Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

It’s been a while since we posted something specifically about Starbucks. Yes, they still exist. Their CEO, Howard Schultz, is currently promoting a book, published yesterday, called Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul. If you mentally have to go back to the Clinton administration to remember when Starbucks last had [...]

If you’ve noticed the sound of crickets around here lately, you’re not the only one. Sure, we’ve been quietly plodding along at updating our espresso reviews. But the media coverage on coffee over the past few weeks has been boring and uneventful. That is until this week, when we came across two examples of how [...]

Yesterday’s Washington Post ran an article that pretty much embodied everything I despise about coffee: Coffee craze has everyone a bit nuts – Family Times – The Washington Times, America’s Newspaper. It’s the focus on all the sizzle and none of the steak. Apparently, few of us want to hear about what it takes to [...]

Starbucks, the chain formerly known as “Starbucks Coffee” that was also once known as a coffee company, is apparently seeking to continue its evolution towards a general retailer: All Headline News – Starbucks To Step-up Non-Coffee Sales – July 10, 2006. Starbucks is bulking up its sales team to offer more merchandise for the upcoming [...]

Some days you come across two stories that, when combined together, are far more interesting than they are separately. Case and point, two curiously complimentary (conspiratorial!?) stories that came across the wire today: Starbucks Announces Relationship With William Morris Agency; As the Coffee Retailer Transforms Traditional Music Distribution and Motion Picture Marketing, Talent Agency Enlisted [...]

Far too often, I find myself reviewing espresso because it’s necessary for completeness rather than something to which I look forward. Most Starbucks Coffee retail stores (the emphasis, of course, being on “retail”) elicit the same reptilian brain response in me. Not that most Starbucks have bad espresso at all, mind you. They’re often pretty [...]

Are Starbucks and Borders destined to become mirror images of each other? Today’s San Diego Union Tribune asks that question in: The latest blend: coffee, movies & books. You have to wonder about some market extensions and product/service mergers. One of my favorite storefronts to mock is in a dumpy strip mall as you pass [...]