With more than 15,000 stores worldwide, over 700 of which are in the UK and Ireland, the Seattle-founded coffee chain prides itself on its “commitment to their coffee heritage,” insisting they are, “all about quality, rather than price,” with their customers becoming ever more sophisticated and demanding about their daily fix.

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“The espresso roast is at the heart of what we do in stores and is specially designed to pair with steamed milk,” says Alan Hartney, Coffee Ambassador for the UK and Ireland, as he demonstrates the experts’ coffee tasting technique with Starbucks’ Fairtrade Espresso, roasted longer to bring out its sweet and acidic flavour, by ‘cupping’ and smelling his cup before loudly slurping each spoonful. He explains that just like wine, coffee is tasted in a certain way to best discover its aroma, flavour, acidity and body which varies depending on where it is grown and how dark the roast is.

After a rundown on Starbucks’ move to Fairtrade and ethical sourcing practices, which includes motivating 1,000’s of coffee farmers, and the company’s commitment to coffee growing communities around the world, including Latin America, the Pacific and Africa, where Farmers Support Centres train farmers to cup and taste their own product, Peter Torrebiarte

Director of Coffee Sustainability, discusses the challenge in ensuring the consistency of coffee blends from various regions and how Starbucks only purchases the finest, high altitude Arabica coffee beans as they have a more refined flavour and consistency than the more common Robusta beans.

Coffee Master Liz Booker shares her passion and enthusiasm for creating the perfect blend with a coffee tasting session illustrating the impact that origin, growing conditions, processing and altitude have on the taste of coffee and how each blend is selected for the defining qualities that distinguish its region of origin. She also illustrates how to roast coffee beans in a large rotating drum, until the ‘second pop’ sounds and the beans have reached their full flavour potential, and how to differentiate between various bean types and identify flaws and defects.

After a stint behind the counter perfecting our Starbucks barista skills and learning the technique to steaming the milk and adding the espresso shot to create lattes, espressos and the new ‘flat white’, Alan and Liz showcase the flavours, intensities and quality of single origin coffees from the three distinct coffee growing regions where Starbucks source their coffee beans. After all that caffeine, Kevin Gould Food Futurologist presides over a fantastic food pairing lunch designed to showcase coffee’s versatility as different blends are paired with complimentary foods to bring out the particular flavours and taste notes of each course.