September 14, 2011

Bean vs. Bux

What happens when a landlord evicts a neighborhood coffee shop to make way for a Starbucks? The story of East Village favorite the Bean is told by Jim Dwyer in today’s New York Times, with plenty of dramatic moment like this one:

Standing in the crowd awaiting ritual squirts of caffeine and soy chai and medium foam was a middle-aged man with a briefcase, a roll of drawings under his arm, and a measuring tape.

“I said, ‘How can I help you?’ ” Mr. Puglia [the manager of the Bean] said. “He said, ‘I’m here for the renovation.’

“I said, ‘What renovation?’

“He says, ‘For the Starbucks.’ ”

- Oliver Strand

10:05am | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUuVnx9W4U9k

(Notes: 28)

August 10, 2011

Jonathan’s Card: Viral, or Infected?

Spied on Sprudge.com: Andrew Hetzel’s takedown of Jonathan’s Card, a cheerful social experiment where Jonathan Stark threw his Starbucks card up on the web for the whole world to use - download it to buy coffee, or add cash and “enjoy some serious good karma.”

Techcrunch.com loved it, as did Eater.com.

Stark describes it as a “take a penny, leave a penny” approach to coffee: “get a coffee, give a coffee.” And he emphatically states that he’s not a schill. The Jonathan’s Card website opens with the statement: “In case it wasn’t obvious from the complete lack of design, this site is totally not affiliated with Starbucks.”

But it might be more complicated. Hertzel draws a link between the two on his website Coffee Business Strategies. Read his account here.

- Oliver Strand

UPDATE:

Jonathan Stark categorically denies schilling for Starbucks via this entry on the Jonathan’s Card page on Facebook; Techcrunch.com writer John Biggs follows up with a post titled “The Vast Starbucks Conspiracy: Jonathan’s Card Wasn’t Faked.”

12:20pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUuVnx88mPLd

(Notes: 1)

Filed under: Jonathan's Card Andrew Hertzel Jonathan Stark Sprudge.com Starbucks Techcrunch Eater

July 18, 2011

Made in China

The Financial Times reports that Starbucks entered into an agreement with Ai Ni Group to start growing coffee in China. This is the first time Starbucks will get into the business of farming.

Soon Chinese coffee could become a “brand.” According to the article, “The joint venture will operate a coffee mill that will enable it to export roasted as well as raw coffee beans, which will be both used by Starbucks and sold to rival coffee makers.”

- Oliver Strand

4:45pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUuVnx7FLZqG

(Notes: 1)

Filed under: China Starbucks Ai Ni Group Financial Times Oliver Strand

April 11, 2011

Now bouncing around the internets, “Combat Coffee 101.dv,” a how-to from the Canadian Armed Forces on making coffee in Afghanistan using a MacGyvered heater bag and a boot band.

Two notes. First, the off-color language. (Example: “Step [expletive deleted] one: adopt a firing position, and make sure there are no [expletive deleted] insurgents around. Nothing [expletive deleted] up good coffee like [expletive deleted] insurgents.”) Second, it’ll make you rethink - and maybe love - Starbucks Via.

(Spotted on Eater.com, which snagged it from Laughing Squid.)

- Oliver Strand

10:00am | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUuVnx4DneBV

(Notes: 10)

Filed under: Afghanistan Canadian Armed Forces Starbucks Via instant coffee Eater.com Laughing Squid

March 13, 2011

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

A resurgent Howard Schultz is the subject of the lead story in the Sunday Business section of today’s New York Times. The profile by Claire Cain Miller is titled “A Changed Starbucks. A Changed C.E.O.,” and it outlines what’s working (Via instant coffee), what flopped (the Pinkeberry-like Sorbetto), and what’s on the drawing board: some 1,500 locations in China by 2015.

- Oliver Strand

2:29pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUuVnx3adqlO

(Notes: 1)

Filed under: Howard Schultz Starbucks New York Times Claire Cain Miller instant coffee China

March 3, 2011

Pour Over Appearing in Select Starbucks

Today’s Independent reports that select Starbucks shops in England will offer pour over coffee that will highlight, according to Howard Schultz, “rare, small-batch coffees prepared different ways.”

The Starbucks march to the high doesn’t stop with its own shops. Mark Hix, one of the most celebrated chefs in England, will start serving the coffee in this establishments. According to the article, Mr. Hix said: ”I was initially sceptical about serving a Starbucks coffee in my restaurant, but I have to admit I’m impressed. You can’t fault what they’ve achieved – coffee cultivated in a volcano crater, five-year-old vintage beans and behind each bean there’s a farmer, a region, a unique story to tell.”

- Oliver Strand

4:54pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUuVnx3O96gI

(Notes: 2)

Filed under: Starbucks Independent pour over Mark Hix

February 16, 2011

Room Service

The Wall Street Journal and other news sources report that soon Starbucks coffee might be as standard in hotel rooms as a Gideons Bible. Starbucks Corporation reached an agreement with Courtesy Products to provide the coffee for single-serve brewing machines “that will be available in as many as 500,000 luxury hotel rooms nationwide.”