Starbucks?

The question "Why Starbucks" goes a long way back. Back to when I was about 10 years old, I remember my parents always frequenting Starbucks, sipping on lattes and cappuccinos and telling me that coffee is something that has a rich history and romance behind it. My dad loved Starbucks Coffee so much that he purchased an espresso machine from a local Starbucks and started to make lattes at home. It was then, every morning when I woke up, I would expect the smell, the intense and rich aromas of espresso. 

Drinking coffee became a habit a habit of mine around 15. Fast forward 3 years, my sister started working for Starbucks and recommended it to me, telling me that it was a great place to work. I applied out of the love for coffee from a young age and my sister telling me how it was a company that stood for its values and mission. 

I started working at Starbucks at the age of 18 and soon realized that I would like to pursue a career with Starbucks. I remember telling my Store Manager at that time, say "One day I will be a District manager for this company". Within 3 months I was promoted to a shift supervisor role, then another 8 months I was promoted to the Assistant manager role. I learned so much about life, work, and how to interact and build relationship with a diverse group of people. All the things I've learned and experienced enabled me to become a Store manager at only 20 years old. 

I love this company for the partners, the customers, the coffee, what we stand for, our values, and of course the opportunity that Starbucks has giving me. Starbucks is a company that cares deeply about it's partners. In 2013 I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had surgery. The recovery process was a long and painful one. Throughout the process, Starbucks has always been caring and made sure I was on the right track. If I had the chance to re-do this whole experience, I would choose to work at Starbucks again in a heart beat.

Coffee Quotes

Karma is experience, and experience creates memory, and memory creates imagination and desire, and desire creates karma again. If I buy a cup of coffee, that's karma. I now have that memory that might give me the potential desire for having cappuccino, and I walk into Starbucks, and there's karma all over again.
                                                                  -Deepak Chopra

Passionate Kiss From Mother Earth

Close your eyes. Actually, don't. You won't be able to read this post if you close your eyes.
Imagine this in your amazing brain.

You have never been anywhere outside of Canada, until you go on a trip to Costa Rica. Pacific side, off to a little tourist town called Jaco. This adventure is new and exciting, and holy smokes is it ever HOT! The humidity is enough to suck the life right out of you! The air conditioned vacation house is your sanctuary from the inferno. As a Calgarian the only humid place I can compare it to is the Rain Forest gorilla exhibit at the zoo, and if you have never been there, then you perhaps may not know what I am talking about still. But do your best!

So even though you are melting in the heat, and can't get enough young coconut water in you, you venture out with the group to a place outside San Jose. A long ride there in a jam packed tourist van, middle of the vehicle, and the motion sickness is setting in. You wonder if you will ever adjust to the temperature during this whole vacation or not, and just as you are about to ask to be let out of the car for some fresh air, you see the signs for the coffee plantation. Finally! Doka Estate Coffee Plantation

Now, You are in Costa Rica in July, and it is the dry season, so there is no harvesting going on. But there is a guided tour with a very patient woman. She speaks English slowly with a thick Spanish accent, but her smile is warm and friendly. You listen and look around. You notice that the stone walk way tiles have coffee bean embellishments and you take a photo. Because that is cool and very fitting to where you are. As you walk through with your tour guide, you get to know some cool facts about coffee. Like, each cherry is hand picked by workers and they pick until their little laundry basket is about 75% full. You also learn that sometimes there are bad beans and there are good beans, but they do not know which ones are the bad and the good until it gets to the sorter.

Your tour goes through a little more of a section of the plants before heading down back to the buildings where they store the beans that have been dried. You learn that this plantation is a sun drying plantation and the giant cement pad, during harvest, is covered in shucked coffee cherries, to expose the beans to the sun, and workers walk along with little rakes, rolling the beans over so they can dry in the sun as evenly as possible. During storms, they have massive tarps to cover said beans so their work is not gone to waste. There are a few bags of beans left in this storage area, and in some burlap sacks there are 3 different kinds of beans. They look the same to you, but none of them are black. They are green and light green. You see different machines in other buildings and you are getting too warm to pay attention anymore. (or at least at this point I certainly did and I don't remember much past this point about the tour.)

BUT! Your attention gets pulled back by the words "And now we are going to taste some coffee." Awesome. You are SUPER excited, again. Your group goes into the little gift shop.The walls are lined with small bags of coffee, and the smell is just amazing. There are sample cups, sugar, milk and cream and there are little stir sticks. She explains how to taste test a coffee. The coffee must be black. No sugar, no cream. Just pure, unadulterated coffee. First step. Cup the cup with your hand and breathe in deep. Notice how the aroma hits your senses. Next is slurp. It sounds very impolite, but its the way that it is done for the best flavor, because the way the coffee gets aerated into your mouth allows the coffee to breathe, as if it were a red wine in an aerator. Then, as the flavors fold over your tongue and coat your mouth with a distinct flavor to that bean, you notice subtle differences. Who knew coffee even did this!? Is this what wine is to wine drinkers?! AMAZING! You realize that you have been drinking coffee ALL WRONG this whole time! You make a mental note to change your ways. So, as you go through the line from light roast to dark roast, you come across this amazing tasting coffee, and you have no idea what it is! Your taste buds are dancing. Your mouth is going bonkers over this taste. You learn that this flavor comes from what is known as the very rare and special bean called a Peaberry. This bean is unique in its flavor because of its shape. While most coffee beans are flat and split like an almond would, a peaberry is rounder in its shape, like a pea, and does not split into a half so the flavor is condensed and contained. Thus, when brewed properly, the flavors that you experience are beyond describable. And suddenly you are in love.

During my amazing tour of this coffee plantation, getting to know the process, I gained a whole new respect for coffee plants, coffee beans, flavors of coffee, and of course the heat of Costa Rica for growing coffee. I decided then and there that if I ever got the chance to explore coffee further, I would jump on it.

I am proud to work at Starbucks. I am proud to have a Clover Machine to brew coffee on. I am proud to be learning so much about coffee. I have a passion for racing motorcycles as a hobby. I never thought I would have a passion for a job. A job that I love. A job that I would wake up at 4 am every day just to talk to people and get to know them and bring them coffee. I never knew that I would be where I am today after that tour. I have been lucky to have my experiences. I have a passion for coffee and a thirst for knowledge that could not be sated until I knew every little bit about coffee that there is.This passion is my driving force to all of my goals. And in each and every cup that I put forth on that counter is my heart and soul.
It is my promise to you, that I will do my absolute best in bringing you the best tasting cup of coffee that I am capable of. 

I will do my best to get to know every bean in the store that we have so I can describe the flavors and aroma perfectly to you before you taste it. To some, coffee is just coffee, caffeine to make their motors run. But to me, coffee is passion, hard work from dedicated people, natures kiss from the earth.

Cheers

First Official Post!

Hello and Welcome!

My name is Kayseas, I am a barista and shift supervisor at Mission Starbucks in Calgary Alberta. It is my job to bring you the best tasting coffee.Welcome to my first ever blog post! Here is where you will learn all about my coffee picks of the week at work, different facts about coffee including where it is grown, what the elevation means, and why the flavours are all unique to that specific bean. I will be continuing to update everyone while I am in my Coffee Masters course as I learn more and more. I am also doing monthly seminars at the store, where for 2 hours a group of people and I sit at the round table with coffee for tastings and food parings. Now you might not believe that there is a lot to learn about coffee but I promise you there is an over abundance of information about coffee out there, and I will bring you as much of it as I possibly can!

So please, sit down with your favourite cup of Java and enjoy.  

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For the Love of Coffee