The Hooters of Coffee Shops

What goes better with a hot cup of latte? It's skin at Coffee Nation, a small town coffee shop located in Salem, OR, where the baristas serve hot lattes in bikinis. According to Adam Marshall, founder of Coffee Nation, plans are on the table to expand into other areas through franchising.

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Starbucks EVP exercises options

The executive vice president of partner resources of coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. exercised options for 40,000 shares of common stock, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

In a Form 4 filed with the SEC Monday, David Pace reported he exercised the options on Thursday and Friday for $15.23 apiece, then sold all 40,000 shares on the same days for $22.84 to $23.66 apiece.

Insiders file Form 4s with the SEC to report transactions in their companies' shares. Open market purchases and sales must be reported within two business days of the transaction.

Source: CNNMoney

A wake-up call for Coffee Drinkers

According to Tara Parker who authors the NYT's Well Blog, coffee drinkers may be getting an unwanted jolt from their morning decaf.

Coffee sleuths from Consumer Reports recently tested cups of decaf at Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee, 7-Eleven, McDonald’s and Burger King. Most of the 10- to 12-ounce decafs tested had less than five milligrams, the magazine reports in its November issue. But one decaf from Dunkin’ Donuts contained 32 milligrams of caffeine — about the same amount in 12 ounces of Coca-Cola Classic. A cup of Seattle’s Best was found to contain 29 milligrams of caffeine, while a tall Starbucks decaf packed 21 milligrams. Results varied at each chain, but the magazine found that the decaf at McDonald’s consistently had the lowest levels of caffeine. FYI a regular cup has from 85 to 100 milligrams of caffeine.

Parker further points out that "It’s long been known that the decaffeinating process doesn’t eliminate 100 percent of the caffeine in coffee, but there are no standards for acceptable levels in brewed decaf. Last year, University of Florida researchers also tested several 16-ounce servings of decaf, finding the caffeine content ranged from nine to 14 milligrams, according to a study published in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology."

The Consumer Report showed that there is a wide variability in caffeine levels in both decaf and caffeinated coffees. Caffienated coffees varied widely in terms of caffeine content ranging from 58 all the way up to 281 milligrams.

Source: NYT Well Blog

WA Coffee shop serves coffee without prices

With its blood-red walls and black leather sofas, Kirkland's Terra Bite Lounge looks like any other coffee shop — until you get to the menu. There are no prices listed. Terra Bite doesn't have them.

You read that right: No prices. Customers pay what and when they like, or not at all — it makes no difference to the cafe employees, who are instructed not to peek when people put money in the metal lock box.

"Does it really matter to any of our patrons ... whether they pay a dollar or three dollars or five dollars?" said Terra Bite founder Ervin Peretz, a 37-year-old Google programmer.

He doesn't think so, at least not in the comfortable lakeside enclave that is downtown Kirkland.

Through his "voluntary payment" cafe, Peretz is poised to become the Robin Hood of the Starbucks set. Using an efficient, low-overhead business model and narrow profit margin, he figures he can finesse the largesse of well-off latte lovers to cover the tabs of the less fortunate.

Not surprising that the coffee shop was opened by a software developer with Google.

Source: Seattle Times