Solving the Starbucks Mystery

My Grande cup from Starbucks in the process of doing my
scientific study of what I am actually getting when I order it.

I am quite sure I am not alone in wondering what a cup of Grande-anything at Starbucks means.

Awhile ago I purchased a Starbucks 'mug' with label on the bottom that specifies it as a "14" ounce container.

It actually holds 16 ounces when filled to just below the lid line.

But when I have ordered a 16-ounce beverage at Starbucks, it never gets filled up. I was becoming frustrated with what I felt was a 'rip-off.'

So I decided to buy a Grande Latte and take the cup home. This is what I found out.

Aside from the fact that Starbucks says they are offering their patrons a 16-ounce drink for about $3.75, what the guest asks for determines the final price, but they will NEVER get a full 16 ounces.

Here is why.

This has blue water in it so you can easily
see what is considered the 'fill line' for a cup
of Grande anything.

The 16-ounce cup means 16 ounces can be held in the cup, but they cannot fill it to the full mark, because of the risk of spillage, for one thing.

But it also means that no one is ever going to get a full 16 ounces of product. At best, it will be about 14 ounces.

Note where the blue water line is... 14 ounces.

And depending on the baristas, it could be slightly more or significantly less.

If you want a beverage containing 16 ounces of whatever you like, you will have to order the larger cup (or bring one of your own that holds more than 16 ounces).

And... if Starbucks was being honest, they would offer their patrons a Grande, designated as a 14-ounce beverage, NOT a 16-ounce beverage. That's why everyone is complaining.

And if I was doing public relations for Starbucks, I would launch a campaign of honesty with a cut in costs showing the cut in sizes and the calories involved and how it all would be better for everyone knowing just what they are getting.

But I'm retired for good...

Challenges...

As I was preparing to leave for my return to Colombia, I had a nagging feeling of unrest. I thought perhaps it was because I was not looking forward to a long flight, airports, bus rides, etc. required to get to what I consider is ¨my¨ colonial village of Barichara.

I cannot post any photos because I didn´t bring my computer with me and it´s pretty hard for me to download to the local internet cafe machines and then upload here, so I will post them later.

But the unrest premonition has come to pass... there is a national strike of coffee farmers, teachers, and transport workers which has closed at least 42 major roads across the country. There are demonstrations and ugly confrontations occurring as well, making travel in this country a far greater adventure than I wish to experience.

When I get back to the US I will write a more detailed explanation of what is going on, but in the meantime, if you go to ColombiaReports.com you can probably find out what is happening. There are no newspapers being delivered to Barichara and I don´t have TV where I am staying.

My bus trip from San Gil to Bogota was essentially cancelled requiring me to find an alternate route. More on that later as well. Many people are virtually being held hostage in their cities and villages so I hope that President Santos will start to talk to the people who are involved. I am intending good and equitable solutions for all concerned, for the highest and best good of all concerned, so be it and so it is....

A message from Me to E

My readers should know that E is a very special person to me. I don't get to visit her as often as I would like, but that's because E has a very busy schedule with school and pool plus friends and I am living about 4,000 miles away in another country.

Most of the houses in this village are between 250-300 years old. So if
someone ever says "You're as old as dirt," this may be what they are telling
you. Daytime temperatures range between 78-85 degrees when sunny.

But E is in my thoughts often. And so this blog today is dedicated to E - something to be shared with others as if Granny was doing a Show-and-Tell at school.

The 'new' place where I will store my
furnishings is here on the top floor.

I do not live in a grass hut in the jungle. But I do live in a house made of earth, called tierra in Spanish. The people here make a wooden form and then push the earth inside that form to make the walls which are about 21 inches thick. This is called "rammed earth" construction and is perfect for this climate because the walls keep the inside of the house, called a casa, at an even 70-72 degrees temperature day and night. No air-conditioning required, even though we live about 400 miles north of the Equator and the sun can get quite hot during the mid-day.

Even though the sun gets hot, I don't ever get sunburned here, and I don't tan much either. But I don't lie out under this sun. We do have swimming pools here, but they are kind of rustic. And I don't see many grandmothers swimming, which I wonder about... did they never learn how?

Further north, along the Caribbean coast, a city called Cartagena looks a lot like another city I lived in, St Augustine in Florida. I think this is because both cities were built by the same architect from Spain. But nearby this city (which does have air conditioning in the tall buildings) many people do live in huts which have roofs made of grass or 'thatch' and bamboo walls because they need to let all that moist and warm air move around and through their homes.

The place where I will be storing my belongings is made out of cement blocks, so it doesn't have the same kind of insulation as a rammed earth house, but my space will be on the second floor so I will get lots of ventilation when I am staying here.

