"Seattles Best" news and stories

Burger King is giving customers their java fix free during the month of November.

Every Friday throughout the month, Burger King restaurants are giving away free 12-ounce cups of Seattle's Best Coffee during breakfast hours (no purchase of other items is necessary to get the free coffee). People getting the free coffee will also get a coupon good for a free 22-ounce Iced Seattle's Best Coffee for a future visit with the purchase of any BK Value Meal (expires 12/24/2010).

According to The Washington Post, "Burger King expects to give away between 2 million and 4 million free cups throughout the promotion."

Related: The New Burger King Breakfast Items Reviewed

Seattle's Best Coffee turns 40 this year, and is marking the occasion with something of a renaissance -- or midlife crisis. The brand, which has been owned by Starbucks for the past seven years, has long been number two (ironic, given its name) to the ubiquitous green label. Now the company is taking a totally different approach, pitting Seattle's Best against other players, namely the fast-food giants that got into the premium coffee game fairly recently, such as McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts.

In order to effect this change, the newly positioned Seattle's Best has a stripped-down logo intended to "match [their] optimistic outlook and simplified approach" -- although some question whether the extreme simplicity moves into the realm of the generic. Tom Ehlers, a former Starbucks executive who is now vice president of retail for Seattle's Best, told The Wall Street Journal that Seattle's Best will be the Old Navy to Starbuck's Gap. Citing the jump in overall premium coffee sales (from 29 percent to 35 percent in three years, despite the recession), Ehlers points out that mass-market coffee is a sales gambit that has worked: "Regular people have found their way to great coffee."

Something new is brewing at Burger King's nationwide.

Starting this summer, the flame-broiled fast food restaurant will roll-out Starbucks Corp.'s Seattle's Best Coffee to more than 7,000 U.S. restaurants.

The new pick-me-up offering sends Burger King's own five-year-old coffee brand, BK Joe, into retirement after disappointing sales. John Schaufelberger, senior vice president of Burger King's global product marketing and innovation, told The Associated Press that the cup o' Joe revamp is part of a continued effort to improve its breakfast business -- citing the morning menu as one of their "top strategic priorities."