Starbucks China – Tea & Spring 2010
Chinese are known tea drinkers. There are different types of tea for different season, ailment or what not. After their Chinese New Year and Valentines product, their new marketing products are geared towards cherry blossom and tea.
Full Leaf Brewed Tea
This morning at 10am, Starbucks offered for free a tall size tea drink to the first 100 customers. This enabled their regular customers to sample their new products such as Starbucks Oriental Beauty Oolong tea, Starbucks white mu dan tea and Bi Luo Chun Green Tea.
Each tea bag are uniquely packaged in a triangular shape. The tea bag can be used 12 times and contains full leaf tea. A box of 12 bags costs RMB 80. I tried the green tea and as usual, it’s bitter and needs a lot of sugar for me to drink it. Chinese drink different types of tea for different seasons. I’m not sure if Green tea is best for winter and white tea is best for summer or the other way around. Oolong tea is nice to mix with milk.
Starbucks Money Saving Tip
Do you like to drink Starbucks latte everyday or do you think it’s sinful to spend money on a latte when a lot of people are starving? A blogger at a Chinese website “Kai Xin Wang” wrote this Starbucks saving tip for those who are on a budget but can’t get enough of your daily dose of latte.
Here are the steps in creating a Starbucks latte for half the price:
- Bring your own Starbucks mug at your nearest Starbucks store and buy a cup of espresso.
- At the condiments counter, pour 3/4 cup of milk into your own mug.
- Pour your cup of espresso into your own mug.
- Stir your concoction and add necessary flavors like cinnamon or chocolate.
Easy right?! With only the price of an espresso, you’ll get your own cafe latte. I haven’t tried it yet but I might do so in the near future. Post your experience if you’ve tried the tip above and let other readers know if it worked to your satisfaction.
Now.. where did my Starbucks mug go?
Photo credit: http://speedendurance.com
Starbucks China – 2010 Chinese New Year Edition
Christmas has come and gone so did the New Year. That means next major holiday in Beijing is Chinese New Year. With this holiday comes new merchandise at Starbucks. Since I’m working for the building’s leasing department, I was able to get the latest news buzz about Starbucks from the newly opened store in our 3rd level. In my previous post, I’ve talked about the Christmas stuff, well.. if you’re lucky enough the remaining unsold merchandise will go on sale soon.
What I’m going to post today is what will be happening at Starbucks starting tomorrow till February. I believe they will update the site soon to correspond to their new offerings. The theme for January and February is “Celebrating with Coffee”.
Coffee and Food
The delicious Honey Orange Latte is back! I’ve tried this last year courtesy of my Starbucks cousin addict Gold who graciously treated me to this wonderful concoction. A tall cup will cost you RMB30, Grande is RMB 33 and Venti is RMB 36.
To go along with your latte, you can either have a Honey Peach Souffle Cheese Cake (RMB 23) or a
Chocolate Royal Raspberry Crunch (RMB 23). Of course, the usual pastry selection will do as well but why not try something new right? BTW, the chocolate muffin isn’t that great. It’s huge but nothing to brag about. It will also set you back by RMB 12. The regular muffin sold in packs of four in the supermarket is way better than Starbucks.. 
Starbucks China – Christmas 09 Edition
Christmas is in the air and so is it in Starbucks! A new store just opened up in my building and I’ve becoming a regular customer. Starbucks is a nice respite away from my office desk which has no view and is facing the wall.
This Christmas, Starbucks launched new sets of merchandise. From bears, candles, calendars, planners, mugs, tumblers, ornaments and discount card. As a newly opened store, customers who has a minimum purchase of RMB 88 will get a chance to win in their lucky draw. In the lucky draw, you stand a chance to win free drink coupon, free buy one get one coupon, mugs, tumblers and other old edition items. Out of the 4 times I’ve tried the lucky draw, I wasn’t lucky enough to win any mugs or tumblers. I’ve wont 3 buy one get one coupon and one free drink coupon.
If you’re friends with the manager of the store, they can also give you a receipt that you fill up with the code online to claim a free drink. Hmm… I think I’ve had 5 free drinks since the store opened in December 2. Cool eh?
Starbucks Australia – Tumbler and Mugs
A friend of mine was sent to Sydney for training last January and as a fairy godmother to a small community of Starbucks collectors in the Philippines, I asked her to purchase some merchandise for me.
I told her to get me two Sydney tumblers and a Sydney and Melbourne mug. When she came back, she brought one Sydney tumbler and and Australian mug. *sigh* She mistakenly ordered the Hangzhou tumblers as well which I’m currently selling to interested buyers.
In any case, here are the pictures of the tumbler and mug she bought for educational purposes.
Starbucks Hong Kong – Mini Mugs & Tumbler
Starbucks is gaining popularity in Asia and one of the things my cousins await are their new releases of city tumblers/mugs or unique and beautiful merchandise. In my previous posts, I mentioned that one of my cousins collect tumblers while the other collect mugs. Through the power of google, the list of people who I know and collects tumblers and mugs have increased. When I went to Europe, I dragged along two Czech Republic tumblers for my cousin and Don and a mug from Frankfurt and Vienna to Alvin.
So, when I had time to kill during my layover in Hong Kong. I made a beeline straight to the Starbucks shop at the transfer area of HK airport. Lo and behold, they have the elusive Starbucks clear tumbler which was already sold out in Beijing and Manila. They had several more of it and I grabbed two because Don and Gold wanted them. The good thing about it, it’s on sale for HK$68. When I went back after my stay in the Philippines a week later, it’s no longer available and it’s a shame as Gold wanted two more.