Tasting the Future of Starbucks Coffee From a New Machine

NYTimes.com

Thursday March 27, 1:38 am ET
By OLIVER SCHWANER-ALBRIGHT

Howard D. Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, dropped a bombshell last week at the annual shareholders meeting when he announced that as part of an effort to concentrate on making better coffee, the corporation had bought the Coffee Equipment Company of Seattle, maker of the Clover coffee brewer.

Coffee drinkers were buzzing. Clovers are $11,000 machines that brew one cup at a time and have become essential equipment at some of the country’s top independent cafes. How could the company now be the exclusive property of a giant corporation? In protest, Stumptown Coffee in Portland, Ore., one of Clover’s earliest champions, said it had decided to stop using Clover machines.

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