Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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Dancimals by my wife, Sudeep. Click any image to go see:

JUST in time for Christmas!

Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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If you care enough to vote, we care enough to give you a free cup of coffee.

Come into any participating Starbucks on Nov. 4th, tell us you voted, and we'll proudly give you a tall cup of brewed coffee on us.

Its our way of saying, thanks for doing your part.

Limit one per person. Good while supplies last. Void where prohibited by law.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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From an email I received:

A man was walking home alone late one foggy night, when behind him he hears:

BUMP...

BUMP...

BUMP...

Continue reading "A Halloween Coffee Story" »

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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At the CarbonFund.org Blog: Coffee, Certified CarbonFree! This post contains a press release:

Coffee Roaster Becomes Nation's First to Offer 100% CarbonFree® Certified Coffee
Grounds for Change, a family-owned coffee roaster, is the first in the nation to comprehensively offset its coffee’s carbon emissions.

This has been on my mind lately when I shop so this is good news. For example, I live in California and try to buy only local olive oil. There is great olive oil made in California, and it seems like shipping a heavy liquid across the ocean has to burn a lot of carbon. But it is hard to find local products like this except in specialty stores.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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The Art of Tea, Manchester

This is the kind of place you want to hole up for a few days and write your novel. Manchester is the heart of the old Industrial north, familiar with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes) among others. So if your novel has been taking a while to come out, don’t worry, you’ll have just as fruitful a time watching native Mancunians go by and admiring the stolid red brick buildings amid the bustle of a metropolitan city. Luckily, the caffeine produce on offer is conducive to thought. Chain venues like Starbucks and co. may know how to make easy reliable coffee for people who have left their imagination at home, but when you visit the Art of Tea, you’ll remember what a true cappucino is all about. Nice drink, friendly people, and a seat you’ll want to make your own.

Market Diner, Brighton

Does what it says on the tin. Of Walmart baked beans. Brighton, hedonist-central on the South coast an hour out of London, is crammed with the weird and wonderful, and this is where you’ll see them at their dogged, up all-night-raving worst, scraping the drug and booze haze out of their ears via a lard-based intravenous injection of heartstopping proportions. The coffee here is not exactly legendary, but the point is to know what a good old fashioned English Café is all about – i.e. more than just following the snootier "Brighton Café Reviews". Get all the best greasy breakfast fry-up ingredients, pile them on a single plate till they’re dripping onto the formica tabletop à la Michael Phelps, and know that you’ll soon be in bed, sleeping off the fattest head of your life.

(Note: this is a sponsored post.)

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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Peet's Coffee & Tea is offering a special August 13 roasting of its amazing Tanzania Peaberry, with a reduced shipping charge.

A few weeks ago I bought a pound of this. It is one of the best coffees I have tasted, and I immediately ordered two more pounds. So this is a very special opportunity and I encourage readers to try it.

It is shipped immediately after roasting. The coffee arrives in a shipping box, inside of which is a special sealed foil bag. So you don't have to worry about the distance it might have to travel to reach you -- the bag will keep it fresh.

The first pot you make is the best, of course, because it is the absolute freshest, but also because it is the first experience of this coffee. It's a bit like a Kona, rich and creamy, with no bitterness. I use a French Press pot. I recommend ordering whole beans because you can grind them when you brew the pot, keeping the freshness.

And while we're talking about Peet's, I see that they are offering their Panama Esmeralda Geisha! This is an amazing, distinctive coffee with an almost blueberry hint in it. It is rare, so it is somewhat expensive -- $24.95 for a half pound. I absolutely love this coffee but I'll let you know it is a very special, distinctive coffee that some will love and others might find a bit too different.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos

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Starbucks closing 600 stores in the US: Financial News

Starbucks Corp. has announced it's closing 600 underperforming stores in the United States.

The Seattle-based premium coffee company also announced Tuesday it expects to open fewer than 200 new company-operated stores in the United States in fiscal 2009.

The company says it will try to place workers from closed stores in remaining Starbucks.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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See T-Mobile files suit against Starbucks over WiFi transition to AT&T

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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Group finds Starbucks logo too hot to handle,

A Christian group based in San Diego found grounds for outrage over the new retro-style logo for Starbucks Coffee.

The Resistance says the new image "has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute," Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. "Need I say more? It's extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks."

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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The Menlo Park, California Peet's Coffee and Tea store now has wireless. Officially! You connect to the wireless router named "Peet's." Your browser window will then open to a Peet's sign-in page, asking for a code. You get a code from the register, enter it into the browser, and you get two free hours of wireless.

Wireless at Peet's! I no longer have to buy a Peet's and then go sit outside a Starbucks to use the wireless. Finally!

Do any readers have any news about any other Peet's locations with wireless?

Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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I'm interviewed today in the Lincoln Journal Star about tipping in coffee shops, and STC gets a mention as well.

Previous tip blogging here and here.

Posted by Jacob Grier at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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Starbucks' headline-making brand recreation is a bit tarnished today by an adverse court ruling. As decided in California, the company owes baristas about a hundred million dollars in tips that were distributed to shift supervisors and managers. The coverage makes it look like corporate was stealing from their workers. The L. A. Times, for example, leads by saying that "Starbucks got caught with its hand in the tip jar."

The practice might have been illegal under California law, but it wasn't stealing. If baristas (oops, I mean "partners") didn't like the practice they were free to work elsewhere or renegotiate terms. It's also a sensible way to do business: if supervisors spend most of their time doing the work of baristas and cashiers, there's no reason for them not to get tipped out with the other workers. Restaurants with on-the-floor managers who serve tables do exactly the same thing.

Assuming Starbucks' compensation model is effective, this ruling won't change much. It's a one-time bonus for baristas who get to take advantage of a stupid law and a one-time hit for the corporation that's getting nailed by it. It could lead to raises for supervisors to compensate for lost tips and will likely slow down pay increases for non-management positions. It doesn't do much of anything to change incentives, except perhaps to make managers less invested in running fast, friendly stores. This isn't a victory for workers' rights; it's a forced replacement of a business model that was working well to another, possibly less efficient one demanded by court decree.

Posted by Jacob Grier at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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How fast and how far will Starbucks rollout its newly acquired Clovers? Answer: real fast and real far. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports:

Many stores will be getting a Clover, but probably not those with low foot traffic or short hours, Gass said. Very busy stores may get two. About 30 percent of U.S. stores will get Clovers by year-end, Schultz said.

In another article -- does any other newspaper devote so much space to coffee coverage? -- a discouraging sign about the future of Clover sales to indie shops:

[Clover founder Zander Nosler says,] "When I first wrote a business plan, it did have the idea of Starbucks in it. And I was told early on, 'You'd better not write a business plan that has one customer, because you won't raise much money with that.' So we made a plan that involved going out to the world, to everybody."

That's precisely what Schultz didn't want -- so he bought the company.

I can't fault the guys for selling. They got a dream offer, and they certainly deserve it for all their hard work, vision, and ingenuity. But still, looking at all the potential the Clover holds for changing the way people think about coffee, it would be a shame to see Starbucks get it exclusively. Unfortunately, I suspect Starbucks Corp. sees more advantage in keeping Clover brewers to itself and to the few early adopters that already have them. Let's hope I'm wrong...

Posted by Jacob Grier at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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I'm working in a Starbucks -- instead of Peets because Peet's won't get wireless.

There's a guy in here with a new Mac Air. Oh, that thing is beautiful!

I told him if he charged people a dollar to touch it he could probably pay for it in a week.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

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