So I don’t usually like to get into political discourse with my baristas at Starbucks. I don’t usually like to get into political discussions with anyone; usually it ends badly. I am neither loyal to liberals or conservatives; I kind of think everyone’s corrupt and the difference is like choosing death by slow decomposing poison or beheading. Neither option looks all that favorable to me but they want you to choose. That’s not really the point of this piece though; I was in my Starbucks today and I saw “MSNBC Morning Joe” blend coffee.
Really?
I couldn’t believe it and I kind of began mouthing off to the largely liberal audience. I mean, I can understand. When I worked for Starbucks (many, many years ago) I was so sure that we’d get peace in the United States and that my pushing Ethiopia Sidamo blend coffee was going to aid these good African farmers. Of course it was. However I was working at a Starbucks when a pair of planes went careening into the World Trade Center and very nearly into the White House. These businessmen who’d slept in that morning; who’d phoned in to their meeting at 7 World Trade; came running in eyes bulging to the store in Ridgefield Connecticut saying “Someone’s flown a plane into the Twin Towers!”
“There’s no errant planes in coffee country of Starbucks,” I chirped back like a zombie.
Of course the last 10 years have been just as sobering for me as for anyone else not directly affected by 9/11, but still directly moved to action. I left college and was taken in by the city I still call home.
Still this Morning Joe blend coffee really rubbed me raw. “Who the heck does Joe Scarborough think he is putting his name on a bag of coffee?” Or maybe more to the point; where the heck has this coffee been for all the years that Joe and Mika have been on the air? I mean, the show has been called “Morning Joe” for years; why this sudden branding of a bag of coffee? And what did Scarborough have to do with this blend of coffee? Of course, nothing.
I guess MSNBC has to make their money every way they can. They probably just signed Joe and Mika to a new contract; got to milk the cow for as long as it’s in the stables, right?
My barista friends told me that it’s just the Starbucks Gold Coast blend of coffee in the Morning Joe bag. Go figure.