Coffee Beans, Coffee Makers, Coffee Shops!
Whoa! MarketWatch is reporting that Starbucks is closing 600 of their coffee shops. This comes as a surprise - I’d figure in an economic downturn that people would drink more coffee.
On second thought, I guess Starbucks doesn’t just sell “coffee”, they sell gourmet coffee. All those down-on-their-luck folks are drinking the instant blend. 
This is some expensive coffee! After reading a news article about how a coffee shop in Manhattan serves it for $15 / cup, I did a search for the beans.
Stumptown Coffee sells it for $200 / lb. Ouch. No way I would pay that.
Most free coffee bites, but this is free Dunkin Donuts iced coffee. They are giving it away for free today May 15, 2008. Regularly, I find the price to be highway robbery - you are mostly getting ice, but for free, I’ll get one.
Note: I also ask for only a little ice when getting an iced coffee.
I’ve been having a lot of Au Bon Pain coffee lately. They have a cafe at the Tufts Medical Center where my wife gave birth to our first child earlier this week. During the birthing process, we were up a couple of late nights and I was glad there was a coffee shop nearby.
Now we’re back at the homestead and I’m brewing Starbucks again - this time I got Komodo Dragon. Its a dark blend with an herbal, earthy aroma. Very tasty stuff, but on the pricey side. I paid about $13 for the pound of un-ground beans.
When visiting Starbucks, I’ve been served by some pretty eager, friendly, and perky “baristas” who went out of their way to make sure I was treated well. If they were really good, I’d give them a tip. Little did I know that the extra change wasn’t going directly to them. Starbucks itself was taking a cut.
That practice was punished by the courts recently as Starbucks was ordered to pay out around $100 million to their baristas for tip money.
My wife bought me some illy coffee for my birthday and I have to say that it is really good coffee! She bought me the whole bean espresso flavor and I usually brew it with 2 scoops for 3 1/2 cups of cold water.
Its a little pricey, but very tasty! You also get a nice recycleable steel container as well.
This week I’ve been having hazelnut coffee. As usual, I’ve been grinding and brewing it at home. Like the chocolate raspberry, it smells amazing! The coffee itself tastes fine too, thankfully.
As an aside, I’ve been trying to cut down on my caffeine intake lately, so I’ve been curtailing colas in the afternoon. Also, in the morning I try to only have one serving of joe. The perfect amount of water for me is filling the coffee maker to the metal strip around the bottom, which I estimate is around three cups worth. That way I won’t have too much!
I got some flavored coffees as holiday gifts this year and I have to say they are pretty good. I’ve actually only tried one, “Coffee and Cream”, and I’m really looking forward to trying out the raspberry flavored one.
UPDATE: January 16, 2008: Actually the name of the store is “Coffee and Cream”. The first bag was from Costa Rica, and now I’m trying out the raspberry chocolate one. Delicious!
I realized the other day that the Coffee Break Cafe charges $2.09 for a small hot coffee. That’s too much for me. I thought Dunkin Donuts was expensive at around $1.40!
This morning I’m headed out to Starbucks to get a coffee so I’ll take note of how much they charge.
UPDATE: The small was ~ $1.65, so I got a medium (aka Grande) for $1.94.
I was browsing some pictures I took while on my honeymoon in Kauai, Hawaii, found this picture of some coffee groves we saw there, and decided to share it here:
Pretty, huh? The coffee there was AWESOME!
Latest Comments
RSS