In many ways, Blue Bottle is the antithesis of Starbucks. Each of its cups of coffee—which cost between $4 and $7—is brewed manually, taking at least three and a half minutes. Grandes, ventis, and other customizable options aren’t offered; it’s one size only. Its cafés aren’t built for freelancers to camp out in with their laptops; stores don’t have Wi-Fi. Given the nature of the rare beans the retailer brews, there’s no guarantee of consistent offerings across stores, perhaps Starbucks’s most prized virtue.
But in other ways, Blue Bottle is following the Starbucks playbook.
Really nice write-up about the state of third wave coffee. Like any capitalist endeavor, the underdogs become with evil corporation and the evil corporation goes away or reinvents itself. Fortunately, in America we can choose to go evil. Blue Bottle could have remained small but they didn’t.