I'm serious, Folks. Pike Place Blend has GOT to go.

Once upon a time, those of us belonging to the Late Risers Club could wander into a Starbucks after noon on any day of the week and get a damn fine cup of bold roast coffee. Indeed, bold roast coffee is what Starbucks is famous for, what all the Dunkin lovers bitch and piss and moan about--the fact that a cup of Starbucks is like a slap in the head (only much, much nicer, with cream and sugar if you like it; treat yourself to some Komodo Dragon!).

But no longer.

To celebrate it's anniversary, Starbucks introduce a new house blend coffee named in honor of the location of the first Starbucks location: Pike Place Blend. It's the only brewed coffee available after 12 noon (and corporate RATIONS the amount of coffee they send to the stores to make sure they comply with the !@#$%^&*()_ guidelines, the bastards). According to the propaganda, this blend was created to mix well with cream and sugar. Well, I have got news for you: it doesn't. It's the blandest, crappiest coffee I've ever had at Starbucks, universally reviled by the patrons of my local java joint, and we want our sodding bold roast back.

As a hardcore caffeine addict who gets a migraine if I don't get my coffee, I am really, really RIPPED that I can only get a cup of Dunkin Donuts-worthy coffee at Starbucks. That is NOT what I fork over my hard earned cash for. It's not what knocks down a screaming migraine and makes me a happy, smiling alert camper.

Does it come as any surprise to my fellow java junkies that Starbucks is closing 600+ locations nationwide--and the announcement came AFTER the roll-out of Pike Place?

Join the revolution. Reclaim your coffee. Let Starbucks know we're not happy, and unless they want to be closing more stores, they'd better go back to what they're REALLY good at: damn fine, bloody bold coffee. Save the acidic cat's water for Dunkin Donuts.

Leave comments--I will be passing the blog address on to the corporate office.

Remember--Coffee is the Gods way of showing us they love us and want us to be alert.