Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

According to yesterday’s Contra Costa Times, the Benecia City Council is still seeking limits on the number of chain stores allowed to invade this small town on the outskirts of the Bay Area: ContraCostaTimes.com | 02/21/2007 | Benicia looks at limiting Starbucks. Most notably, the issue is Starbucks. This after a proposal to declare a [...]

Most people have their favorite local getaways. Mine, among many other Bay Area locals, happens to be the Monterey Peninsula — i.e., the Pacific Grove/Carmel/Monterey region. It’s a great place to kick back for a relaxing weekend, along the sea, away from the S.F. crowds, near the natural splendor of Big Sur and the protected [...]

Changes are brewing at the Tully’s Coffee chain, as American Express announced Tully’s as their latest ExpressPay partner: American Express signs Tully’s Coffee to contactless payments system – Assodigitale – Associazione Italiana Operatori Industria e Media Digitali. Think of ExpressPay as FasTrak® for the rush hour coffee queue — where customers can swipe credit cards [...]

In a curious move, a Nashville, TN councilman has proposed something of a “latte tax” to help local school budgets: Metro Councilman Suggests Tax On Coffee | WKRN.COM. To help fund technology upgrades at local schools, Nashville councilman Jamie Isabel wants the Tennessee state legislature to increase taxes on alcohol and tobacco, and he would [...]

Here’s another example of a story that started out small and then exploded into a global news item over the past couple of days: McClatchy Washington Bureau | 01/16/2007 | Campaign under way to evict Starbucks from Forbidden City. At first, I passed on it — wanting to give the tiresome Starbucks issue a rest [...]

According to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal, Green Beans Coffee Co. is planning to open their first U.S.-based location in Fairfield, CA — on the more military-friendly outskirts of the Bay Area: Green Beans Comes Marching Home – Enterprise – WSJ.com. The Larkspur-based company, with roasting facilities in San Francisco, established a number [...]

The Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano (INEI), or the National Italian Espresso Institute, was born with the certification of quality standards for the Italian Espresso in 1998. Today they announced new certification standards for the Cappuccino: Agenzia Giornalistica Italia – News In English – Italian Products: Cappuccino Obtains Certificate of Quality. Organizations such as the INEI [...]

As reported today on Forbes.com, the recently reviewed Caffè Nero chain (one of the fastest growing in Europe right now) was subject to a private buy-back by its previous owner: Billionaire Buys Back U.K. Coffee Chain – Forbes.com. Apparently, espresso chains are multiplying like cancer in London. The attractive growth rates are enough to lure [...]

Ignore the stating-the-obvious article title for a moment. Even ignore my latest tirade against unimaginative writers who use the caffeine riff as a synomym for coffee. Today WCCO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis, published a story on how they tested the caffeine levels of random decaffeinated coffee samples at five different retailers: wcco.com – Decaf [...]

Maktoob Business, the business arm of a popular Arab portal, published an article this week revealing some international consumer attitudes towards coffee and cafés: Coffee culture: a global phenomenon? by Synovate | Maktoob Business. Interviewing 5,806 respondents in the US, UK, France, Brazil, Hong Kong, Singapore, Serbia, Morocco, and Australia, some of the survey’s findings [...]