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.

Tea Latte and New Cakes

To replace their yummy honey orange latte and to go with their current theme, Starbucks launched Tea Latte.  Tea Latte is a mixed of tea and milk.  Hmm.. wouldn’t that be milk tea then?  Hehehe!  Anyway, you can either choose Earl Grey or English Breakfast tea as based for your tea latte.  Prices ranged from RMB 25 for tall, RMB 28 for grande and RMB 31 for venti.

Of course, what’s coffee or tea without cakes.   This season’s pastry offerings are Green Tea Tiramisu for RMB 23 and Original Ham & Cheese Ciabatta for RMB 28.

Merchandise

Besides the standard global icon tumblers, mugs and mini-mugs, Starbucks also sell seasonal tumblers, mugs, coffee beans, bears, tea pots, and tea bags.  For the tumblers, they have the cherry blossom design in sky blue and pink.  Another set in assorted flower design.  12 oz tumblers are RMB 85 each, 20 oz tumblers are RMB 110 each and 8 oz tumblers are RMB 75 each.

Our Starbucks bear mascot, is dressed like a gardener in green and pink and is selling for RMB 128.  Tea cups and pots are also for sale to complement the tea that you’ll be drinking.  There’s a colorful tea cup set of three in red, green and blue for RMB 160.   

A teapot with 2 tea cups set in white costs RMB 160.  This is commonly used with tea leaves and not tea bags.  There’s also a 12 oz tumbler with filter.  This is good for people who don’t like to remove each and every leaf that you might drink when you use a tea pot.  Also, this is good for individuals and in the office.  This tumbler costs RMB 150.

In-store Promo:

From February 23 to April 26, 2010, when you purchase a tea drink and RMB 48 worth of Starbucks products, Starbucks will give you a free coaster. 

Well.. I’m not sure if Chinese will be willing to pay this much for tea because when you eat in a restaurant, they normally give you free tea.  Who knows, maybe the way they package the tea will attract their customer’s attention and will help drive sales.  In any case, I’m going to miss the yummy honey orange latte.  According to the Starbucks staff in our building, you can still ask for it if it’s still available in that store. 

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

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? 

For the merchandise, sad to say they’re running out of the Christmas merchandise items.  Even in other stores, the Christmas merchandise are selling like hotcakes.  I was able to purchase two planners at RMB 98 each as gifts for my cousins who are Starbucks collectors.  When you buy a planner, you’ll get a free drink coupon valid at all Beijing and Tianjin Starbucks stores with an expiration of Dec 31, 2010. 

For a minimum purchase of RMB 88, you can also purchase their Christmas ornament, calendar and candle.  The Starbucks candle comes in three design, red, white wide mug and white tall mug version.  The candle cost RMB 12 each.  The Christmas ornament is in the design of a clear tumbler without the straw.  I’m not sure how much it is as they don’t have this at the store in my building.  I forgot the cost of the calendar but you might as well not purchase it unless you’re really collecting it.

The bears, tumblers and mugs are all sold out in the store at my office building.  The tumblers range from RMB 75 to RMB 95.  They come in small and medium sizes.  Some are  for kids, while the other are for adults.  They all come with a Christmas theme with the cartoon-y design of snowmen to simple red and white designs with snowflakes and doves.  The bears are all dressed up in Santa outfit while the mugs ranges from the simple red with Starbucks name to colorful designs which even involves the inside of the mug. 

Last Friday, regular customers can purchase a newly launched discount card.  The discount card costs RMB 88 and it comes with a free drink coupon and four buy one get one free drink coupons valid on Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Women’s Day.  Regular customers who purchased the card can get 10% off on all items including beverages, merchandise and food.  The card is valid until April 30, 2010.  I’ve purchased one card and used it already even on discounted merchandises.  It doesn’t have a name on it so, colleagues and friends can borrow your card and avail of the discount.

Well.. I think I’ve said enough and marketed the store too much!  Hahaha!!  Merry Christmas and Happy Coffee drinking!

Hopefully, this will prevent less downtime for my blog and will encourage me to write more.  Also, I hope this will help me earn some money from advertisement, help people with their travel plans, starbucks collectors with their collections and know what’s good or new in Beijing.

I’ll be separating my blog to Beijing, travel, starbucks and this main one.  Check out the links in the future.  As I said, it’s still a work in progress.  Stay tuned as well as I’ll be raffling off the iPod shuffle Red I won a couple of months back.

Our hotel is located at Itaewon which is a tourist district with a lot of foreigners.  Just outside the hotel, we have Coldstone Creamery!  Sweet!  It’s even cheaper than in the US.  We also have two Starbucks coffee shop (Don & Gold got your Seoul & Korea Tumblers!), KFC, Mcdonalds, shopping area and bars.  We’re in a pretty good location as both the airport bus and subway stop is just in front of the hotel.  I haven’t seen any stars yet but we haven’t been to their Rodeo Drive.

We didn’t go to Lotte World yet as it’s quite far and pretty pricey.  Also, we need the whole day there which we don’t have as we prefer to shop.  Tomorrow, we’ll be going to Myaeong-dong, a palace, Seoul Tower and a Korean village.  We haven’t had the chance to eat at a good Korean place so it’s a shame.    Well.. I’m off for now.   I’ll be writing from Beijing next time.

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.

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.

I spent the whole Friday walking at Tsim Sha Tsui and visited every Starbucks shop that I saw hunting for the clear tumbler but wasn’t able to find any.  However, they released a new set of mini-mugs.  The mini-mugs are for Stanley, Ngong Ping, The Peak and Star Ferry.   Each mini-mug cost HK$40.  I sent a message to my cousin using my ipod Touch but she said she doesn’t want one for now as she’s running out of money.  Gold doesn’t want to collect it either.  Oh well.. maybe you guys want one of them.  Here are the photos.. better grab them as they sell like hotcakes!

(Photo credits: http://ebay.com.hk and http://starbuxx.multiply.com)