Live-Blogging the Starbucks Annual Meeting: Introducing the Mastrena

Schultz moves on to check the box in terms of financial results - he goes through the nitty gritty of 2007 results, but the crowd is happy when he moves on to
"Transformation Objective & Initiative Number 1." It's about espresso machines.

For this, Schultz brings Anne-Marie on stage, a 17-year Starbucks employee.

Anne-Marie explains Starbucks' transition over the years from manual machines (the ones she during her part time college gig as a Starbucks barista, natch), to the semi-automatic machines Starbucks uses now.

Starbucks currently uses a machine called the Verisimo (which has just been upgraded with a new flavor kit, by the way). But Anne-Marie is here to introduce the new wave in espresso preparation: the Mastrena.

Anne-Marie, former barista that she is, takes the wheel of a Mastrena that's been set up on a makeshift coffee bar on stage, and talks the audience through the specific advantages:

-the shorter machine means that you will now be able to look your barista in the eye
-it creates denser, creamier foam
-a digital timer allows the barista to manage the quality of every single shot of espresso
-and the biggest change - coffee is ground fresh for every shot .

The Mastrena will be in 75 percent of Starbucks stores by the end of 2010.

by Liz Gunnison