From Starbucks, Coffee From the Future

The myStarbucks application has a slew of features that make it easier to remember your friend’s favorite drinks and to locate nearby Starbucks stores. More interesting is a test of a Starbucks card, which will allow people in select West Coast stores to pay for coffee using a bar code on a phone’s screen.

New York Times

Hershey's Push Into High-End Chocolate Is Bittersweet

Bad timing contributes to Hershey's continued struggles to play in the premium chocolate segment:

Hershey said Thursday that it will no longer be marketing the Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) brand of premium chocolate and is also winding down its high-end Cacao Reserve line. Sales of pricier chocolate have slowed as consumers have tightened their belts and retailers have been reluctant to give up shelf space to lower- performing products.

Before the recession began, Hershey's sales suffered because consumers had been turning toward pricier chocolates, an area that Hershey had been slow to get into. Privately held Mars Inc. and specialty chocolate brands gained share. That pushed Hershey to begin marketing more expensive chocolates. In mid-2007 it announced a pact with Starbucks to develop and market a premium line.

But that new line was badly timed because the economy started slowing soon after. Consumers slashed spending last year and early this year, turning away from most extravagances, including pricey chocolate. "The timing of the launch of the Starbucks proposition, frankly, we just missed the window," said Hershey Chief Executive David West during a Thursday conference call. "Our partner obviously had some other business challenges and the consumer at that price point wasn't sustainable."

Money.CNN

Starbucks to sell instant coffee at Costco, Target

In hopes of taking its newest product mainstream, Starbucks Corp. this week expanded its instant coffee trial to include sales in certain Costco, Target and Barnes & Noble stores.

Starbucks unveiled its VIA instant coffee in February and started selling it in Chicago and Seattle cafes in March.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Taste-testing Starbucks instant

They tried it, so you don't have to:

Before you start accusing the iconic retailer of desperate measures, give Via a try. Here at Fortune, we have a machine that brews a fresh cup from Starbucks beans in less than a minute. We compared it to the Via and couldn’t tell which cup was the instant. Both had a rich aroma and flavor.

Fortune

Starbucks or McDonald's in Your Backyard

Would you rather have a McDonald's or Starbucks move next door?

Check out this study from the PEW Research Center . . . Looks like us Midwesterners would the ol' golden arches out back.

via slashfood.com

Starbucks Poised to Launch 'Soluble' Coffee

Horror of horrors. An instant coffee from Starbucks? Either they have a serious technological advance on their hands or an equity-diluting idea. Time will tell ...

Starbucks will begin testing the soluble coffee -- a term that conjures up images of instant brands such as Folgers, Sanka and Brim -- by selling it in Starbucks cafes as early as next month. It's unclear as yet whether the company will also extend the product to supermarkets, where it already has a presence with ground Starbucks-branded coffee.

AdAge

"Starbucks offers coffee-breakfast combos, cites economy"

What's next . . Starbuck's giving me a toy with my coffee?

"Starbucks, better known for amusingly complicated premium coffee offerings, took a cue from fast-food chains and announced a plan Monday to sell pairings of coffee and breakfast for $3.95, citing the economic downturn."

CNN

Free Coffee . . . From Starubucks . . .Really?

"Starbucks' campaign to promote volunteerism (and store traffic) got a huge bump today from no less than Oprah Winfrey -- and by extension, Barack Obama.

The talk-show host talked up the java giant's "I'm In" campaign, which encourages consumers to pledge five hours of community service before the end of the year. Those who commit to doing so at Starbucks between now and Sunday will be rewarded with a free coffee. "

via AdAge

Dunkin' Takes Battle Against Starbucks to Grocery Stores

Dunkin' has been running a marketing campaign that goes after Starbucks stores on taste, boasting that it beat the java giant in an "independent taste test." Now, J.M. Smucker Co., which owns Dunkin's supermarket-distributed coffee brand, is mounting an online sampling program for the brew-at-home version, DunkinAtHome.com. The site offers samples of Dunkin's original blend, as well as Dunkin' Dark.

AdAge

Smucker Cuts Folgers, Dunkin' Coffee Prices

Smucker is cutting Folgers Ground prices by 3.5% (10 cents per 10.3-11.5 ounce can); Folgers Gourmet varieties by 7.8% (10 cents per 10 to 12 ounces); and Folgers instant by 4.4%.

MediaPost

Dunkin' Beat Starbucks

Starbucks, Unilever Ink Ice Cream Deal

Expanding on its relationship with Unilever, Starbucks has signed an exclusive deal with the Dutch company to make and distribute Starbucks ice cream in the U.S. and Canada.

Marketing Daily

Dunkin' to double U.S. stores in anti-Starbucks push

Dunkin' Donuts -- the East Coast coffee shop chain called by some the "anti-Starbucks", because of its core blue collar customer base, still plans to more than double its U.S. stores to 15,000 by 2020, as its bigger rival from Seattle retrenches.

Reuters

Starbucks slims down breakfast choices to five

But this year marked a philosophical shift in the company menu. Instead of taking away fat and calories, Starbucks is adding nutrients such as protein and fiber. The shift started in July with Starbucks' Vivanno protein fruit smoothies and Berry Stella pastries, and continues with the breakfast options added Wednesday.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Starbucks' Savior?

The Coffee Fix: Can the $11,000 Clover Machine Save Starbucks?

It's 10 am on a Thursday, and the line at Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco snakes out the door. Inside, an espresso machine hisses like an angry tomcat as customers order their cappuccinos. But the real action is taking place a few steps away, where a scruffy barista stands at a stainless steel contraption, introducing the coffee he's about to serve to his rapt audience. "The Honduran is sweet," he says, "with a refined acidity and an excellent finish." He lets one perfectly measured scoop of fresh grounds shimmy deep into the machine, then goes to work, twiddling knobs, pushing buttons, and whirling a whisk in a chamber at the top of the silver box.

Wired