# Starbucks Coffee: Changing from green to brown? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2008, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-coffee-changing-from-green-to-brown/446156 "2008-04-20T21:24:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-coffee-changing-from-green-to-brown/446156/1 "2008-04-20T21:24:00Z")
I went to Starbucks Coffee today and noticed that the cups are trimmed in brown instead of the familiar green (and they’re apparently using the original, full-body siren again). Anyone know what’s up with this? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-coffee-changing-from-green-to-brown/446156/2 "2008-04-20T22:58:57Z")
I don’t know if this explains why, but the new/old design was timed with the [unveiling](http://gothamist.com/2008/04/08/_starbucks_unve.php) of their new house coffee, “Pike Place Roast,” earlier this month. ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-coffee-changing-from-green-to-brown/446156/3 "2008-04-21T01:16:24Z")
Starbucks Employee here. The new cups are to promote our Pikes Place roast which we will have all the time now (untill they change their minds). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-coffee-changing-from-green-to-brown/446156/4 "2008-04-21T13:54:08Z")
Thanks, **Chris!**. Actually the brown looks pretty good. I don’t know if it’s just because it’s a change. (But I wouldn’t want to see the aprons change colors.) ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-coffee-changing-from-green-to-brown/446156/5 "2008-04-21T13:56:56Z")
[QUOTE=The Shroud] I don’t know if this explains why, but the new/old design was timed with the [unveiling](http://gothamist.com/2008/04/08/_starbucks_unve.php) of their new house coffee, “Pike Place Roast,” earlier this month. [/QUOTE] Does this mean they got rid of their old house coffee, House Blend? As a former Starbucks employee, I’m not ashamed to say it sucked and the fact that so many people liked it boggled my mind. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-coffee-changing-from-green-to-brown/446156/6 "2008-04-21T16:35:14Z")
[QUOTE=Brown Eyed Girl] Does this mean they got rid of their old house coffee, House Blend? As a former Starbucks employee, I’m not ashamed to say it sucked and the fact that so many people liked it boggled my mind. [/QUOTE] In one of the articles I read, it was said that Starbucks actually brewed something different every week, so that when you asked for a “coffee” (which is all I ever order), it was rarely the same. You can tell me if that’s true or not. I’m apparently such a coffee rube I couldn’t tell they were switching it up. Until I read that I figured it was always House Blend. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starbucks-coffee-changing-from-green-to-brown/446156/7 "2008-04-21T17:00:26Z")
[QUOTE=The Shroud] In one of the articles I read, it was said that Starbucks actually brewed something different every week, so that when you asked for a “coffee” (which is all I ever order), it was rarely the same. You can tell me if that’s true or not. [/quote] That is true. They brew three coffees daily: a dark roast, light roast, and decaf roast. Those three daily coffees are rotated on a weekly schedule that are not store specific, so each store \*should \*be brewing the same coffees. That’s not always the case, though. Some stores were really sloppy with their orders and wouldn’t have enough to run the scheduled coffees for the entire week or they just didn’t pay much attention to the standards and used whatever they had a lot of. House Blend wasn’t brewed all the time, but to me it seemed to be a bit more frequent than the others. Incidentally, whether it was being brewed or not, customers would invariably ask for a “house” coffee, at which point, in my store, we’d serve the lighter roast (sometimes) indicating the actual name of the coffee. I wasn’t the type to argue or correct people who really just wanted a generalized cup of coffee. > [@](#): > > I’m apparently such a coffee rube I couldn’t tell they were switching it up. Until I read that I figured it was always House Blend. I’d be surprised if you couldn’t tell the difference between House Blend and French Roast (which was the only other Starbucks coffee I thought was garbage).