Complimentary Coffee @ Coffee Bean Sep 14, 4-7pm

From CoffeeBean.com:

Enjoy a Complimentary 12 oz. Cinnamon French Toast or Classic Pumpkin Latte or Ice Blended Drink. Valid only on September 14, 2010, from 4pm to 7pm.  Offer applies to 12oz. Cinnamon French Toast or Classic Pumpkin latte or Ice Blended® drinks.  No substitutions. Limit one complimentary drink per customer. Cannot be combined with other offers.

Starbucks Pick of the Week: Now Downloadable

From Starbucks.com:

That’s part of the reason I’m proud to announce that now Pick of the
Week is available for digital download inside Starbucks stores. From any
participating U.S. store location, users can now download the current
Pick of the Week from our free Wi-Fi landing page. We launched this
digital Pick of the Week with Eddie Vedder’s newest single, “Better
Days” from the Eat Pray Love soundtrack.

Pick of the Week cards are still available in participating stores,
but now there’s another way to download free music from Starbucks. So
keep discovering new music and be sure to get your Pick of the Week
today.

Free Coffee at Barnes and Noble

From Macworld.com:

During the limited promotion period, customers who show a Barnes & Noble cafe server an open e-book on any device running the BN software can get one free tall cup of coffee. The eligible devices include the Nook along with iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, BlackBerries or HTC HD2 devices and portable Mac or Windows computers.

Free coffee April 15

On April 15th, bring a reusable travel mug into your local Starbucks and get a free brewed coffee.

http://www.starbucks.com/thebigpicture

Two Free Coffees at Corner Bakery

Check out their page on Facebook for two free coffees.

Bye-Bye Village Coffee Roaster

We went for a walk to enjoy the great SoCal weather and brunch at Label's Table. But we go there for another reason-- Village Coffee Roaster.

Well, VCR is no more! The place is empty now. All I could find is this blog posting about it.

Starbucks Taste Challenge

From Starbucks.com:

Starbucks Coffee Company (NASDAQ: SBUX) launches its breakthrough Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew at all U.S. locations, expanding upon the company’s coffee expertise and leadership. Starbucks VIA™ is 100 percent natural roasted arabica coffee in an instant form that is rich and full bodied just like a fresh-brewed cup of Starbucks® coffee. Starbucks VIA™ is made with a proprietary, U.S. patent-pending microgrind technology to preserve the coffee’s taste, quality and freshness.

Starbucks VIA^™ Taste Challenge

From Oct. 2 - 5, Starbucks invites customers to join the Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew Taste Challenge at their favorite U.S. Starbucks location. Participants can taste Colombia Starbucks VIA™ next to fresh-brewed Pike Place™ Roast and challenge themselves to guess which one is Starbucks VIA™. Starbucks VIA™ Taste Challenge participants will receive coupon for a complimentary Tall brewed coffee on their next visit as well as an offer for $1 off a Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew purchase.

Practice Safe Coffee: Senseo Recall

From Philips.com:

Philips has identified a safety problem which affects a number of Senseo® coffee makers produced in Poland from July 2006 to November 2008 and for units made in China from July 2007 to November 2008. Philips is committed to the well-being of its consumers and has decided to voluntarily recall the affected Senseo® machines and offer  replacement units to consumers.

Our Senseo was made in Poland and is mode HD7810, but the production date was not on the list. Whew! :)

Free Dunkin Coffee

Just saw a commercial promising free coffee from Dunkin Donuts. How could I resist?

Click here to get yours.

Digital Coffee Mug

From Gizmodo.com:

The Digi-Mug is packed with 1MB of memory (not a typo) that allows you to store 50 or so images for playback on its 1.5-inch display. With a lithium ion rechargeable battery, you can view your loved ones (or just a simple clock) to your heart's content.

Starbucks Movie (sort of)

From CNN.com:

Michael Gates Gill was a high-flying, six-figure-earning advertising executive years ago before he was abruptly fired. He had created huge campaigns for companies like Christian Dior and Ford and lived an even bigger life, with luxury automobiles, lavish vacations and fabulous clothes.

These days, however, he's traded his $3,000 Brooks Brothers suits for khakis and a green apron; the big bucks for a $10 an hour job as a barista at Starbucks. But Gill says he couldn't be happier.

