FORT KENT, Maine — Admittedly, I am a coffee snob. A pretentious coffee snob, at that.
So when I heard a rumor brewing last summer that the granddaddy of all coffee purveyors was poised to move into Fort Kent, it perked me right up.
Like a fine Italian espresso, the move took a bit of time, but last month the University of Maine at Fort Kent became the state’s northernmost outpost for Starbucks Coffee.
“This may be the northernmost Starbucks in the country,” said Laurie Steckino, Starbucks regional operations specialist. (Actually, there are several in Alaska.) “And we could not be more proud to be at UMFK.”
The coffee giant’s presence at the university is part of the campus’ Sodexo food contractor’s “We Proudly Serve” program, according to Sterling Harten, Sodexo general manager at UMFK.
“It’s not an actual Starbucks shop,” Steckino stressed. “But it is part of what UMFK and Sodexo will be serving here.”
It certainly looked a bit like the Starbucks coffee stands I was used to growing up out in the Pacific Northwest where there are so many of them someone once joked Starbucks was sort of like a stalker in that, every time you look over your shoulder, you see one.
Steckino was in Fort Kent Tuesday for the official rollout of Starbuck’s on the campus and had spent several days training workers in the Bengal’s Lair cafe on all things barista — from preparing a cup of strong coffee to properly foaming milk for a fancy frappuccino.
The new baristas were also having to learn the coffee jargon because, as any self respecting coffee snob knows, you never order a small, medium or large.
Rather, Starbucks comes in tall, grande and venti.
“People are starting to learn the lingo,” Harten said with a laugh. “Some people have been a bit resistant but it’s coming along.”
He also pointed out Starbucks at UMFK is not just for students and faculty.
“We welcome members of the community,” Harten said. “We encourage them to come in.”
Prices for a cup of Starbucks coffee range from $1.89 for a tall to $2.89 for a venti. The more fancy — dare I say indulgent — drinks like a Cafe Mocha or Frappuccino run between $4 and $4.95.
But the prices do not seem to be scaring customers away.
“People have been coming in and seem very satisfied,” new barista Mariah Berube said. “They like what they are getting.”
Steckino said there is a certain mystique surrounding the high end coffee.
“It really sells itself,” she said. “It’s a well-respected brand that people know about [and] it’s going to be a real perk having it up in Fort Kent.”
And Fort Kent could just be the beginning for Aroostook County coffee connoisseurs.
On Thursday Steckino, with Sodexo, rolls out Starbucks at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, joining one already in place far to the south on the University of Southern Maine campus.
