How Starbucks Continues to Innovate Craft Coffee

It's no surprise people love their coffee, and craft coffee is one of the top growing trends among consumers. According to the National Coffee Association's latest National Coffee Data Trends report, consumer demand for craft coffee reached a five-year high in the U.S. last year. What is craft coffee? It's coffee that's meticulously grown, roasted, and brewed with a focus on quality, flavor, traceability, sustainability, and precision in every step of the process. Contrary to popular opinion, craft coffee is not just a specialty of local coffee shops and small coffee businesses. In fact, the largest coffeehouse in the world, Starbucks, continues to make significant investments to deliver quality craft coffee to its customers, from serving the highest quality arabica coffee beans, to perfecting barista craft and coffee mastery, and developing innovative brewing equipment. They're doing all of this while also being a global leader in supporting coffee farmers and the coffee industry to ensure the future of coffee for generations to come. Since 1971, Starbucks has been committed to ethically sourcing and roasting high-quality Arabica coffee beans. As a purchaser of 3% of the world's coffee, Starbucks works with more than 450,000 coffee farmers around the world to ensure the future of coffee for all and expand global agronomy. Starbucks tests, learns and innovates at their network of research farms, like Hacienda Alsacia, while world-class agronomists share the latest in best practices at their 10 Farmer Support Centers. Located in the heart of coffee-growing regions, these Farmer Support Centers work one-on-one with farmers - from smallholders to co-ops and suppliers - to improve the quality, productivity and profitability of their crops. "Our promise to farmers and their communities is that we will always work to help ensure a sustainable future of coffee for all,' said Michelle Burns, Starbucks executive vice president of Global Coffee and Sustainability. 'Our solution is to develop on-farm interventions, share seeds, research and practices across the industry that will create solutions to not only improve coffee productivity and quality, but also help farmers mitigate the impacts of climate change.' With that said, climate change is one of the major factors challenging high-quality coffee around the world. Coffee farmers and farming communities are already feeling the impacts on productivity and crop quality. Now, Starbucks is expanding its coffee innovation network, to ensure the future of coffee for all and expand global agronomy innovation by adding two farms located in Guatemala and Costa Rica, which will build on the important work of Hacienda Alsacia. Building on the work at Hacienda Alsacia, the new farm in Costa Rica will allow Starbucks to sustain new coffee plants at different elevations and soil conditions, a critical step in the research of new genetic material. The new farm in Guatemala, in the Antigua Valley, one of Starbucks most important origins, will replicate a smallholder farming design with conditions that mirror challenges that many farms face today. And so, in celebration of the craft of coffee from coffee bean to cup, Starbucks stores around the world introduced Starbucks Milano Duetto, which is one blend, expressed through two bold, contrasting roasts - a light roast, Starbucks Milano Sole, and a dark roast, Starbucks Milano Luna - highlighting the duality between innovation and tradition. Even after 50 years of building expertise in coffee roasting, Starbucks master roasters are still challenging themselves to take their craft to the next level. While Starbucks has long offered a variety of roasts that appeal to the broad range of customer tastes, Starbucks Milano Sole and Starbucks Milano Luna represent the latest in coffee innovation and craft. 'For Starbucks, coffee has always been a lens through which we see the world - a world rich in diversity, tradition, and innovation,' Burns continues. 'Milan's rich coffee culture - which served as the inspiration for Starbucks coffeehouse culture - and Starbucks 50+ year history and expertise in coffee roasting have inspired Starbucks Milano Duetto, a new line of limited-release, special edition coffees.' Starbucks Milano Sole pays homage to the vibrant Milanese coffee culture that inspired today's Starbucks coffeehouse culture. The coffee features medium to high acidity, and a medium body, melding notes of creamy vanilla custard and sweet pomegranate with hints of nutmeg. Complementary flavor pairings include citrus, caramel and cinnamon. The dark roast, Starbucks Milano Luna, is an ode to the heritage of Starbucks roasting, featuring medium to low acidity, and a medium to full body; this coffee displays bold notes of dark chocolate truffle and roasted black walnut, making it a lovely pairing with cheese, almond and maple flavors. Throughout October, Starbucks Milano Sole and Starbucks Milano Luna will be the featured light and dark roas