No Starbucks Geisha coffee in La Jolla

While at the Starbucks in Pacific Beach this week, I overheard some of the employees saying that the La Jolla Starbucks was selling the new, $7-per-cup "Geisha" coffee.

The new brew getting a lot of press lately is Costa Rica Finca Palmilera coffee, which costs $40 a pound. Bloomberg News recently reported that Starbucks started selling the coffee because "customers demand more premium products" these days.

However, the La Jolla Shores Starbucks on Torrey Pines Road did not have it. They referred me to "the other" La Jolla Starbucks at 1150 Prospect Avenue, near Herschel, where "exclusive reserve" coffee is sold. That location didn’t have the coffee either, but I managed to speak with the store manager. He told me that he has been "begging" his corporate higher-ups to send Geisha coffee to his because so many of his customers want to try it.

He noted that, despite his pleading, the Starbucks bosses have made the coffee available only at 46 locations in the U.S. Northwest with expensive Clover brewing machines. But he does "hold out hope” to eventually get his hands on some Geisha. Until then, he said that his store has other premium (and pricey) expensive brands of coffee.