Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/49395
Starbucks lightens up with new roast Blonde Roast is alternative to dark brews Starbucks is having a "blonde moment." In a significant departure from its traditional product strategy, the world's biggest specialty coffee chain on Tuesday unveiled its new coffee line. Starbucks Blonde Roast is light-roasted coffee stands that in contrast with the dark-roasted products that have earned the chain the disparaging name "Charbucks." The line comprises two basic products: Veranda Blend and Willow Blend, with decaf and instant versions. It will be available starting in January in both Starbucks coffee outlets and grocery stores under the Starbucks name. Dark roasting generally serves to mask impurities or off-flavors in coffee and give it a more uniform flavor and aroma. The tradeoff is that it increases the coffee's acidity and gives an acrid taste that some Mark Your Calendar January 25-26 Coffee & Tea Festival, 7WEST, New York, N.Y., www.coffeeandteafestival.com February 9-11 Coffee Fest New York, Javits Center, New York City, www.coffeefest.com 22-24 National Coffee Assn. Annual Convention, Charleston (S.C.) Place Hotel, www.ncausa.org 23-25 Tea & Coffee World Cup, Vienna, Austria, www.tcworldcup.com April 4-6 Melbourne Int'l Coffee Expo, Melbourne, Australia, www.internationalcoffeexpo.com 6 | December 2011 • www.specialty-coffee.com May March consumers find bitter. The move continues Starbucks' strategy of offering alternatives to its signature dark roasts. It added "Pike Place," a lighter- roasted blend, in 2008, and now color- codes the packaging for its Seattle's Best line according to roast intensity. Fair Trade catches fl ak for breakup Split centers on large coffee estates Fair Trade USA, the leading U.S. product certification organization for labor and environmental issues, is catching criticism for its decision to split from Fairtrade International. The separation was announced in mid- September and becomes official at the end of the year. In a joint statement, the two organizations said that they "share a belief in the importance of empowering producers and workers" but that they "have different perspectives on how best to achieve this common mission." One of the main disagreements is about whether to extend labor and environmental certification to large coffee-growing estates as well as small farmers. Fair Trade USA, in its new initiative called "Fair Trade for All," says this will be a way to double the outreach of Fair Trade by 2015. But other organizations say this will dilute the effectiveness of the fair trade concept. "This action seems more to satisfy and enrich the very people whose actions caused Fair Trade to be established in the first place at the expense of the small farmer/producer," the World Fair Trade Organization said in a statement on its website. McDonald's brings McCafe to Canada Tim Horton's vows espresso fight McDonald's is bringing its specialty coffee north of the border—where it's facing a scrap with native Tim Horton's. McDonald's Canada opened its McCafe brand espresso bars on Nov. 7 at some 870 locations throughout Canada. The rest of the country's approximately 1,400 McDonald's outlets are expected to bring in McCafe by the end of 2012. The opening was supported by a coupon mailing that reached some 95 percent of Canadian households. The McCafe expansion coincides with 18-20 India International Coffee Festival, The Lalit, New Delhi, India, www.iicf.in a push by rival Tim Horton's. The Canadian doughnut chain plans to put espresso machines in many of its Ontario locations by next week, and plans to have them in more than 3,000 outlets by the end of this year. Caribou, Starbucks going strong Packaged coffee soars 75% at Caribou The two biggest specialty coffee chains in the U.S. have put up strong third quarter results. C a r i b o u 18-19 Specialty Coffee Assn. of America Annual Exposition and Symposium, Portland (Ore.) Convention Center, www.scaa.org Coffee posted a net sales gain of 16 percent in the third quarter, a figure partly attributable to a sharp increase in sales of packaged coffee. Caribou's sales for the quarter rose to $81.4 million. The majority of its income came from coffeehouse sales, which came in at $58.7 million, a rise of 3.7 percent over the same period last year. However, in terms of growth, that was dwarfed by the