...

"I still have trouble with some of the drinks," he admits, "but I'm a good cleaner.... I can make a toilet shine like a Ferrari."

If life continues on an upswing for Gill, he may one day be able to purchase a Ferrari. His memoir, "How Starbucks Saved My Life," became a New York Times bestseller. The actor Tom Hanks has plans to produce and star in the film version. Gus Van Sant has agreed to direct.

It's a Wonderful Coffee Life

I found this wonderful and creative tribute to a life of coffee.

Here's an excerpt:

I like coffee so much that I have tea for breakfast: The first cup of the day in particular is so good that I’m afraid I won’t be able to properly appreciate it when I am half-asleep. Therefore, I celebrate it two hours later when I am fully conscious.

Caffeine and Dehydration: Myth or Fact?

It has long been thought that coffee and other caffeine-containing beverages are dehydrating and don’t count toward your daily fluid intake. Most of us know that caffeine is a diuretic (it makes us have to go pee), but does it deplete our bodily fluids?

read more | digg story

Starbucks to give away weekly music picks on iTunes

From Ars Technica:

Each Tuesday, Starbucks employees will hand out cards to customers, allowing them to download the selected single of the week. This could range from music by the ever-current Counting Crows, to Carly Simon, Adele, Sia, Hilary McRae, "and many more," according to the company. The songs will be "hand-picked by the Starbucks Entertainment team" (I bet that's a fun group to go drinking with), and customers will have 60 days to download the song for free.

The last promotion took place in October of last year and featured a Song of the Day for each day of the month. Starbucks says that this resulted in over 6 million downloads. Neither Starbucks nor Apple acknowledged whether there is an ending date to the current "Pick of the Week" promotion, but Starbucks appears to be confident that free music will bring in more customers.

2007 Favorites

One of our favorite places for breakfast and coffee is Doughboy’s. Their unique and yummy selection of food is best enjoyed on weekend mornings.

Another favorite and one of our most common brunch-time hangouts is The Baker. They specialize in bread, which means they have great sandwiches and french toast. My favorite is the Shakshuka, a Mediterranean dish. Fran usually has the smoked salmon salad.

uWink is a hip cool place that opened at a nearby mall. Created by the guy who founded Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, it has touch-screens at every table where you can place orders, play games and other fun stuff. This place has a definite geek factor, but attracts people of all types and ages. That’s probably because the food is so good. You can also rent out the place for parties and have your photos projected on the walls.

Doughboys

Last weekend we had breakfast at Doughboys. The menu is one of the best breakfast menus I've seen. There are lots of choices, from yummy to exotic. How does Banana Pecan Butterscotch Pancakes sound? MMMM! See what I mean?

What really makes this place stand out are the HUGE cups they serve their coffee with. These are more like bowls with a handle. You never want to leave... except you'll have to when nature calls-- Doughboy's doesn't have a bathroom. :(

Fran enjoys her coffee.

Neato photos

Check out these high-speed pictures of milk drops falling into coffee.

Have a Coffee - On Starbucks

Perhaps to commemorate the recent loss of a main character on Battlestar Galactica, Starbucks is having a free coffee day.

An Open Letter to the A**holes Holding Up the Line at Starbucks

I like the way this guy thinks.

Dear A**holes Holding up the Line at Starbucks...

Excerpt:

I also happen to live presently in a part of Manhattan that is tourist heavy. One of the unfortunate circumstances of such is having to suffer in line while you folks gaze in bewilderment at the menu on the wall as if it were written in hieroglyphics. Inevitably your efforts to interpret the menu fail miserably, or perhaps you just give up altogether, thereby you must berate the poor Starbucks employees with a game of 20 questions.

Thirsty for Starbucks? Send a text message.

Coffee behemoth Starbucks has launched a new cell phone-based service that lets you efficiently locate the nearest store and feed your addiction get your caffeine buzz on. Starting today, when you send a text message with the ZIP code of your location to the number "MYSBUX" (697289), you'll receive another text with the addresses of the three nearest Starbucks locations. It won't cost you anything besides your cell phone plan's normal texting fees.

read more | digg story