Love them or loathe them, Starbucks are an iconic brand. Nothing beats the Starbucks experience whilst blogging away on a Saturday afternoon.

Anyhow, the bottom line is that Starbucks sponsored last month’s London Blogger’s meet up, and I just thought I would drop a quick line about their latest UK initiatives.

Starbucks recently launched an instant coffee product called  VIA Ready Brew (VIA = road in Italian in case you were wondering).  Being French and all, I am not a big fan of instant coffee (hmmm Italian espresso anyone?;) but I have to say that VIA Ready brew tasted quite nice and a lovely alternative to ‘a proper’ cup of coffee if you’re on the road.

The Starbucks team also gave us a Starbucks Card which can be used to pay for your coffee, get small freebies (free refills, wi-fi etc), and the card can also be used  in Starbucks stores around the world – very convenient indeed.

Finally,  Starbucks have started serving Fairtrade coffee in all of their espresso-based drinks and created  a shiny microsite to commemorate the occasion – follow the Fairtrade Journey for more info.

The fair-trade coffee campaign is understood to be the biggest the US coffee giant has run in the UK and Ireland since it opened its first stores here in 1998.

Starbucks are clearly trying to differentiate themselves from the competition, and I hope to see more social-media related initiatives from these guys very soon.