End of an era.
Guy
Maybe soon will be louisa Coffee, lol
Anything is better than Starbucks
I am not one to generally pile love onto this franchise, but I do recognize they can at times put on the charm.
Yesterday for example at one of the Dunhua South Road branches, I had a short (Starbucks speak for âsmallâ) cermanic mug of freshly roasted Timor coffee, a deep dark brew roasted in this case in Japan, not a hint of being burned, pure sweetness in a cup, alongside a walnut raisin bread thing (not bad) with butter on the side from France (I had to ask; no extra charge) on a real plate with real cutlery.
I hasten to add that not every visit hits the spot like this, and that I would never ever recommend their espresso or milk based products. But if they are serving some of their single origin coffees roasted in Japan, served fresh hot and black . . .
Guy
They probably paid them in Philippine centavos to harvest the coffee.
You may be right. On the issue of labour rights and fairness, I simply donât know.
Guy
Itâs the end of an era: Starbucks USA, for reasons only they can answer, has shut down its Reserve Roastery in Seattle. RIP.
I picked up this bag of sun dried West Java beans in Vancouver over the summer. This is my last cup.
Reserve stores somehow remain alive and well in Tokyo, which is where Starbucks Taiwan sources its Reserve beans. Out of the ones Iâve tried recently, the sun dried Brazil beans were exceptional.
Guy
In May 2026, some of these exceptional beansâroasted at the Tokyo Nakameguro shopâare back and now available at Reserve stores in Taipei. I enjoyed a nice pour over (NT$180) this afternoon at the Zhongxiao Dunhua storeâdelicious black coffee to power me through the day.
Guy
Meanwhile at Starbucks in Korea, things are . . . not going well.
Guy
More from Raphael Rashid, writing at the Guardian, on the Starbucks Korea debacle:
Guy
Take it from someone who lived there, Koreans will protest about everything. Theyâll take any poorly timed or idiotic coincidence that the rest of us might laugh or shrug off, and turn it into a 6 month vigil about national pride and reparations. Their vindictiveness wonât be satisfied until thereâs groveling corporate apologies, sacrificial lambs fired or even charged, and abject humiliation on all sides.
So the normal minimum wage employees need to suffer through a day of unpaid sanctimonious lectures and sensitivity training because the CEO was a doofus? Lol what a bunch of idiots.
I wish Taiwanese would be just a bit angrier.
They just shrug and laugh off everything.
I suppose the most recent anger-leading-to-organizing was the bluebird movement in 2024, which did not alas lead to concrete changes. I personally am still pissed about the way the LY is f&cking around.
Guy