Starbucks Holders Cheer Executives A Week After Stock Hits High

SEATTLE (AP)--A sold-out crowd Wednesday gave Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) Chairman Howard Schultz something you rarely see at a straight-laced shareholders meeting - many boisterous rounds of applause.

That wasn't surprising, given that Schultz opened Wednesday's shareholders meeting by boasting that the company's stock had soared to an all-time high on strong earnings the week before.

Starbucks shares rose 40 cents, or 1.2%, to close at $34.72 in trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market after hitting a new all-time high of $35 in intraday trading.

Schultz played to the crowd Wednesday, showing a slide noting that, since the company went public in 1992, share value had risen 6,400% - enough to turn a $ 10,000 investment into roughly $650,000. By comparison, the S&P 500 rose 211% during the same period.

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BCE's Starbucks Watch

Starbucks To Introduce Ready-To-Drink Iced Coffee Drink

DES MOINES, Iowa (Dow Jones)-- Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) said Wednesday it will introduce a canned iced coffee into the U.S. market late next month. The ready-to-drink beverage is a result of a joint venture between the specialty coffee retailing giant and Pepsi-Cola Co. News of the product came during Starbucks' annual meeting, in Seattle. A press release said the canned coffee, which will be sold in refrigerated cases, will first appear in Starbucks-operated retail stores. Grocery and convenience stores will be stocked with the item starting in May. The cold drink will be made from Italian roast coffee, with "just a touch of milk and sweetness," the company said. It will come in a regular and light versions. Starbucks' announcement didn't disclose a suggested retail price.

The dark story of poverty in your coffee cup

By TOM THOMPSON
GUEST COLUMNIST

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

My local Starbucks sells a small coffee for $1.50; a simple latte starts at $2.50. That seems like a lot for a drink whose origin is the humble pit of a berry from a shrub in Ethiopia. Then again, we've come to believe a good cup of coffee, or even better, a latte, can make a bad day better or help with a moment of contemplation.

However soothing its image, coffee is the second most valuable exported legal commodity on the planet (after oil). Literally millions of people depend on the coffee industry for their livelihood. For its consumers, coffee minimally delivers the largest jolt of the world's most widely taken psychoactive drug (caffeine). At various times coffee has been claimed to be an aphrodisiac, enema, nerve tonic and life-extender.

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Chinese tea drinkers on the rise despite competition from coffee

Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd.

BEIJING: Despite competition from the western-origin coffee, tea, a beverage which originated in China, has survived and in fact thriving with the booming Chinese economy.

The Chinese character ‘cha’, meaning tea, was in the nation’s first dictionary Erya, compiled in the early Han dynasty 2,100 years ago.

Tea is older than the name of China, but in the face of modernisation and competition from global giants like starbucks, can it survive?

This used to be a major concern in the 1990s. It was a time when huge swarms appeared for the opening celebration of Beijing’s first starbuck’s coffee in 1999, while barely anyone showed up for the opening of the city’s first privately-owned Wufu Tea House.

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Coffee shops perk up libraries

By Amy Bickel
The Hutchinson (KS) News

ULYSSES - A cappuccino machine sputtering next to the bookshelves carries a clear message for patrons here - libraries aren't just for reading anymore.

Instead, folks can climb the stairs to the Grant County Library's second floor to line up for refreshments at the coffee shop before heading off, snacks in hand, to wander through the stacks.

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Taiwan a mecca for coffee drinkers

Taipei: Many foreigners know that Taiwan has delicious Chinese food, makes cheap export goods and has the world's tallest building, the 508-metre Taipei 101 building. But few realise that Taiwan is also a mecca for coffee drinkers.

The island's centuries-old coffee culture is now experiencing something of a renaissance, spreading from the cities to take root in tourist resorts along its coastline and in the mountains.

Taiwan's coffee culture dates back to its colonial past. When the Dutch colonised Taiwan from 1642 to 1662, they brought coffee beans to Taiwan and planted coffee trees.

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