PODcast #48 : Espresso Pods News

Welcome to The PODcast, PodMerchant's newsletter of espresso pod news, education, tips and deals. Back issues of The PODcast are available online.

Espresso Elucidation

Coffee So Good You Won't Spit it Out

At www.starbucks.com/via you can learn how "How Starbucks VIA™ Can Change Your Life."

Dig deeper to find... "*OK, we admit that's a slight over-promise, but let's face it, it is revolutionary."

OK, forget the "life-changing" claim. "Revolutionary." That's quite a claim, too. Supportable or palpable nonsense?

Shortly before the economic melt-down, Starbucks had announced a new direction for itself, intended to put the business back on the right track. The "new way" was, in essence, to return to Starbucks' roots and core-values. This struck me as a good thing.

Now comes the big hoopla about their instant coffee, Starbucks VIA™. Instant coffee... Instant coffee? Starbucks is calling it "Ready Brew" — a term reminiscent of "Pre-owned" cars. Whatever you call it, it's hard concept to reconcile with their previously announced direction.

I'm sure you've seen the advertising. This has been a very highly publicized event. Full page ads in my newspaper at any rate. Well, maybe there is something remarkable about it. So I decided to give it a try.

Disclaimer — I've had not a sip of instant coffee in two, maybe three decades.

I heated up some water, poured it over the "microground" Starbucks VIA™ coffee, stirred, sipped. Result? In a minute I had a cup of coffee that wasn't swill. That's it. Starbucks' new life-changing, revolutionary product is instant coffee that you won't spit out. You go, Starbucks!
 

Espresso Tips

For your maximized espresso enjoyment, we present this issue's tip:

Uses for the HandPresso Wild are quite varied. Many owners use it at the office and when traveling. The only thing that the HandPresso depends on outside of itself is a source of hot water. Fortunately, where power is available one can easily heat the water with an immersion heater.

A good customer recommended the following immersion heater. This is the Nordic 559 Immersion Heater, available at Amazon for under $6. Immersion heaters don't cost much or take up much space. All you need now is a coffee cup and the water.

PodMerchant News

How to Save Money on Your Orders

Up front, here's the short answer: Make larger purchases. Now I'll tell you why.

When you shop at podmerchant.com, UPS servers calculate your shipping charges based on weight, distance, and the service level (Ground, 3 Day, 2nd Day, etc.). These fees represent our costs — shipping fees are not a profit center for us, in fact we actually loose money on shipping. In this first chart* you can see an example in which the value of the products in a shipment range from $10 to $100, yet the shipping charges range from just under $8 to $11.

Looking at the same data in another way, below we can see that for a $10 order, the shipping charges are 80% of the value of the goods, and at $100, the shipping charges go way, way down to only 10%.

So making larger orders (placed less frequently, obviously) can save you big bucks. And this isn't doesn't just hold true at PodMerchant, but at any online retailer that charges UPS, FedEx, etc. rates based on weight, service level, and distance.

I do hope this wasn't too boring. I'll try to get some real coffee news for you next time.

* Values based on purchases of multiple units of Lucaffe Classic Espresso Pods ($9.95 each), shipped via UPS Ground from Valencia, CA 91355 to New York, NY 10021.

PodMerchant Featured Product

News like this is just too good to announce only once. We now have in stock these lovely — and exclusive — ceramic cups from Lucaffe'. This issue we feature the demitasse cups. A nice feature of these cups is a molded-in ridge indicating the level for a single shot (demitasse only — not on cappuccino cups).

The ever-popular Mr. Exclusive character graces the outside of espresso and cappuccino cups in black on white with a black saucer. Shown here is the espresso cup. Note the filled-in handle with the "L" logo.

The Blucaffe' motorcyclist and Marlin Monroe (look-alike?) characters are in blue on white with a blue saucer. This design is also available in both espresso and cappuccino cups.

FaceBook

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PodMerchant Coupons

PODcast subscribers get a 10% discount coupon with each issue. Just enter the code below on the Shipping Selection screen during checkout.

• Only one coupon per subscriber per issue.
• Coupon expires when the next issue is published, or at the end of the next month following publication of the issue, whichever comes first.
• Coupons are only valid for PODcast subscribers — we check use of coupons against the subscriber list.
• For more information, please see our PODcast Coupon FAQ.

For 10% off your next order — Enter code: XXXXXXX (note, that is "P-C-Zero") and please press the "Redeem Coupon" button or the coupon will not be entered.

That's all for this issue of the PODcast.


Kevin Garrett, The PodMerchant.