mmm-yoso never goes on vacation. One of us is blogging at one point or another. This time, its Cathy. Kirk is somewhere, documenting for a future post,while saying he is on vacation.
Hi. Me again. Kirk isn’t around. If you live in San Diego County, you have no doubt seen in most, but not all, Starbucks locations a small yellow 3/4 circle on some of the pastry that have the words "try it warm!" and then maybe notice the small or large placard mentioning the breakfast sandwiches.
Most of the stores were retrofitted with ovens earlier this year, and the quest for serving warmed pastries and toasted sandwiches to patrons, rather than seeing them walk out and toward a bagel/bakery place, which all seem strategically placed close to every single Starbucks in the county.
So, the sandwiches. Limited and basically the same one with different toppings. I decided to try the Eggs Florentine…three times.
The bread for all of them is an English muffin, which is toasted, and topped with egg, cheese, some kind of creamy sauce and some fresh spinach leaves.
The ‘sauce’ definitely has garlic in it.
The first sandwich I got, I took home and it "aged" in the car as I drove about 18 minutes and it tasted *really* good. The bread was only a little soggy, the egg was OK, nothing bad or good about it; a cooked egg, the Havarti cheese was extremely nice for breakfast and the spinach leaves were tasty. The second sandwich I got I ate hot and the sauce was kind of weird. This is a photo of the third sandwich and it seemed to be a combination of the first two- not bad but not great. I liked the cheese and crispiness of the toasted bread as well as the fresh spinach. The egg had not much flavor. It’s the melted sauce. Kind of on the edge of sour/bitter. It is described as a ‘creamy herb spread’ and maybe it wasn’t melted or something. It isn’t bad, but if it is allowed to "age" it tasted better than eating it as soon as it is served.
All three sandwiches were purchased at different locations, but I think we all pretty much know how much Starbucks strives to be uniform throughout its system. There should not have been a variance. I think the ‘freshness factor’ was part of it.
I went to yet another Starbucks in late afternoon, saw it had the toaster oven thingy and asked if I could try the ham and egg sandwich. 
I had no craving for low fat turkey bacon, peppered bacon or sausage that late in the day. (Actually, I never crave low fat anything, or peppered anything at any time of the day). They will make you a sandwich whenever, I have seen a few signs just advertising about warmed sandwiches and not calling them ‘breakfast’ any more. There are no rules. let the California Egg Board push their product all day long! Eggs- not just for breakfast anymore!…(sorry, digression again). The nice young man brought out my sandwich on a "for here" plate, since I was eating in the store and also I had asked for a "for here" cup for my coffee. You can see in the photo above that I had a "for here" cup for the coffee, but a "to go" sandwich.
Here, the photo of the innards of the sandwich show the delightful experience I was about to have…aged cheddar cheese and a lot of wonderfully flavored black forest ham. Having it freshly made, still hot…and that little bit of aged cheddar that melted out and crisped onto the bottom of the plate made it oh so perfect!
As I understand it, there are a limited number of sandwiches available a day. So, this means they will always be fresh and not day old. The eggs are apparently pre-made and so are only reheated. They do have a pre-wrapped pack of fork/knife/napkin/salt and pepper available in case the flavor from the cheese and meats or sauce isn’t quite flavorful enough for you.
The other flavors are a classic sausage with aged cheddar,a peppered bacon, also with aged cheddar and a low fat turkey bacon with a cholesterol free egg and reduced fat white cheddar cheese on a multi grain English muffin (all the others are on regular, white toasted English muffins). The sandwiches are good and made when you order. Its a nice change and I like not having to smuggle in my Carl’s Jr. Breakfast Burger into the store, making an extra stop before my fresh Cup o’ Joe.
Starbucks, too many locations to list. Some have the breakfast sandwiches, which you can order all day long, some don’t. Hours vary. All are open by 6:00 a.m. in San Diego.