Recently in Coffee Category

Holiday shopping season is upon us once again, and with it come the magazine stories, window signs, Facebook buttons and individual resolutions carrying the "shop local," banner. It's a noble idea -- to support our local merchants, the ones who give us nice Christmas decorations and put a festive feeling in the air, as well as contribute to the local economy -- instead of doing all our shopping online.

It's certainly something that I am going to try to do as much as I can in the next month or so, but similarly, I have made resolved to "go local" when it comes to food, making the effort when I can to patronize locally-owned restaurants or food stores.

This goes hand-in-hand with another resolution to break out of my "restaurant rut," and try to dine somewhere new more often, as opposed to falling back onto the same two or three restaurants that I regularly visit.

What got me to making this resolution was the untimely demise of one restaurant and the opening of a new cafe, separated by only a few blocks in the Edgewater/Uptown neighborhood. When I noticed a pizza place/bar named Monticchio on Clark Street just north of Lawrence, next to Lincoln Towing, I was surprised that a restaurant would open in such a seemingly inhospitable location -- that stretch of Clark is most notable for the aforementioned towing pirates, a couple garages and a cemetery across the street -- and I made a mental note of the place. I walked or drove past it many times after that, thought it looked cheery and as if time and attention to deal had been paid to the interior and the menu and thought, "I'll have to go there sometime."

"Sometime" never came. Monticchio closed not long ago.

By now you may have heard of the nationally-famous 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea shop in Seattle. A nationally-famous neighborhood coffee and tea shop that has just opened this week? How does that happen? Well, it happens when its owner is Starbucks Corp., and when that owner doesn't want you to know that this "neighborhood" coffee shop is owned and operated by the Big Green Coffee Co.

Starbucks' stealth strategy was exposed last week, in stories such as this one in the Seattle Times. The new, or re-branded shop sounds like a pretty cool spot, actually, especially when you consider that this particular Starbucks was slated for closure by the company. Now it will get new life, a new identity and will sell beer and wine along with the coffee and tea, as well as featuring events such as live music and poetry readings, like a real European or classic San Francisco/New York coffeehouse.

But there are people who do not appreciate that Starbucks wants the public to think that this is an indepenent shop. A little honesty early on could have gone a long way to calm down the Starbucks haters. (In the same way that a little honesty a while back could have cooled the civic fury here over the 2016 Olympic bid.) They could have stripped away any remnant of the old Starbucks but somehow, gently, informed diners and the public at large of the connection between Starbucks and "15th Street." People would have complained, as they seem to enjoy doing, about the taste of Starbucks' coffee or the fact that it is an evil global empire, but at least they would be without the ammunition provided them by the company's apparent deceit.

The thing about this new endeavor and Starbucks' fact-finding missions that really angered me, however, was the observation by Sebastian Simsch, co-owner of Seattle Coffee Works near Seattle's Pike Place Market, who, according to the Seattle Times story, "became frustrated last year after large groups of Starbucks employees kept crowding into his 300-square-foot store to look around." Not only did they crowd the shop like a corporate invading army, but they didn't buy anything! Fortunately Simsch called them out on it and cowards that they were, the corporate soldiers did not return.

It seems that Starbucks will transform stores that are in neighborhoods and have taken on a certain neighborhood flavor, so it would seem unlikely that your downtown or airport Starbucks would change. You can bet that this concept won't be limited to Seattle, nor will it only happen in a few stores here and there. And considering that Chicago has long been a favorite test market for Starbucks, how do you like the sound of the "Piper's Alley Coffee and Tea," "Andersonville Coffee" or "Via Taylor Cafe" ?

These days, given the wildly fluctuating temperatures in the Chicago area, where it can be warm and sunny in late-May but cold and rainy in early June, it's understandable that people can get confused. You don't know what's what -- you don't know how you should dress, you never know if it's safe to put that winter coat away for the season, and you certainly don't know if it's time yet for iced coffee.

Fortunately, though, there is a Web site that can help alleviate some of your confusion (well, at least as far as the iced coffee is concerned -- you'll have to overcome the wardrobe challenges on your own). It's called, surprisingly enough, isiticedcoffeeweather.com, and quite simply, the site is nothing more than that question and a spot for you to type in your zip code. Once you click on the question, stated again next to that box, the site somehow, magically, takes into acount all the weather factors it needs to and ... tells you if it's appropriately warm enough for an iced coffee. No more standing and gazing vacantly at your favorite barista when they ask, "would you like that hot or cold?" Just fire up this site on your mobile Internet device and you will know in an instant whether it's iced coffee weather.

I'm sure there are those who will say, "Well, I'm an adult and I'm paying for this coffee drink. I should be able to order an iced coffee or a frappalatta whenever I please, no matter what the temperature is!" Sure you are, and of course you can. You can also wear those cool sunglasses indoors and bring out the grill in winter. I can only wish you'd have a barista like the waitress at the Melrose Restaurant many years ago who, when I asked for a milk shake in January, told me, "Are you kidding? It's 32 (lovely) degrees out!" Sometimes it can be fun to play by the rules.

Tuesday's dreary weather hardly makes one yearn for a cool drink, but a deal from Dunkin' Donuts may be too good -- in a couple ways -- to pass up in spite of the not-so-summery weather.

Today Dunkin' Donuts will be selling 16-oz. servings of its iced coffee all day for just 50 cents, with 10 percent of the price going to Homes for Our Troops (HFOT), a national, non-profit organization that builds specially adapted homes for injured veterans.

In 2008, Dunkin' Donuts donated $100,000 to support 10 "Build Brigades," three-day construction blitzes to get a house framed with doors, windows, roof and siding. This year, HFOT expects to hold more than 30 "Build Brigades" throughout the country.

Here's another item to file under food- and drink-related concepts, but unlike the Cole UV aluminum can cleaner, this is one that makes some sense and could make life easier, at least as far as that daily coffee trip for you and your officemates is concerned.

Like anyone who volunteers to get coffee for their officemates, I don't mind picking up coffee for one or two of my co-workers when I'm going down to our nearby Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts, but what causes me a little bit of stress is remembering how much sugar or cream this or that person wants with their coffee, as well as the thought that I am holding up others by standing and stirring multiple cups of coffee at said coffee shop's tiny condiment stand.

The Coffee Top Caddy by Josh Harris can end such stress for the person picking up the coffee as well as those waiting (and presumably working) for the kind-hearted volunteer to come back with their drinks. Harris's design makes dedicated spaces on the coffee cup cover for as many as two creams and a few sugar packets. So the person who picks up the coffee can just get the coffee from the barista/cashier, insert the creams and sugars atop the cup in their secure spaces, then trot back to the workplace, where everyone will be happy to be able to put precisely as much cream or sugar in their coffees as they wish.

Brilliant.

(More images of Harris's coffee caddy can be found at toxel.com.)