Juiced-up at Starbucks Corporate

An afternoon excursion to Starbuck's corporate office in downtown Seattle is a good idea if you are looking for a legal high. My roommate, Tim, works at Starbucks corporate now but he started as a Barista at the original Starbucks at Pike Place Market and later became a Coffee Master. Tim heads a group of in-crowd caffeinators who gather each day at a random location and time in the office for a themed drink Tim invented back in his days at Pike Place called the Commodore.

The Commodore is 1-2 shots of raw sugar infused espresso poured over fluffy whip cream. My one word descripiton of the drink would be "jolting."

I was invited to attend the commodore drinking ritual as a guest; as a competitive eater; as Erik the Red. So, naturally I wanted to do something that hadn't been done before. So, I offered to take 8 commodore shots instead of the sufficiently electric and traditional 1 shot. I mean, how could I pass up free shots of espresso if they were willing to offer them to me?

Here is the video (taken by one of the employees with her phone) of me taking down the 8 commodores. I was so jittery by the time I got to the 7th, I nearly knocked it off the table:

I have never smoked crack, but the feeling I had after taking the 8 shots of espresso and sugar had to be close to the same high. I was HIGH! I was vibrating! Seriously, I felt epileptic for the next two or three hours.

After the 8 commodores I had a very pedestrian single shot latte as Tim gave me a tour of the office. I took a break to pose with some barista mannequins...


Umm, yeah.