I’ve been known to make valant yet failed attempts at flowers for Mother’s Day and since it just around the corner, here’s a quick last minute one. Buy one coffee and get your Mom’s free this Mother’s Day Sunday, May 13. Just show the coupon — either printed or on their smartphone — and this help save you some money for then taking her shopping or to the movies.
Here’s the coupon from Caribou Coffee for the Free Coffee deal.
Keurig K-cups have been hard on Caribou Coffee stock that dipped 15 percent recently from slower sales results in 2012 of just 6 to 8 % instead of the forecasted 10%. The Caribou Coffee K-cups are just a small percent of their overall business where the coffee houses represent the bulk, but it was expected the fast-growing single service business for Keurig k-cups would be the rising star. Caribou’s stock has been hot in the past year, rising 78 percent before Thursday’s decline. Shares closed at $13.99, down $2.50. The fact that Green Mountain’s stock lost almost half of its value that same time also contributed to this decline in Caribou Coffee stock. Sales at the coffee shops have seen solid growth and Caribou will continue to stay committed to the K-cup offerings.
Kona coffee farmers are serious about being protective of their brand, and recent proposed legistration for certification requirements for Hawaii-grown coffee that will eliminate mandatory inspection. They are asking the governor to veto a bill that addresses a staffing shortage at the state Department of Agriculture, and eliminate the States’ coffee inspector position in West Hawaii Island. Currently, coffee labeled as Kona-grown must be inspected and certified by the state. The inspectors verify that blends labeled as Kona actually contain at least 10 percent Kona-grown coffee. Kona coffee farmers are concerned that by eliminating mandatory inspection requirements this will increase counterfeiters who sell off-grade coffee under the premium Kona coffee name.
World travelers have well known that the Netherlands has a libel marijuana use policy and Amsterdam’s Coffee Shops are well known more for serving the weed and not so much the bean. This may soon change as the government is passing laws that will restrict to sale to only Dutch residents. The mayor of Amsterdam is looking for a compromise, claiming problems are virtually nonexistent in Amsterdam where the small, smoke-filled coffee shops are visited by thousands of tourists each year. Even though they are mostly youngsters looking to part take in this unique Amsterdam experience after visits to other highlights such as the canals and Van Gogh museum. ”This is a totally political judgment,” said Maurice Veldman, one of the team of lawyers who represented coffee shop owners in the case. “The judge completely fails to answer the principal question: Can you discriminate against foreigners when there is no public order issue at stake?” Plans to appeal are being discussed and some coffee shop owners in the southern city of Maastricht have said they plan to disregard the new measures, forcing the government to prosecute one of them in a test case.
These relaxed laws of marijuana use in coffee shops have been in place since the 1970′s, so this a change that will have effect for many parties.
It appears that the Disney’s Three Little Pigs are really fans of Starbuck’s coffee, so much that they decided to open up their own little coffee house inside Disneyland California, calling it the Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe. In a joint partnership Starbucks will be opeing 6 locations at the Disney parks in California and Florida, but you may have to look closely to notice the locations. The classic Starbucks branding will be taking a second seat to Disney as they meld into the decor of the land. The first will open this summer at Disneyland California Adventure in Anaheim. The other locations will be at the nearby Disneyland Park and at the parks in Orlando, Fla. — Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Baristas will wear aprons that Disney says will match the decor, rather than the forest green aprons employees wear at other Starbucks. The cups will also be co-branded.
In future commodities trading it all about watching the ups and downs of the prices to pick the right time. Coffee future prices are trading at near 17-month lows of $1.7445 a pound, and coffee farmers in Brazil may hold their supplies off the market in hopes to drive up the prices. Being a source of one-third of the world’s coffee beans and with predictions of a record crop this season, puts them in the driver’s seat. This tactic recently was successful in Vietnam, the world’s No. 2 producer. Coffee buyers say farmers there held off selling until prices rallied for their robusta coffee—arabica’s less expensive, lower-quality cousin. Prices in London for robusta have gained 14% this year. The wild card in this supply/demand predictions is the amount of rain in Brazil and if conditions are not favorable the record crop could not grow up to expectations.
Coffee drinkers looking for cheap coffee prices in the future, will most likely be out of luck. As demand increases and farmers play the futures market, coffee production will keep up the supply and prices.
Back in February Keurig announced a new single-serve brewer that looks to be the future replacement for the popular K-cup models called the Vue. A lot people then started asking; when would the new Keurig Vue be available? Well that release date has finally arrived as the Waiting List for the Keurig have been notified and limited quantities of the Keurig Vue are available for purchase. Sporting three new features of brewing a stronger, bigger and hotter cup of coffee. With a high tech programmable color Touchscreen, strength and temperature control, 8 brew sizes, and large removable 74oz water reservoir this does indeed look to be the future for the old K-cups.
Note, your current K-cups will not work with this Vue and the cost of the V-cups are looking to be more expensive, so the market for K-cup machines may stay active as a low-cost version for quite some time.
Caribou Coffee is releasing a new espresso coffee with caramel and sweet cocoa notes called the Cross Fox Espresso. They are also doing a special limited-time-only Cafe Canela specialty latte using the Cross Fox Expresso as a base and unique flavors such as cinnamon and orange zest. To help market their espresso coffees, Caribou Coffee is also kicking-off its “Morning Receipt for an Espresso Treat” program today by offering customers the ability to show their morning receipt after 2 pm to receive a 50 percent discount off any Cross Fox Espresso drink. Time to start working on some recipes.
It’s well known exercise is good for the body (and soul), but drinking coffee and execs together? It seems researchers believe that the caffeine and exercise together reduce inflammation, a precursor to developing skin cancer. So before taking a run in the sun have a cup of coffee that will help keep you alert for cars and add some skin cancer protection. A new study presented at a medical conference in Chicago reported that a combination of caffeine and exercise could protect against sun-related skin cancer in animal studies on mice that were at high risk for developing skin cancer. Those given a dose of caffeine and that exercised with a running wheel experienced 62 percent fewer skin tumors. Volume of tumors also decreased by 85 percent compared to the control mice. Both exercise and coffee are well known to help control weight, so there could be a benefit to your skin too.
Expecting mothers have always been advised a mix message about how caffeine consumption will effect their newborns. A new Brazilian research among pregnant women and nursing mothers, concludes that drinking coffee does not appear to affect the nighttime sleeping habits of their newborns. This study was based on analysis of sleeping patterns among more than 4,200 infants until the age of 3 months, in light of the caffeine-consumption habits of their mothers both before and after delivery. Caffeine consumption was suspected to be linked to babies’ nighttime awakenings, and sleep disruption as found in adult drinkers.
What the study defined as frequent awakening was when a child woke up three or more times during the night. Although there was some indication that nighttime wakening was more prevalent among babies whose mothers were heavy caffeine consumers during pregnancy and nursing, the connection was not statistically significant. About one in five was considered a heavy caffeine drinker during pregnancy, and more than 14 percent continued to drink caffeine heavily as their newborns reached 3 months of age. The researchers concluded that there was no evidence that caffeine consumption, at any particular level, could be linked to sleep-pattern disruptions among the infants.
