Friday's Links February 4

In Washington, apart from trying to figure out the state’s upcoming budget deficit, legislators are discussing whether coffee should be the state’s official beverage. link

Starbucks is offering a guarantee for its Via instant coffee line. If you’re not satisfied, take it back to the store for a free 12oz bag of ground whole-bean coffee. link

Bad news for men who like coffee. Researchers at the University of Bristol (England) found that drinking coffee hurts men’s performance under stress. Women, on the other hand, performed better after drinking coffee. link

It looks like Lavazza is going to fight it out with Starbucks for the Indian coffee market. link

Andrew Stark, management professor at the University of Toronto, discusses some of the benefits and criticisms of the fair trade movement, in a book review of The Fair Trade Revolution. link

More competition for the China coffee market. True Coffee, a Thai company, plans to try its hand at the market by opening 15 cafés in Shanghai this year. link

Rose Tosti from Seattle weekly has a full-weekend round-up from the 2011 NW Regional Barista Championship. link

The engineering firm Bechtel is supporting the Washington State University College of Engineering and Architecture by donating a year-long supply of free coffee for the students’ study area.  link

On a related note, perhaps someone should supply the WSU basketball team with some coffee. link

Come on Cougs, you’re better than that.

Friday Links-January 28

It's Friday already, and we're another week closer to spring. Hooray! Here's today's links. 

A woman in Georgia is set to receive a $1.2  million dollars after a convenience store cappuccino shot hot water at her. link

A new documentary about lawsuits and tort reform examines the well-publicized case of the woman who sued McDonald’s after being burned by the company’s coffee. Sounds pretty provocative. link

Please be careful with your coffee. It’s hot. link

The Starbucks iPhone payment app is a game-changer, according to Bob Sullivan of MSNBC. link

Coffee is sometimes used for political reasons, as is the case in Ivory Coast, where the president-elect of the country has called for a halt on the country’s coffee and cocoa exports in an effort to starve the government of the incumbent (who refuses to cede power after losing the election) for funds. The US is backing the embargo. link

Seattle’s Best (talk about a misnomer) announced the nationwide release of its iced canned lattes. Yay for them. link

The New York Times estimates that you would have to drink 42 cups of coffee at one sitting to be at risk of ingesting a fatal dose of caffeine. For the record, that’s only eight Starbucks Trentas. link

Coffee drinking is growing quickly in India, and guess who is partnering with Tata to push into the Indian market? Yep, the big green apron. link

In an effort to reduce coffee theft, the Coffee Board of Kenya is trying out a new tracking system that follows coffee from the field to market. link

I almost had a heart attack when I saw that the price of a tall Starbucks latte was $5.50. Then I realized that I was reading an article from Singapore. Must be the conversion rate, I thought. Then I looked up the conversion rate and found that US$5.50 is SD$4.30. Ouch. And we complain about high prices here. link

I’m headed up to the Northwest Regional Barista Championship in Tacoma today. It’s a three-day event, but since I’m not competing, I’m just going to see the first day of competition. Hopefully there will be a good story or two to come out of it that I can share with you. Have a good weekend.

Will

Friday Links-January 21

Friday is upon us once again, so it's time for a few links to round out the week. 

This week Starbucks announced a new size for its beverages, the Trenta, a 31-ounce cup. What they didn’t tell you is that “Trenta Frappucino” is Italian for “fat American”. The joke’s on us. link

With coffee prices so high, it’s a hard time to be an independent coffee shop, according to Inc.com. Will we see a lot of independents go out of business in 2011, or will coffee drinkers just get used to paying more for their coffee? link

It’s no secret that coffee grounds are good for a garden’s soil, and a pair of former UC Berkeley business school students have started a company that sells mushrooms grown in leftover coffee grounds. Sounds like a business that could fit in well in the Portland area. link

This guy is trying to drink coffee at every Starbucks on the planet.

A Cuban blogger discusses her culture’s connection to coffee and some of the innovative ways families and the government have stretched the limited coffee supply. link

Police have apprehended the alleged accomplice of the robber who was shot and killed when he tried to rob a Dutch Bros. kiosk in Eugene. link

More details about the attempted robbery and the barista’s retaliation came out this week. link

A bikini-clad barista at Twin Perks on NE Killingsworth chased down a man who tried to rob the café’s tip jar. link

I know I've been doing my part to keep the coffee economy running smoothly in the new year, but according to Seatlle Times bloggers Melissa Allison and Amy Martinez, January is still the worst month of the year for coffee sales.  link

Fantastic Friday Links-January 14, 2011

A coffee shop in Split, Croatia is giving customers free use of an iPad instead of handing out free newspapers. link

The Columbian (Vancouver, WA) visited Paper Tiger Coffee on the same day I did. Look for my take on the café early next week. link

The people’s republic of Ukiah, California is trying to keep chains out of its downtown. Bad news for fans of Starbucks and Peet’s. link

More bad news about 2011 coffee production—this time from Indonesia. You’d better be prepared to pay more for that cup. There’s not much good news out there. link

Starbucks fans will be eager to get their hands on Howard Schulz’s new book, coming out in March. I’m sure it will detail how he saved the company. link

Things are heating up because the espresso machine cooled down in Aspen, Colorado, where a barista is being sued for turning off the machine on his last day of work. The coffee shop missed an hour of business the next morning, and the owners are mad. link

A judge ruled that Nespresso did not copy Silodesign’s double-walled glass design. link

You can see a picture of Silodesign’s cup and get a little more background on the story here.

