Having A Starbucks At The CIA Headquarters In Langley

Image from Sprudge

At CIA Starbucks, Even The Baristas Are Covert -- Washington Post

The new supervisor thought his idea was innocent enough. He wanted the baristas to write the names of customers on their cups to speed up lines and ease confusion, just like other Starbucks do around the world.

But these aren’t just any customers. They are regulars at the CIA Starbucks.

“They could use the alias ‘Polly-O string cheese’ for all I care,” said a food services supervisor at the Central Intelligence Agency, asking that his identity remain unpublished for security reasons. “But giving any name at all was making people — you know, the undercover agents — feel very uncomfortable. It just didn’t work for this location.”

This purveyor of skinny lattes and double cappuccinos is deep inside the agency’s forested Langley, Va., compound.

Welcome to the “Stealthy Starbucks,” as a few officers affectionately call it.

Or “Store Number 1,” as the receipts cryptically say.

Read more ....

Update: Inside the CIA's Starbucks: Coffee shop known as Store Number 1 bans names on cups and runs background checks on baristas -- Daily Mail

My Comment: A cup of freshly brewed ground coffee in the morning when I wake up .... and a small coffee after supper to keep me going for the evening .... that's my coffee habit. As to brands .... Starbucks is not my favorite .... I prefer Van Houtte (it is a Canadian thing), and some specialty brands from Kona (Hawaii) and Central America (of course). And yes .... living in Canada means that I do (once in a while drink) a Tim Horton's .... which is actually OK (for the price). Worse coffee that I ever had .... China.