Espresso News and Reviews - TheShot.coffeeratings.com

Starbucks Coffee has spent the last decade squandering away whatever market leadership they had in the world of quality coffee, and it’s no secret that they are now trying to regain some of these losses. But to do so in recent months, Starbucks has bizarrely looked to McDonald’s for inspiration: introducing $1 “daily coffee”, free [...]

Tags: 7-eleven, caffeine, energy_drinks, fortified_coffee, healthy_coffee, mcdonalds, product_development, Starbucks

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Last week, the Contra Costa Times published an article announcing the Bay Area arrival of McDonald’s specialty coffee drinks: McDonald’s new coffee drinks ignite breakfast wars - ContraCostaTimes.com. Of course, none of this info is really new, so we’re a bit perplexed over how someone can “ignite” something with a two-year-long fuse. But the article [...]

Tags: consumer_marketing, fast_food_coffee, mcdonalds, restaurant_coffee, Starbucks, the_espresso_quest

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While I’ll be checking out Barista Coffee in India, Minneapolis will be hosting this year’s U.S. Barista Championship during the SCAA conference this weekend.
Yesterday, the host city’s hometown paper, the Star Tribune, published a rather lengthy article on the event: The great barista battle is brewing. It’s a story that’s been covered dozens, if not [...]

Tags: Barista, barista_championships, caribou_coffee, krups, quality_standards, scaa, Starbucks, third_wave

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Reading the papers, for many mainstream consumers, you’d think that the current economic slowdown marked the return of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. However, you could argue that we’ve witnessed the necessary bursting of the real estate bubble, the correction of stupid money that pumped up the sub-prime loan debacle, rising food prices that [...]

Tags: coffee_prices, dust_bowl, recession, Starbucks

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What a strange newsweek it’s been in the coffee world. The best way to characterize it?: What’s old is suddenly new again.
Tuesday we had Starbucks’ latest cry for attention/help/suicide prevention with their mysterious “04.08.08″-on-a-lame-paper-cup campaign. Essentially, the publicity stunt announced the launch of their “new” Pike Place Roast and a “new” return to the old [...]

Tags: fast_food_coffee, jamaican_blue_mountain, kiev_cafes, kopi_luwak, mccafe, mcdonalds, Starbucks, ukraine_cafes, ukraine_coffee, vietnam_coffee

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We really hate doing Starbucks posts if we don’t have to. After all, Starbucks hasn’t been relevant to quality espresso in over a decade. But if you’ve been following some of the Clover brewer posts here, you may be surprised to learn that Starbucks liked them enough to buy the company: Aroma comeback: Starbucks to [...]

Tags: clover_brewer, mastrena, Starbucks, superautomatic_espresso_machines, verismo

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Yesterday Public Radio International’s (PRI) The World aired a broadcast on the Italian espresso: Espresso | PRI’s The World. While every news outlet in America was regurgitating Starbucks‘ publicity over their token three-hour store closure for employee training, reporter David Leveille took a different approach by interviewing the art of the espresso from a distinctly [...]

Tags: Barista, barista_training, gambero_rosso, italy_coffee, sant_eustachio, Starbucks

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This just in from Italy: Putting EU Money to Good Use: Italian Scientists Unveil Coffee-Making Robot - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News. “A coffee-making robot?,” you ask? More than the specialized Swiss jobs we’ve talked about, we’re actually talking 1940’s Popular Mechanics/The Jetsons‘ Rosie … that kind of robot. The kind we’ve been promised [...]

Tags: barista_training, instant_coffee, robots, Starbucks, superautomatic_espresso_machines

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It’s a rather snarky press release, but we confess to being amused by it: Coffee Klatch Roasting Celebrates Starbucks Store Closures With Free Coffee for Everyone.
These days, Howard Schultz’s return to the CEO post at Starbucks has resembled nothing short of a panicked man caught on a runaway bulldozer, pulling every lever and knob he [...]

Tags: barista_training, coffee_klatch, heather_perry, Starbucks, superautomatic_espresso_machines

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“Mystery” solved. As one of our readers commented on a previous post, Starbucks recently purchased two $11,000 Clover brewers for who knows what unholy purposes. However, today Bloomberg reported that Starbucks is testing them in at least one of their Seattle retail stores: Bloomberg.com: Exclusive - Starbucks Tests $2.50 Premium Coffee to Boost Sales.
Between this [...]

Tags: clover_brewer, cup_of_excellence, seattle_cafes, siphon_bars, Starbucks

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