This is not some kind of rare, Colombia chicken. But they
call it "azul pavo real" and 'pavo' means silly... hmmm?

I am very lucky to be moving my things to a place where there are a lot of chickens and they roam around and eat nearly all the bugs and then produce a lovely egg. Some of those birds get creative and make the eggshell green! The yolk inside is still yellow, but a much deeper yellow than the commercial eggs in the United States and I think they have more flavor as well.

This is also a country that grows a lot of coffee. I don't drink much of it because it is very strong and keeps me awake, but it is very flavorful and my favorite way to enjoy it is in ice cream in a cone. The coffee grows on bushes, or trees, that need to be in a little shade and the bean looks an awful lot like a cranberry when it is picked. The outer skin is peeled off and the bean inside is roasted after it is dried. Perhaps when you are bigger, E, you will want to try tasting it.

This is Rebecca, a tame yellow-naped
Amazon parrot that lives on the
property. How beautifully she fits in
with her surroundings....

Also, E, when you next go to Pike Place Market, look at all the flowers there. Many of those exotic flowers were grown in the Bogota area or in Ecuador. I have a neighbor who travels around to the flower growers and she buys and sells them for export to Seattle or Chicago or San Francisco or Boston.

One other thing Colombia is known for is the precious stone called an emerald (you can read more about them here and see one in the rough). Recently there was a landslide and the peasants recognized right away there was a vein in the rocks and there were a lot of good quality emeralds to be retrieved. It was too far away for me to go and see, but I guess not for some folks and the small village was jammed with people hoping to get a few pieces of this valuable stone. Since it was not a legal mine, I don't know on whose land it was discovered, but for some people this may have been a miraculous land-fall!

Knowing how much you love cats, this message would not be complete
without a picture of my Colombian kitties enjoying the rocking chair.

It is my dearest hope that you will come here someday, E, and perhaps I can show you this fascinating country myself. But for now, just know that I am sending you big hugs from the northern Andes mountains up to the Olympics and Cascades and if you are reading this on Wednesday, I will be there soon!

Fotos of Feria XXXV - Day Three

This fellow is operating a cotton candy
machine that reminded me of the ones
we had at fairs when I was small.

Today will all be about color.... colors that people are wearing, colors of the floats, colors all around. I have noticed in the past that Colombians are very particular about what they wear and whether or not it all 'matches.' If a woman or girl is wearing pink shoes, you can be sure she also has pink in her shirt and in her hair or the purse she carries.

The floats are traditionally quite colorful and show off the products from each vereda as well as what Santander as a whole has to offer... coffee, corn, tobacco, chickens, beans, yucca, mandarins, oranges, mangos, pineapples, and more.

Girl in pink with pink ballon.

This is also the day of the parade - at 2 p.m. - so if a float is not yet finished, you can bet there are teams of people at work on it in the morning. No vereda (shire) would want to be ridiculed for being lazy or shirking their responsibility of being ready for their candidate's display. Remembering back to the representative we sponsored, this is a day of excitement for the families of the girls being presented. The girls are treated like princesses at home, allowed certain privileges not normally permitted, and reminded by their brothers or sisters that after the parade, they will have to return their 'golden slippers and crown' and be normal again. There is a sense that this is a huge joke, but one to be enjoyed to the fullest.

UPDATE: Because the Mayor did not put up roadblocks to prevent people from parking their cars around the park, the parade started very late, and of course ended late as well. There were announcements that people should move their cars, but that certainly didn't happen.

There were a lot of wonderfully creative floats, and I want to post a lot of the photos, but because of all the people here tonight, I cannot get modem speed to upload them. I will post as soon as I have some speed. It turns out that I knew one of the princesses because she was in our Radio/Theatre group and I also do not have the news of who the winners were at this time. More to come...

This was a school entry... Wow!

Casa di Cultura's Flower Float - it
was hard from where I was standing
to get a good shot of the whole thing.

These dancers are not Colombian, but were a lively addition to the event.

This is a giant chicken made from corn cobs and
papier mache... really impressive!

The Casa di Cultura float.

The Casa di Cultura float was indeed among the prettiest, but I don't think we won any awards. The dress worn by our princess was a perfect color for her and for the float.

There were 34 floats in the parade and it took almost two hours for all of them to make their way into the  central plaza for judging. When I find out who were the leaders (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and who was voted into Queenship, I will post an addendum here. There were too many floats to publish them all, so I will set up a Photobucket file and link it for your entertainment.

