COFFEE TASTING: CAFFE VERONA

Good afternoon partners and to our dear store manager. It’s me again, ML and I would love to
welcome you all to my 2nd coffee tasting. I’ve been with Starbucks Ali Mall as a part time
partner for 8 months already. I want to thank everyone for all the learnings and knowledge you
have shared with me so I can easily cope up with how we do things excellently and continue to
achieve our goals. I thank God for putting me here at Starbucks Ali Mall, I am surrounded by
good people – professionally and socially. You’re all blessings to me.

Today we will be tasting Caffe Verona. This coffee has a bold flavor, roasty, sweet.

Here at Starbucks we follow four steps to properly taste the coffee – smelling, slurping, locating
the experience on our tongue and creating our own description.

Okay, let’s start.

(serve the coffee)

Caffe Verona was created in the year 1975 specifically just for Seattle Restaurants naming it as
Jake’s Blend. But when it started to gain its popularity, Starbucks added it to its core coffee line
up under the original name 80/20 blend. This coffee was soon called Verona, named after the
city who fell in love with it.

Grab your mug and smell the coffee. Partially cover the cup to capture its aroma.
(demonstrate) Smelling the aroma gives us 90% of its flavor. Ain’t it cool? (smile)

(Ask your audience what they smell)

I definitely smell the coco for sure.

The next thing we do is slurp. Slurping allows the coffee to spread to our entire palate.
This allows the subtle flavors and aromas to reach all the tasting zones of your tongue.

(while they are slurping, give trivia or inspiring words)

I can taste the coco and its roasty sweetness. How about you guys?

Now think about where you are experiencing flavors on your tongue. Where did the
coffee hit on your tongue? Is it in front, side or at the back?

The best part for me during coffee tasting is this part. When you pair it with food. Caffe
Verona is best complimented with food that are chocolatey and with caramelized sugar.

I have here (name of food) to complement our coffee. Let’s slurp the coffee and have a bite on
(name of food). Then as we chew, take another slurp.

See how it brings it out the different taste when you pair it with (food)? The nutty and sweetness
taste.

Having this cup of coffee makes me remember how loved I am by my friends and family. Truly
Café Verona lived up to its story. This coffee inspired a lot of people at Seattle and see how this
coffee created its own legacy with Starbucks that reached all over the world. Let’s spread love
through this coffee. Wanna say “I love you” through coffee? Give them Café Verona.

Thank you (mention the name) for the chance to have this coffee tasting with everyone in this
room. For those who have gone through coffee tasting with Café Verona I hope this activity
reminded you how good this coffee is and your own story when you did your coffee tasting.
Again this is ML, Starbucks Partner. Thank you and enjoy the rest of the day.