Decaf Costa Rica - 2019 version of card.
December 27, 2022
I realize that I have done an absolutely terrible job of tracking the decaffeinated Costa Rica cards. And I wish that on my very old entries, I had uploaded images of the backsides of the cards as well.
In 2014, when the Roastery was new, Starbucks offered a Decaf Bella Vista coffee for their first decaffeinated coffee inside the Roastery. This was the original decaf: Decaf Bella Vista.
Apparently there was a version 2 of Decaf Bella Vista here, and I am not even sure what the difference was. I have stacks and stacks of old cards in boxes, and it would take me forever to dig cards out. But the version 2 article is here.
Starbucks owns and operates Hacienda Alsacia, and in March 2017, switched to a decaffeinated Costa Rica coffee sourced from their own farm. That coffee card is here: March 4, 2017 decaffeinated Costa Rica Alsacia.
Lo and behold, in early 2018, Starbucks redid the decaffeinated Costa Rica Alsacia card. The word decaffeinated went from a large font just saying “Decaf” to the whole word completely spelled out: 2018 decaffeinated Costa Rica Alsacia. I am completely annoyed with myself that I never uploaded the backside of that card.
Today (December 27, 2022), I visited the Seattle Roastery and it occurred to me that the decaf card looked different. I think if you look at the size of the word “Decaf” it is significantly smaller than in the version just prior in 2018. Even more vexing to me, as I realize how badly I ignore decaf coffees, the backside of the card (which I just picked up today) says copyright 2019! The scan app that I used didn’t pick up the very tiny (and very light print - hard to read!) print at the very bottom of the card, but at the bottom of this card it says 2019 Starbucks Coffee Company. All Rights Reserved. SBX19-421321. Someday I need to go through my stacks of cards and update and improve all the old decaf entries.
To add insult to injury, I am sure that at some point over the years, I’ve walked into the Seattle Roastery and noticed that there was a decaf Costa Rica card with French on it. I think, that at some point in the many years that have gone by, the Seattle Roastery, when it has run low on cards, used the Canadian version of this card, which was some French on it somewhere. And silly me, I never thought to bring home the Canadian version of this card. I think the Canadian version of this card exists out there somewhere because Starbucks has offered decaffeinated Costa Rica Alsacia in their Canadian Reserve Bar or Reserve store locations.
