McDonald's may be rolling out premium coffees to compete with popular coffee chains, but now coffee chains are introducing their own breakfast sandwiches. The Associated Press revealed that Starbucks is expanding its efforts to sell hot breakfast sandwiches in stores. For the past three years, the coffee company has been testing and retesting various combinations of ingredients for their english muffin sandwiches, including black forest ham, peppered bacon, sausage, cheese and, of course, eggs. Some of the more popular combinations include Eggs Florentine with Baby Spinach and Havarti and Herbed Sausage and Egg with Sharp Cheddar. The sandwiches are delivered to stores every morning, as are their pastries, and heated up in special counter-top ovens. It takes about 3 minutes to heat up a sandwich, only slightly longer than it takes to get a latte.

The hot sandwiches have been tested in Washington, DC and Portland, OR, as well as in selected other stores. Starbucks will be increasing the number of stores that sell the sandwiches from 250 to 600 over the course of the year, expanding into San Francisco stores in early April and Chicago in the fall. The egg sandwiches retail for $2.95. For comparison, McDonald's charges $1.99 for their Egg McMuffin and Dunkin Donuts charges $2.74 for their breakfast sandwich.

On Monday, McDonald's will be rolling out their new "premium roast" coffee at stores across the country. You may have seen TV ads for the coffee, or even tasted it yourself, as it has been released in several markets already. It seems that the fast-food giant wants to capitalize on the love of the American public for gourmet coffee, following in the footsteps of chains like Dunkin Donuts and Burger King, which recently began to promote its coffee. Another reason for the new coffee is that McDonald's is trying to increase its share of the breakfast market, as consumers more frequently turn to specialty coffee retailers and grab a pastry with their lattes. White the coffee is unlikely to be up to the quality of the specialty retailers, it will certainly be a step up from the "coffee" previously sold at McDonald's. In keeping with the "premium" theme, the new coffees will be served in insulated cups with the same style of lid seen at places like Starbucks instead of the usual fast-food hot beverage lid, which has a punch-out flap for drinking from. According to the McDonald's website, you can get a coupon for a free coffee with any purchase by visiting a participating store between now and March 4th.