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Not your Mama’s instant coffee, either!

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By SARA KIESLER
SPECIAL TO SEATTLEPI.COM

Anu Apte of Rob Roy in Belltown pours her creations during a bartender competition at Hotel 1000 where the drink makers used Starbucks VIA Ready Brew coffee. (August 22, 2009 Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com)

From the top of Hotel 1000 Thursday night, a crowd of about 30 guests and a dozen Starbucks employees anxiously watched as four of the city’s bartenders tried their hand at using the new VIA Instant Coffee in a cocktail mix-off.

Reviews online for the coffee giant’s hat tip at the $21 billion instant coffee market have been lukewarm, though many say the little packets promising premium roasts are better than “your mother’s instant.”

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By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
Published: August 20, 2009

Alex Igarta, a barista, working the drive-through window of a Starbucks near the company’s headquarters in Seattle. (Photo courtesy of Elaine Thompson/Associated Press)

SAN FRANCISCO — As the recession wears on and fewer people are splurging at Starbucks, the coffee chain’s response is to raise prices. On Thursday, Starbucks stores in several cities started charging up to 30 cents more for some specialty beverages, though the company is charging less for some basic drinks.

The price adjustments will be made at stores nationwide in coming months.

The move comes as Starbucks toes a tricky line between remaining a premium brand while retaining price-sensitive customers who can buy cheaper coffee at other shops. This summer, Starbucks has been fending off competition from McDonald’s, which has introduced a new line of lower-priced espresso drinks that have proved popular.

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By Julie Makinen
August 14, 2009, 6:00 am

The Bing Sutt portion of a Hong Kong Starbucks. Photo courtesy of Julie Makinen and The New York Times

HONG KONG | A Starbucks is a Starbucks is a Starbucks. This corporate consistency can be comforting: a cookie-cutter caffeine oasis for a weary road-warrior. But seeing that green siren logo 7,000 miles from home can also be dejecting — more proof of the homogenizing force of globalization.

Perhaps increasingly sensitive to this soulless sameness, Starbucks is experimenting with a little local-flavor makeover at one of its Hong Kong outlets (13 Duddell Street, Central; 852-2523-5685). The company handed the design reins over to the folks at the popular home furnishing store Goods of Desire, who outfitted the rear half of the coffee shop in the style of a Bing Sutt.

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By Jessica Yadegaran
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 08/10/2009 02:00:00 AM PDT

Costa Rica is often considered one of the world's premiere coffee growing regions, due to its volcanic soils and ideal drainage. This coffee has some nice acidity, with some wonderful chocolaty flavor notes with some fruity undertones. Available in Light and Dark roast.

SARAH PULLMAN has what she calls a long-standing, cyclical relationship with caffeine. When she doesn’t have her morning latte, the John F. Kennedy University graduate student feels sleepy and her head pounds. When she has too much caffeine, she feels jittery. But most of the time, caffeine makes her feel perky.

“I’m able to focus and concentrate better,” says Pullman, 30, of Oakland. “Sometimes, I think it enhances my mood, like ‘Wow, I feel great. Yippee!’”

Turns out caffeine, a naturally occurring, flavorless chemical that stimulates the central nervous system, does more than wake us up. Medical researchers and nutritionists long have touted the health benefits of black coffee, antioxidant-packed teas and dark chocolate. In moderation, these natural sources of caffeine are associated with weight loss, the treatment of asthma and headaches and a reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease. Coffee, in particular, is associated with a decreased risk of depression, colon cancer and type two diabetes, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University’s Institute for Coffee Studies.

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By Larry Muhammad • July 27, 2009

photo Iced Caffe' Americano espresso from Star Bucks is combined with cold filtered water and ice for a crisp and refreshing drink.

Iced coffee may be the summer’s hippest specialty drink, according to marketing experts, and Louisville’s java boutiques are holding their own as mega-franchisers like McDonald’s vie with Starbucks for caffeine-crazed crowds.

Red Hot Roasters, at 1402 Payne St., has established a niche with cold-brewed iced coffee, which avoids the bitterness produced by hot water and allows coffee’s chocolate-y aspects to emerge.

But Louisville.com’s top pick of Highlands-area coffee-on-the-rocks purveyors — where the cold-cup-to-person ratio approaches one-to-one — is the 15-year-old Day’s Espresso & Coffee, 1420 Bardstown Road. It serves “the best iced latte of the bunch and tied with M.E. Swing in Washington, D.C., for the best iced latte ever had, anywhere.”

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By Laura Cohn
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
Sunday, July 26, 2009

Photo Credit: By Tim Grajek For The Washington Post Photo

With consumers shunning Starbucks and its $4 Frappuccinos, firms that make brew-at-home coffee products are reporting strong sales and steady profit as the recession drags on. In particular, producers and distributors of premium coffee beans and coffee makers are on a bit of a caffeine high.

More than half of adult Americans drink coffee, and more of them are starting their day with a shot of java at home. About 80 percent of coffee drinkers now make their own coffee , the National Coffee Association says. But instead of trading down to no-name brands, they’re imbibing the good stuff without shelling out extra money to have someone else brew it.

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Burn it to earn it: Starbucks London Fog Tea Latte

*by Claire Charlton, Detroit Running Examiner
January 29, 2009

You hear tea is good for you, so you back off on your morning cup of coffee to enjoy a steaming brew. Good for you! Research shows that the antioxidants called polyphenols found in tea may reduce heart attacks, protect against certain cancers, reduce the inflammation of arthritis and boost bone mineral density.

So you pull up at your favorite Starbucks and order up a tall…no make it a grande, wonderfully-named London Fog Tea Latte. Mmmmm, the scent of bergamot and lavender fills your nose as you take your first sip.

Enjoy that London Fog, because with 2% milk, a grande will give you 200 calories. I’d blame the milk and the sweet vanilla syrup for that, Detroit Runners!

At any rate, be sure to run two miles to burn off that extra 200 calories. And if you are substituting London Fog for your usual Starbucks Latte, you’re getting an extra ten calories!

If you are an afternoon decaf drinker, here’s some interesting news about Starbucks and their p.m. brewing practices.

*Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-1226-Detroit-Running-Examiner~y2009m1d29-Burn-it-to-earn-it–Starbucks-London-Fog-Tea-Latte