Somewhere in Iraq, a "mail mountain" is waiting for Marine Capt. Joe Moye and his team, a mobile unit that trains Iraqi forces along the Jordanian and Syrian borders. In it is a nine-pound package the service members will treat like black gold: an assortment of ground coffee from Starbucks.
The booty has been sent across the oceans by Moye's father, Leesburg resident Mike Moye, an extra-hot-no-foam-skim-latte-drinking regular at the Starbucks on Market Street in Leesburg. The beans were donated by workers at the cafe -- each of whom receives a free pound each week as a job perk -- and they inject a jolt of opulence and high-quality caffeine into care packages in which dental floss and vacuum-wrapped tuna are more common staples.
"Marines survive on very little, but coffee and tobacco are an essential part of our daily diet," Joe Moye, 28, who is serving his third tour in Iraq, wrote in an e-mail.
Starbucks baristas are also pooling their coffee to send to Marine Lt. Col. Tom Leonard, 49, whose father, Leesburg resident Ed Leonard, drops by the coffee shop each morning for his cup of decaf. Two packages, each with nearly 10 pounds of coffee, have made their way to Tom Leonard, who shares the gift with his colleagues in Baghdad, where he is a logistics officer.
"You hand them a bag of it, and their eyes get real big," he said, speaking by telephone from the Iraqi capital.
The service members say the coffee comes not only as a little bit of home and a welcome relief from their regular coffee -- chow hall and ship stuff that Joe Moye says "keeps the heart pumping and eyes sharp, but the taste leaves a lot to be desired" -- but also as a touching symbol of support from home, which can sometimes seem remote.
For the Starbucks workers, passing along their coffee is a tangible way to buoy the troops from afar.
"They need all the comforts of home that they can get, and it's something relatively easy for us to do as a store," said Cathy Hoska, an assistant manager.
Behind the hustle and bustle of milk-steaming and espresso-pulling at the shop's busy counter, a hallway bulletin board is tagged with a sign-up sheet for employees willing to give up their weekly quota. On a recent day, a handful of workers' names were on it, along with the coffee blends they had selected to donate -- one would be giving Guatemala, another Serena Organic. Hoska said about eight to 12 workers give up their coffee each week.
Pegged near the list are digital photos and e-mails sent by Tom Leonard, their subject lines reading, "Coffee has arrived!!" and "Coffee in Baghdad."
"It is being enjoyed by everyone," he wrote in one e-mail.
Also on the board is an advance thank-you letter from Joe Moye, addressed to the "Starbucks Crew," most of whom he has never met.
