Posted on September 5, 2007 - by deCadmus

Coffee Notes from All Over

• Say what you will about the Grey Lady’s reporting, they still do a great obit, and their remembrance of Alfred Peet is warm and packed with fondness. More still, at The Daily Californian, and The Seattle Post Intelligencer.
• A little late to the party? The big news this week is that Starbucks has entered the fray of single-cup coffee merchants. First question, what took them so long? Second question, why choose Tassimo, a single-cup machine that’s a… what’s the word? Oh yeah… loser.
  

  Kraft launched Tassimo in France in 2004 and later extended the business to the United States, Canada and other countries.

  But the business failed to live up to initial expectations and in January Kraft decided to take a $245 million asset-impairment charge related to the business, largely due to lower manufacturing capacity utilization.

  Big picture: Starbucks’ entry to the market can only help sell *everybody’s* brewers as they’ll bring more awareness to single-cup at home than any ten other roasters combined. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying the first comment found at Gizmodo’s entry on the news. ;)

• Finally — and this one is worth it just for the photoshopped to-go cup — word on Starbucks entry into Russia.
  

  
  “[W]hile Russians have taken quickly to coffee, drinking patterns here differ from the West. Many coffee shops stay open round the clock, and people like to while away an hour or two slowly drinking and smoking. Coffee House, with 90 shops in Moscow, doesn’t just serve coffee, but beer and vodka too.

  Starbucks spokesperson Kerry Irwin confirmed that except for some ‘local content’ in the food offered, the company would not be changing anything about its global model to cater to local taste.”

  How do you spell glasnost, again?