Fox Business News says you can save $1,200 each year by eliminating coffee from your budget. link

One county commissioner from Cleveland wants to do just that. link

Happy Friday!

First Links of 2011

Happy First Friday. Here are some links from this week:

Coffee hijacks plane! A plane had to make an emergency landing this week when the pilot spilled his coffee on his radio equipment, causing it to send out a hijack signal. Oops. link

Starbucks announced a logo change this week. They removed “Starbucks Coffee” from the logo. The move is supposed to help the company be recognized in non-English-speaking countries as well as expand into other products besides coffee. link

Apparently, at least one “marketing and branding expert” didn’t think it was such a good idea. I think he was just trying to drive traffic to his blog (success!) link

There’s a new app that helps you find the best coffee in San Francisco. If anyone is interested in developing one for Portland, let me know. I’d be interested in working on one with you. link

Snohomish County, Washington is pleased with the results of its new bikini barista regulations one year after it implemented them. link

Chile, on the other hand, has apparently not tried too hard to regulate them. link

A bit of planning advice for people considering opening a coffee shop. link

Starbucks and Kraft, still fighting. Couldn’t Howard Schultz and Irene Rosenfeld get together over a cup of coffee and figure things out?  link

Stumptown’s Duane Sorenson has a frank question about Parisian coffee in an article in the New York Times Magazine’s blog. I don’t think he’s too impressed. link

Unlike another person who tried to rob a Dutch Bros. coffee stand, Caitlin Marie Elsen got off easy, receiving six years in prison. link

With a wave of bad publicity in the last year, the Portland Police department might consider trying “coffee with the cops”. link

Last Links for 2010

Let's do this one more time to send out 2010 in style:

According to the L.A. Times, one of the new fads to hit Seoul is to go to ‘cat cafés’, where customers can play with cats while they drink their coffee. My favorite quote from the article? "A lot of women lead their boyfriends here by the hand." What a surprise. You’d have to drag me by the had to get me there. link

By the way, my friend Jennie Griffin, who writes Not Just Kimchi, a great blog about life in Seoul, discovered them back in April. link

The coming of the New Year is accompanied by several articles about coffee and hangovers. Coffee is not a cure for a hangover, but not drinking too much seems to work pretty well. link

CNN has 10 ways to beat a hangover too. The article says that “if you’re a regular coffee drinker, skipping the java when you’re hung over may—or may not be—a good idea.” Hmm. Thanks, CNN.  link

The Korea Herald has an article about some posh Seoul restaurants that also serve civet cat coffee (What is it with Korea and cats this week?). I don’t know about their coffee choices, but the food sounds pretty damn good. link

If you drink Passion Coffee, you should stop now. link

She’s no Lorena Bobbit, but Barbara St. John did attack her husband while he was sleeping—with coffee. link

Arlington’s Examiner has the ‘Top ten coffee news facts in 2010’ in case you missed them. Of course, if you missed them all, you haven’t been reading enough of Caffeinated PDX. link

Have a great 2011.

Christmas Eve 2010 Links

Coffee news (and other stuff) from this week:

Ethiopian Coffee is sitting at the top of the table, three points ahead of Defence, as it prepares to take on St. Georges in the EPL (Ethiopian Premier League) this week. link

Coffee and Free Speech- A group of Baristas who simultaneously quit at Gorilla Coffee in Brooklyn and then sent their grievances to the New York Times are being sued for defamation by their former bosses. This week, Nelson Mandela’s former lawyer decided to defend them. link

Starbucks and Mississippi River Pulp are working to improve and increase the recycling of paper cups. link

The Oregonian says that TaborSpace, a café built in part of the Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church, might be the “most distinctive coffeehouse in Portland.” You can be the judge. link

More bad news for coffee drinkers’ wallets next year. Brazil’s agriculture minister said this week that the 2011 crop will be 23% smaller than the 2010 crop, the lowest in four years. link

Dunkin’ Donuts would like to see limits on speculation in the coffee market. link

I know it’s a little late for this Christmas, but here’s something to keep in mind for that person who already has everything: a coffee enema in a can. You will love the illustrations. link

I think the TSA could use one. link

Merry Christmas to all! Or, if you prefer, humbug!