Beer + Coffee= Sober?

By becksta on 5/29/09 2:19pm
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Beer + Coffee= Sober?Beer + Coffee= Sober?In my 20's, back when I was more of a drinker, my friends and I would often go out drinking, then go out to  breakfast for something healthy like chicken-fried steak and then smoke about half a pack of Marlboro Lights while slurping about four cups of mud-like coffee to sober us up. Occasionally, one of us would drive in a situation when we shouldn't have, believing that our blood alcohol levels would have been miraculously and mysteriously lowered by the coffee.

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Small Talk

By taybot on 5/18/09 10:24am
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At my place of employment (Starbucks) one thing we must do is constantly chat it up with customers.  Any time people are waiting for their drinks we have to think of something fun and exciting to talk about.  Of course 90% of the time we don't think of anything original so we resort to the same old drab "small talk" conversations that millions of people must endure daily.  For some reason, both the customers and employees tolerate this and we even act as though it is an interesting, useful conversation we are having.  We try to pretend this is important dialogue, when of course everyone involved in the conversation knows this isn't true. 

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Back to the Future: Starbucks Launches Instant Soluble Coffee

By erika on 2/23/09 9:37am
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The coffee drinking world has received Starbucks' news of a new product launch with, let us say, "some skepticism." Howard Schultz is promising to reinvent the way we drink coffee on the go, by providing us with handy single serving packets of instant soluble coffee.

In the minds of many people, instant soluble coffee is freighted with two associations:

1. Old people
2. Tastes awful

When I hear the phrase "instant coffee" I think of my grandmother. Not because she drank instant coffee - she was a coffee fanatic, and would never stoop to such lows. But because she kept a jar of petrified Sanka in the back of her cupboard for emergencies, and for elderly visitors who preferred the taste of Sanka to a pot of freshly brewed coffee.

Her own mother, who had been born at the turn of the century, greatly preferred the taste of Sanka. Apparently she had developed a taste for it during the rationing of the Great Depression.

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Coffee Drinking Decreases Stroke Risk in Women

By lisala on 2/17/09 1:51pm
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I am one of those people who routinely have two to four cups of coffee a day. I like my coffee. I like it so much I've learned to drink it black, or with skim milk, Image of an electric coffee maker with coffee.and still like it. But I'm frequently being told by well-meaning friends that coffee drinking is bad for me. I'm glad to say that there's increasing evidence that a moderate intake of coffee, by someone with in overall good general health who exercises regularly is not only not dangerous, it may actually be good for us.

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Starbucks: ethical sourcing and Israel

By mous on 2/8/09 3:46pm
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Several posts ago, we brought up the issue of free trade coffee and the position of Starbucks on this issue. Someone at My Starbucks Idea found our post and commented with several links detailing Starbucks’ progress in the fair trade arena. According to a post written by Dub Hay, the Starbucks VP of Coffee and Global Procurement, the chain has been listening to their customers’ demand for fair trade coffee, and is doubling their amount of free trade coffee purchased in 2009. At 40 million pounds, this move will make Starbucks the largest buyer of Fair Trade coffee worldwide.

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Show Your Appreciation

By taybot on 1/23/09 12:12pm
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Having recently become a barista, I have a newfound appreciation for tipping.  There are a few reasons why this is such an important part of working as a barista.  I will start with the obvious: it's extra money in our pockets.  Although the work is very busy and involves tons of memorization and multitasking, baristas barely get paid anything.  Like so many positions, it's an underpaid job and tipping is one way to help out the hardworking people who serve coffee.

Second: It's quite calming and relieving to see change (and of course paper) go in the tip jar.  We work hard to serve customers and that extra change is a big token of appreciation.  Even if it's just 40 or 50 cents, the change adds up.  What else would someone do with that change anyways?  Sure, some people like to keep it for future purchases, but that little bit of money would considerably lighten a barista's heart.  It is all about the spirit of sharing and being thankful for one's coffee.

tips

Third: Tipping is a sign of respect towards the barista.  Many people who buy

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Starbucks news and fair trade

By mous on 1/14/09 12:27pm
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Looking for a way to score some free Starbucks? According to the blog Wallet Pop, Starbucks is offering a free cup (size tall) to customers who fill out cards pledging to give five hours of their time as volunteers. This offer will be valid only for four days, January 21st-25th, and is inspired by the inauguration of our new president (who, we here at Latte.us believe, should get free Starbucks for LIFE for taking on our mess of a country). Although I do not see any mention of this offer on Starbucks official site, it was reported on Yahoo Finance and appears to be reputable! The pledge cards can be found at your local Starbucks.

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Green Mountain Coffee: Update

By mous on 1/11/09 1:06pm
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Several weeks ago, I declared unofficial war against Green Mountain Coffee, the Vermont company that had recently purchased the wholesale division of my beloved Seattle-based Tully's coffee. Yet after checking out Green Mountain's official blog, I must admit that while I still believe their beverages are a weak excuse for java, they score major points in the environmentalism department.

Recently, Green Mountain's founder Bob Stiller was awarded a Corporate Social Responsibility honor in Washington DC, to reward the company's work with the Jane Goodall Institute to develop a coffee that helps protect Chimpanzee habitats in Africa.

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Latte Art

By lisala on 1/9/09 3:37pm
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As barista-made coffee took over the United States, a new form of art developed along with theImage of Bruce Lee created with latte foampopularity of lattes, espresso, and other coffee drinks. Latte art or coffee art refers to the designs created by baristas on the foam and cream tops of espresso based drinks. Most of the time, you'll see abstract designs, or, occasionally, flowers or butterflies, or bunnies or dogs . . . but some baristas are truly artists. You'll see images like the portrait of Bruce Lee above.

Sometimes the art involves just coffee, with a layer of foam, but more often than not, the coffee has been sprinkled with cinnamon or chocolate, before the foam is poured, or after.

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Coffee and . . . ?

By lisala on 1/6/09 7:27pm
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On a whim recently I bought a 2 lb. can of ground coffee imported from Vietnam. Now, before you start snickering, Vietnam is one of the world's largest coffee producers. It's known for very high quality coffee, and, though I didn't know it when I bought the can of Vietnamese coffee, for extremely poor quality mass-produced, robusta beans grown for bulk Image of roasted coffee beans.export. I was curious, and, honestly, the coffee was bargain priced at a discount grocery store, so I didn't expect much. But I had heard about how fanatic people get about the Vietnamese coffee known as Cafe Sua Da, often sold at tiny street corner shops, or carts, and made from Vietnam-grown robusta beans.

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