"coffee" news and stories

When Jake Gyllenhaal cozies up to a cuppa joe, we want to know what he's drinking. A pumpkin-spice blend? That's not exactly the Prince of Persia's style. Jake, who was recently spotted sharing some café time in Brooklyn and Nashville with Taylor Swift, seems to have a taste for good old Vermont maple syrup in his latte. While the coffee-maple combination isn't new, our friends over at YumSugar have a feeling Jake's new favorite brew may launch a trend. Head over to YumSugar for the scoop.

Your eggnog jones is about to be satisfied. Tomorrow Starbucks is bringing back their holiday specials, including the Eggnog Latte. Gingerbread Men (and Women) can go for the Gingerbread Latte, and there are Caramel Brulée Latte and Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha, too. The Christmas Blend (regular and Espresso Roast) is also back, with its hints of pumpkin pie and gingerbread, and this year you can try it in an instant with the new VIA Ready Brew version. And from November 18 to 21, you can buy one of the holiday joes and get one free. For a chic kaffeeklatsch, sip your spicy brew from designer Jonathan Adler's new ceramic STARBUCKS (RED) To-Go Cup (above). As with all the STARBUCKS (RED) offerings, part of the proceeds from sales go to the Global Fund, which helps combat AIDS in Africa.

Have a little pinot noir before your grande cappuccino? Yes, you can. And you don't even have to go to a wine bar before you hit the local Starbucks...if you live in Seattle, that is.

As we told you in an April post on Starbucks, the company began experimenting with branching out into wines and beers at its Roy Street Coffee & Tea. Now, reports USA Today, another Seattle Starbucks, the Capitol Hill branch, on Olive Way, has received a groovy modern face lift and has jumped on the wine and beer train. Perhaps what goes down in Seattle will soon be coming to a branch near you. With 16 million of them, there's bound to be one nearby.

Is this a Starbucks move to take us up, take us down, fill us up with an artisanal-cheese plate and never let us go? Pop-culture professor Robert Thompson, of Syracuse University thinks so. He was quoted in the USA Today story as saying, "The idea of serving coffee all day to hype up consumers and alcohol at night to calm them down sounds like a perpetual motion machine." But maybe for the go-go joe and booze hounds, that's an answered prayer.

Happy National Coffee Day!

We'd be preaching to the choir to tell you to raise up a cup of java today -- odds are, you're either a loyal coffee drinker or you don't touch the stuff, and there's little to do to change that. But ours is a caffeinated world, in which coffee takes place second only to oil as the most valued commodity. According to Bob Thomson, a pop-culture professor at Syracuse University who leads an entire course on Starbucks, "As you're working during the day, coffee becomes the equivalent of 'in-flight fueling station.' You grab a cup on your way to work, you've got your little commuting holder in your car, there's a pot at work... I think it's really appropriate that oil and coffee look the same because, in a lot of ways, oil and coffee are doing the same job."

Most Americans drink coffee every day, at a rate of 2 to 3 cups a day -- in fact many would argue they couldn't function without it. How much coffee do you drink daily? Confess your coffee habits in the comments.

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In case you've never encountered the convenience yourself, there's a drive-through window attached to one-third of the nation's Starbucks outposts. And the company has recently taken some heat over the newly designed menus offered at those drive-throughs. On August 31, listed items dropped from about 70 to a mere 25, and leaves out the option to buy a Tall (translation: smallest and least expensive) cup of coffee.

The Tall is still an option, just not an obvious one. Company spokeswoman Deb Trevino tells USA Today the change came in response to customers' requests to simplify the menu -- they were "frustrating" to read -- adding that Talls don't sell as well as Grandes and Ventis. She also says the company is making room for calorie postings, which will be required next year.