Any coffee lover who has travelled to the USA in recent times would at some point venture into a Starbucks coffee shop. Founded in 1971, Starbucks is the largest coffee house chain in the world with about 23,000 stores worldwide, some 50 per cent of them in the US. What began as an experiment in 2010 with one store in Seattle, Washington – Starbucks Evenings – a programme which offers beer, wines and specialty food items after 4:00 pm, will expand to around 2000 stores in the USA over the next few years. There is expansion of this programme outside of the USA also.

Starbucks Evenings programme

A typical coffee house will do most of its daily sales in the morning, but the space is available all day. Starbucks research showed that their customers are wine lovers, in fact 70 per centof their customers drink wine as compared to the US national average of 30 per cent So at the request of customers who were spending a great deal of time in the stores in the afternoon and early evening, the Starbucks Evenings programme was born with a soft initial roll out. Starbucks plans to generate an incremental $1 billion from the Evenings programme by the 2019 fiscal year.

Challenges

However, the push into beer and wine has not been smooth sailing for Starbucks. Some community members in the US cities where Starbucks is trying to launch its programme complain that Starbucks will no longer be “alcohol free”, and so individuals in certain age groups won’t be able to work there. Some also complain that these coffee shops were a perfect spot for recovering alcoholics to hang out, but no more. Mind you, the plans only call for the Evenings program to go into just about 2000, up from the initial trial of 75 or so locations that ended just last month.

The wines

The short 10 wine list, which will vary slightly by region, covers all the main hot-button wine styles of recent years. The list that I saw had the following wines: Villa Sandi “il Fresco,” Prosecco, Italy; Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling,Columbia Valley; Erath Pinot Gris, Oregon; Ferrari-Carano Chardonnay, Sonoma County; Rosa Regale Brachetto, Italy; Apothic Red Blend, California; Lange Estate Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley; Alamos Malbec, Argentina; Amavi Cellars Syrah, Walla Walla Valley; Columbia Crest H3 Horse Heaven Hills, Washington. This is a decent selection of wines which are all sold by the glass at prices ranging from $US8 to $US15 (or J$944 to J$1770 at today’s exchange rate). All wines are served in a custom-designed Riedel stemless glasses. The wines are also available by the bottle.

Food

There are 10 tapas-style food items on the menu such as truffle mac & cheese, bacon-wrapped dates and a salami plate. Starbucks worked with their winery partners to ensure that the food would be an idea match for the wines.

Do visit the Starbucks website to see if there is an ‘Evenings’ store close to where your next overseas trip takes you.

Christopher Reckord – Entrepreneur & Wine Enthusiast. Send your questions and comments to creckord@gmail.com. Instagram: @chrisreckord Twitter: @Reckord