Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf holiday special

For those of you who live near a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf location, you might want to head out to take advantage of a special holiday offer. When you buy a $25 gift card, you get the drink of your choice FREE. Some of my favorite drinks there cost about $4 each to begin with, so this isn’t a bad deal at all. It’s like getting a $30 card for only $25! Give the gift cards away as holiday gifts or just keep them in your wallet and use them the next time you visit the coffee shop for a holiday drink.

NYC coffee shops pulling the plug on laptops?

Laptops and coffee shops go together just as well as espresso and steamed milk – or, at least, they certain seem to when you consider the fact that you can’t walk into a coffee shop without seeing at least one person typing away on their laptop, hard at work on a coffee break. For years, small coffee shops used free wifi and a friendly environment to lure customers in, away from the sometimes less expensive fast food coffee options. With business slowing down, some small coffee shops in New York City want to cut the cord on laptop use and free up space taken by cyber-loiterers for customers who want to simply sit and drink their coffee.

Seeing as I’m sitting in a coffee shop typing this right now, I tend to favor wifi at coffee shops – but then, I also always have at least a drink or two while I’m working and don’t just take up space for hours on end. It would be sad to see free wifi come to an end (and it hopefully won’t happen anytime soon out here in California!), but on the other hand, it would also be nice to walk into a coffee shop and snag a table to hang out at without competing with people who staked out a table in the morning and stayed until close to make use of the free wifi.

De branding Starbucks?

Starbucks is testing out a new marketing strategy: make their stores less like Starbucks. Of course, this is simplifying things, but it is more or less what the coffee giant appears to be trying in order to set their stores apart from the competion and return to their coffee-house roots (possibly as opposed to moving more towards a fast food operation).

The new venture is in Seattle and is now called 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. The shop shows no signs of its affiliation with Starbucks (despite having been one not too long ago), and serves beer and wine in addition to planning to host local events like open-mike nights. Baristas will use machines where the shots must be pulled by hand, not by pressing a button.

As expected, there are a lot of people who seem to be up-in-arms about the company trying to “fake” being a “local” shop, but the reality is that it isn’t all that different from any other coffee shop opening up in the neighborhood, even if there is a bit more money behind it. Most consumers will probably find it to be a upscale version of a regular Starbucks, good for a more “gourmet” experience, although many Starbucks customers will no-doubt maintain an appreciation for the speed of the traditional model.

Will Sorbetto be back at Starbucks?

Ever since the temperatures started to heat up this summer. I’ve been eyeing the unused Sorbetto machine that sits, carefully wrapped, on the counter at my local Starbucks. Sorbetto was the name of a yogurt-based slushy drink that was tart, tangy and completely refreshing. It was test-marketed in the LA area last year and the machines have gone unused since.

Anyone know if they’re bringing them back anytime soon?

Starbucks revamps pastry menu

You might have noticed a change in the pastry case at your local Starbucks over the past few weeks. In an effort to cut costs while increasing overall quality, Starbucks has completely changed the way that they do their pastries. Previously, Starbucks used a variety of regional bakeries to stock their stores. This meant that you could find different types of pastries in different areas, according to what was popular there, and that the ingredients that went into the items varied widely.

Starting today, Starbucks is using fewer bakeries, each of which will produce and ship more items. This consolidation also allowed Starbucks to tinker with its recipes and refocus on slightly healthier options with all natural ingredients. They cut out corn syrup from their Marshmallow Dream Bars, eliminated the artificial flavorings from berry muffins and real egg whites are making an appearance in a heart-healthy breakfast sandwich. Starbucks says that its new options have “15 percent fewer calories, 5 percent less fat and 8 percent less saturated fat” than previous items.

Time Out Chicago has done a taste test of the newest items on the menu, if you want to see how they stack up. Not all of these items may be available in your region, but some are nationwide.