UPDATE: The young lady voted Queen of Barichara was in fact the only one I knew - Angie! She was also the tallest, and as it happens, is the daughter of one of my ceramic class members. She won a two-night stay in one of the top hotels in Santa Marta since the Mayor's office cannot award something like a scholarship. From what I understand it would be using public funds for a private reward. Perhaps I will work to create a scholarship fund so that the desire to be a princess will be enhanced by the desire to continue their education, too.

This is "Angie" on her float looking like the mariposa she is... lovely!

A Visit to Guapotá

The view from Marylandia, a Catholic retreat in Guapota.

I first heard about Guapota (pronounced whoa-poh-tah) only a few days before the trip was taking place. A busload of people from Barichara were going to visit the priest who was formerly in Barichara, Fr. Leonardo.

Eglise of Guapota with park below.

According to Fr. Leonardo, Guapota was established about 200 years ago and the church was built about the same time. The front portion of the church needed replacement, so it is not the same age as the rest of it. Built with local stone and brick, what I noticed first is the arches throughout the church and the priest's residence. The church is high on the hill overlooking the village, with a park in front, and some lovely old trees preserved to give dense shade from the hot sun.

The beautiful arches inside the church
 are created with local
stone and brick. Simple but really lovely.

We were blessed with a lovely sunny day, at least until after 5, when the clouds began to look threatening, but it never rained. That was a good thing because the road to Guapota is under construction after serious water damage earlier and more rain would have meant some serious travel challenges for our bus. The workers are installing drainage ditches and eventually the road will be re-paved, but right now it is a mix of paved and unpaved roadway.

Coffee beans are spread out on the sidewalk
to dry and once dried are bagged up (see the
bags behind the metal fence) and sent off
to be roasted. Then shipped worldwide.

This is not just a 'one-horse' town, but this was one of
the several I saw; few mules even though this is Juan
Valdez coffee-raising country.

You can learn more about this village from their website if you want to visit Guapota.  (It is written in Spanish, but if you go on Google you can get it translated.) Located southwest of Socorro just off the road to Oiba (and Bogota) and about half an hour's drive in from that highway, the major industries here are the production of sugar cane, cacao (cocoa for chocolate), and coffee. We saw a lot of coffee beans drying in the sunshine.

As it was also the week before voting for various state and local candidates (voting takes place on Sunday, Oct. 30 in Colombia to avoid losing workers from their tasks, it seems) there was a lot of loud music from each of the candidate's offices or vehicles reverberating off the stone streets and walls.

Some of the research I did about the village shows a population of less than 1,000 people, but I am not sure of that information. There is a new hospital, a home for the grandmothers and grandfathers to be cared for, and there is transportation service between Socorro and Guapota several times during the morning and afternoon. Clearly with only one road in and out of Guapota and a strong police presence, outsiders are noticed immediately. But typical Colombian hospitality is still in evidence and it makes a nice day trip.

Another view toward the Andes in Guapota.

Lots of "T's" and one was coffee...

This is a shot as we raced across the bridge between Seattle and Mercer Island with Saturday's sun shining through the nearly cloudless sky. We stopped to help a friend of Jey-hu's solve a curious alarm problem. It was my first visit to the island and I can see why it is in such high demand as a place to live! We met two of the three family cats and I sat on a deck high among trees listening to the birds and boats - very relaxing -while Jey-hu and Mr. T discussed the cause of the alarm.

I only mention the alarm problem because it brings to mind the risk of using barbecue grills too near doors or windows of the domicile. Using compressed gas, these grills may give off CO2 aka carbon monoxide in deadly amounts. Please make sure you light the grill at some distance from the residence.

And even at a distance, check the direction of the wind to make sure it is not driving this heavier-than-air substance into the home. Without the CO2 detection device in this gentle man's dwelling, they might not have been warned that something was amiss.

Our next stop was at least an hour south of Tacoma and we realized too late that the new Link Sound Transit trains were having their debut running and we got caught up in the festival atmosphere near Martin Luther King Blvd.

Then we tried to take a short cut and found ourselves too close to Seattle's Safeco Field and all the sports fans - yikes! - and yet another detour landed us in the factory district, just west of

I-5, too far west from where we wanted to be. However, it looks like this area is being re-habbed and re-vamped so getting a chance to see some of the creative uses of the buildings made it not a wasted trip after all. It turns out that Tully's is quite a large company now and part of an ever larger establishment - as of last March - when they were purchased by Green Mountain Grocers in Vermont. Surprising to me to find this out as a drinker of lattes from another well-known Seattle firm, but this company has not been marketing as strongly as the other one.

And, the bigger connection for me was when we returned from Tacoma and we were on the freeway heading north. I saw the large "T" on the building and realized it was the coffee company. Now I will always recognize that spot on I-5, and probably want to stop!