One of the things that made Il Giornale stores special was the drip coffee delivery system. Hap Hewitt had created a "Tap System". The Tap System delivered drip coffee from the big urns through a tube to a tap set on the counter next to cash. The coffee was poured from taps with handles just like you would see in any good brew pub. The Il GIornale, and later, Starbucks Logo's were the tap handles. This system was installed in all the original "Beverage Stores" that were in urban downtown environments. These were a big feature in our launch into Chicago stores. One thing that we did not think through was insulating the taps. We often opened stores in late summer. The first winter the Jackson Street store opened, the winter was extremely cold. I got a call from Dawn Pinaud, the toilet and the tap system had frozen, and all the baristas were wearing hats and coats just to work in the store. I had to find a contractor to install a revolving door to keep the cold out. Unfortunately, the Tap System was eliminated as the coffee quality for temp could not be maintained and it caused too much waste when the consumer adopted more espresso beverages. But it was great theatre in those early stores and attracted a lot of new customers who loved getting their daily coffee "on tap".

When I started at Il Giornale, and later Starbucks, the drink menu was very simple. When we were trained on the bar, a cup with logo facing you was a latte, turned to the right was a cappuccino, turned to the left was a mocha, upside down cup was a double shot, etc. As we added more drinks, 2% milk and custom options to the menu only the most skilled baristas could keep track of the cups on the top of the La Marzocco. I often found myself behind the bar asking the customer, "And you are waiting for?" Or calling out what I had in queue and asking if anyone was missing a beverage. Ops Services was asked to solve the problem so new baristas could be more easily trained. So CUP ID was born. Those are the little boxes on the side of your cup that have become a signature of the Starbucks brand and the basis of the drink calling methodology. While we all appreciate it now, when rolling it out in 1994, using the boxes was considered an affront to skilled baristas and we were told we were ruining the hand crafted culture of Starbucks. Now it is hard to imagine a Starbucks Cup without the boxes. I would like to give a shout out to Kathie Lindemann, Erika Brooks, Dan Moore, Margie Giuntini - the brave souls who helped create the system and lead its roll out as the early Ops Services pioneers. Christine Day