Coffee cool: The "other" teen drinking scene

Article by:
Julia Sommerfeld - KRT Direct

SEATTLE - The clip-clop of platform shoes grows louder. A hand-me-down sedan grinds into park while still coasting into a prime spot. Overstuffed backpacks hang low and whack behinds in cargo pants with every step. You can almost hear the jangle of belly rings. The barista behind the familiar amoeba-shaped laminate counter readies herself for the glass door to swing open. "They're h-E-E-e-r-r-e," she whispers.

At 11:45 in the morning, the Judkins Park, Wash., Starbucks, which breaks from the chain's cookie-cutter decor with a colorful jazz-inspired mural, is transformed from mellow refuge for breaking businesswomen and retirees into a high-school lunchroom as dozens of students from nearby Garfield High pour in.

A carpooling clan of sophomores and juniors interrupts their squabble over who gets shotgun on the ride back to toss down parent-issued Starbucks gift cards. They order Frappuccinos with the barely concealed excitement of a Gen-Xer asking a bartender for the latest trendy cocktail from the New York Times Shaken and Stirred column.

They're here, all right, before, between and after classes. And at the Tully's in Redmond, Wash., Caffe Vita on Seattle's Capitol Hill and at coffee houses across the country.

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McDonald's Wi-Fi Bid Will Compete With Starbucks

TechWeb News

Care to super-Wi-Fi that Big Mac or Chai latte?
That is the likely choice business and enterprise Wi-Fi users will have, as McDonald's takes another step in the direction of competing with Starbucks' already thriving Wi-Fi hotspot universe. The fast-food company announced Monday that it will follow iPass Inc.'s Wi-Fi certification regimen in its hotspot rollout.

McDonald's is completing a series of trials to test out its planned Wi-Fi rollout next year, and the deal with iPass indicates the restaurant company is targeting business and enterprise users.

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Get the most out of the daily grind: A coffee purist investigates

By Joe Yonan, Globe Staff, 11/6/2003

Coffee purists know the truth: If you want the freshest, most robust-tasting brew, you've gotta grind your own beans. Pre-grinding them at the supermarket or coffee shop might save time and mess every morning, but it will cost you dearly in flavor. Much like whole spices such as nutmeg or cardamom, coffee beans start to go stale as soon as they are ground, which means that the sooner after grinding you make the coffee, the better it's going to taste. Now, if you're a Folger's drinker, none of this matters. If you're the type that knows your Sumatran from your Colombian, and you don't hesitate to pay upward of $10 a pound for your fix, it matters quite a bit.

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Salvadorans wake up and smell the gourmet coffee

Reuters, 11.09.03, 3:11 PM ET

By Alberto Barrera

SAN SALVADOR, (Reuters) - Some two centuries after El Salvador started producing fine arabica coffees, Salvadorans are starting to enjoy drinking the beverage and do their part to help local growers out of a global coffee slump.

Gourmet coffee is becoming available in supermarkets in this Central American country that has traditionally sent most of its best beans overseas, and Salvadorans are developing more sophisticated tastes.

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Coffee goes upscale at work

Specialty blends are the latest trend as offices cater to more refined -- and expensive -- tastes

By Jill Rosen
Special to SunSpot
Originally published November 10, 2003

Margaret Cellucci's workday just doesn't start unless it's with a steamy, rich cup of quality java -- emphasis on quality.

And for years, the last place she'd look for that was the coffee pot at her office, the Transplant Resource Center of Maryland in Baltimore.

"That," she said incredulously, was coffee "that those who don't drink coffee thought was coffee."

Sludge is actually how she describes it, a substance that sprung forth from a dastardly foil package, dumped unceremoniously into a behemoth percolator and then left to sit and stew for the rest of the day.

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Brazil coffee growers aim high in the savannah

By Peter Blackburn

PATROCINIO, Brazil, Nov 7 (Reuters) - In the high savannah of Minas Gerais, coffee pioneers aim to boost quality so they can fetch higher premiums and stay afloat in a world market flooded with mediocre beans.

Minas Gerais state grows more coffee than Colombia, which is the world's second largest producer after Brazil. The savannah -- known as the Cerrado -- is home to some of Brazil's finest beans.

Traditional and state-of-the-art coffee producers in the Cerrado are developing new coffee hybrids, as well as production and processing methods, to meet consumer demands for high quality beans.

At the Alto Cafezal estate, Jose Carlos Grossi said, however, "We're losing money at current price levels." The grandson of Italian immigrants, Grossi was one of the first to plant coffee 30 years ago in this part of the so-called Triangulo Mineiro.

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