Customer requests prompt Starbucks Lake Tahoe brand

Customers of Starbucks at Lake Tahoe continuously asked for a product that didn't exist, so the company created it.

"Customers came in and said, "Do you have anything that says 'Lake Tahoe' on it?" recalls Geory Kurthals, store manager at the Lake Tahoe and Park store.

Now those tourists have another souvenir to tote home.

Starbucks created a coffee specifically blended to reflect the flavor of Lake Tahoe.

But rolling out a new blend is neither quick nor easy at a big corporation like Starbucks.

Kurthals had been talking about the idea of satisfying those customer requests for over a year, back when she was employed at the Incline Village store.

Once promoted to manager at the South Tahoe store, she started stumping for buy-in from the people there.

Finally, after sales from the busy summer season dropped off last year, the district manager said, "Hey, what about that blend you were talking about?" Given the green light, she spoke with the green coffee specialist at the roasting plant in Minden.

Next she contacted everyone from the coffee quality department to the marketing department.

Only after greasing the wheels of the bureaucracy did she go into the brainstorming phase.

"We wanted this blend to represent life at Lake Tahoe," says Kurthals.

"A clean, crisp finish (feel in the mouth) that represents fresh mountain air, but with depth and flavor to represent the long winter months."

Armed with that description, a team of "coffee masters" employees who had completed the company's continuing education program gathered at the roasting plant in Minden and started to blend coffees.

The finished product is a blend of Latin and African beans, says Kurthals, adding, "This one truly is unique." Starbucks donates one dollar from every pound sold to the League to Save Lake Tahoe.

Starbucks carries the brand, brewed, at its three Lake Tahoe stores and as a whole bean offering throughout the Reno to Gardnerville corridor.

While the Lake Tahoe brand is a first in answer to customer demand, Starbucks has created specialty blends before, says Joey McNinch, district manager.

The Colorado Community blend was made to drive donations for the Columbine Memorial.

And a Leadership blend was created to celebrate the first global leadership conference that Starbucks held for all its managers in Seattle.

There were costs associated with creating the Lake Tahoe specialty blend, says McNinch.

The printing of the specialty label with a scenic picture of the lake.

The fact that only coffee masters are allowed to blend the Lake Tahoe brand.

And the cost of inviting all the coffee masters in northern Nevada and at Lake Tahoe to spend a day with the green coffee specialist at the Minden Roasting plant.

For Kurthals, the success of her idea was its own reward.

Starbucks is a culture that allows partners/employees to stick their necks out and exercise an entrepreneurial spirit, says McNinch.

That spirit, he adds, could be the reason Kurthals is one of only 10 store managers in eight states enrolled in the advanced training for store managers "301 Program."