20,000 Stars

'Bucks has "double star days" which should be self-explanatory. In case it's not, Starbucks rewards members of its Rewards program with stars upon thars. Actually, they're virtual stars applied at a rate of 2 per $1 spent to your real or virtual card. Follow? When you amass 125 stars, you can trade them in for an absolutely real cup of coffee.

Once per month, certain members (the ones that drink enough coffee to qualify for "gold" status) can earn stars at a rate of 4 per $1. On my last "double star day" (yes, gold here) I purchased a pound of French Roast and asked for a half pound of Decaf Espresso. (The later was not for me as I do not believe in decaf in principle but was willing to make the purchase as a gateway bean for another coffee drinker who is delusional enough to think he can deny himself full strength brew.) The barista could not figure out what button to push to charge me for half a pound so he gave it to me as a "sample."

Cool beans! I gave him an extra large tip worth 8 virtual stars. I wonder how baristas would really feel about getting stars as tips. Considering 'Buck's foray into virtual currency, it may well be that baristas are already paid in stars. One never knows.

Here's some random information I came across regarding their Rewards cards (from their Terms and Conditions page):

You may not have more than $500 in value on any of your Starbucks Cards at any time, and no more than $2,000 may be associated with any one Starbucks Card in a single day. This means that the activity on any one of your Starbucks Cards cannot exceed $2,000 over the course of a day. The total value you may load onto all of your Starbucks Cards, together with the value of any new Starbucks Cards that you may purchase, may not exceed $10,000 on any given day.

Egads, that's a lot of stars! And I thought I drank a lot of coffee!