In today's hard-hitting business news: the East Coast expansion of Peet's Coffee and Tea has not gone exactly as planned, it seems. East Coast coffee drinkers, with their delicate palates refined through years of drinking medium roast joe from Dunkin' Donuts, don't have quite the same taste for Alfred Peet's signature burn-the-crap-out-of-it dark roast that West Coast chain-drinkers are so fond of. As a senior marketing manager for Peet's told the Wall Street Journal, beans from the Emeryville-based roaster "just didn't have the taste profile [East Coasters] were looking for." more ›

Employing "reclaimed" buzzword gobbledygook as a selling point, Starbucks wants to put another damn spore in the Castro, a few blocks away from the bear-frequented Starbucks at 18th and Castro. With takeover plans zeroed in at 2201 Market (at 15th Street), here's what the coffee mammoth would like to do: more ›

After hearing word that Starbucks might acquire Emeryville-based Peet's Coffee & Tea, SFist commenter CetiAlphaFive chimed in with the following gem: more ›

According to DealReporter, the superior Peet's Coffee & Tea is in talks with inferior Starbucks to sell itself to the Seattle-based coffee giant. "Though neither company has commented on the reported deal, Peet's has stated its interest in getting into the single-cup coffee market. Earlier this year it attempted to acquire Diedrich Coffee but lost out to Green Mountain Coffee, which made a deal this week to sell Starbucks coffee for its single-serving Keurig coffee machines." Reports go on to suggest that "Starbucks plans to seek out acquisitions over the next 18 months." Hrumph. more ›

The kids at Laughing Squid have come up with the perfect use for the new Trenta sized cup at Starbucks: covert wine drinking. At 31 ounces, it perfectly holds an entire bottle of wine (with room to spare.) more ›

Starbucks announced today plans to unveil a gargantuan 31-ounce "Trenta" cup size. According to our sister site, the new size is "[o]nly available for iced coffee and tea drinks" and "will run $.50 more than a Venti when it rolls out on May 3." more ›

If your entire world has been thrown off axis over Starbucks new logo, fear not, loyal patrons. The coffee mammoth will walk you through the change in a minute and a half long video on their website. The new logo is pretty much their old logo, sans their name around it. The mermaid, thankfully, is still intact. Ta-da. But what say you, yes or no? Do you approve? more ›

Washington D.C. area Starbucks are caving to pressure from LGBT groups and converting their gender-specific restrooms to gender neutral ones. The D.C. Trans Coalition led the push to convert the single-occupancy bathrooms at D.C.'s 52 Starbucks, citing an amendment to the District's 2006 Human Rights Act which states "individuals [have] the right to use gender-specific restrooms and other gender-specific facilities such as dressing rooms, homeless shelters, and group homes that are consistent with their gender identity or expression," and also stipulates that single-occupancy restrooms with gender-specific placards be re-labeled with gender non-specific ones. Starbucks will be switching out the placards throughout the next month. more ›

Get up to 20 ounces of free brewed Starbucks coffee tomorrow when you bring in your travel mug. Starbucks is encouraging people to switch from the wasteful paper cups to reusable ones, for obvious environmental reasons. Another novel idea would be to just make your coffee at home/office, or sit down, chill out, and sip your coffee at a cafe that uses those nifty glass/ceramic mugs. (But we will admit that we sometimes succumb to using the blasphemous paper cup ourselves when on the go.) more ›

In September, Kathryn Hill of Apartment Therapy's "The Kitchn" brought to you a DIY Pumpkin Spice Latte, which was strikingly similar to Starbucks' famous autumnal treat. more ›

Sheer heresy, right? To ban laptop power connectivity at your favorite cafes? Well, that's just what some cafes in New York City, according to a article, are doing in an effort to get squatters to shift it. See, many customers (including some of you right this very second) buy a cup of coffee, then set up shop at a cafe for hours and hours in between small sips -- basically, running a business or obtaining a pointless college degree from a cafe for mere pennies. Which, really, isn't a good thing for the cafe, whose power and free wi-fi most of you gobble up on a daily basis. They're businesses, not libraries. (Fine. Your SFist Editor must admit to, at times, running this site at SOMA's Epicenter Cafe or The Creamery. Guilty as charged. But we do wolf down at least three onion bagels with cream cheese while squatting, so, you know, we're not that bad. Anyway.) more ›

Jane Stillwater, a Berkelery blogger and Ghost Whisperer fan, is hopping mad. See, Stillwater is suing the US Army for a plane ticket and 15 mocha lattes because she had been given the green light to be embedded with troops in Iraq, which was canceled after "she bought the ticket for anyway and waited at a Starbucks for two days hoping the military would reconsider." (Really? Two days at Starbucks? Was superior Peet's Coffee unavailable?) Her request for the armed serviced to pay her back was denied, so like any red-blooded American, she's now taking them to court. (KNTV) more ›

God bless the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy. Their blog, Pushing Back, claims that there are more medical marijuana spots than Starbucks in San Francisco, adding, the "state 'medical' marijuana laws breed confusion, abuse, and violence in neighborhoods and communities." more ›

Wow. We hope we're this feisty, and wildly insane, when we're sixty-four. more ›

Visitors to all the standalone Starbucks across the country yesterday evening couldn't get their buzz on. Why? Because of the temporary national shutdown. Starbucks workers, like these on busy Masonic (where there will be a rally to make that avenue safer at 11:00AM this morning by the way), learned how to do things the Starbuckian way last night. more ›

For as much as everyone pretends to be indie coffee house-loving, Starbucks-hating, people of god -- we're not. Especially when we're lazy. If we're in the financial district and want our half-caff, venti macchiato with a double shot of sugar-free vanilla and only want to walk two steps from our door to get it, so be it. We're going to Starbucks. But NOT, however, on February 26th between the hours of 5:30 to 8:30 PM. All Starbucks across the US will be closed during these hours (local time) to "[Demonstrate] Unprecedented Level of Commitment to Partner (Employee) Coffee Education and Training." At least, that's according to the Starbucks press release. more ›

Now that donuts have made a return to Bay Area coffee houses--minus its exhausting Homer Simpsonesque, white-trash irony--you can find the preferable pastries at places like Ritual Coffee Roasters (vegan! and actually good!), Seattle's Best at Border's Books & Music (double-glazed), and even Starbucks (plasticky). With the return of the donut comes the return of the brewed coffee. At least, according to today's New York Times, which profiles the Blue Bottle Cafe, scheduled to open today this week, and their bizarre Jules Verne-ish coffee contraption. The first-prize-at-the-science-fair-like machine is poised to make coffee's tarnished reputation shine again. more ›

It wouldn't be SFist if it weren't rife with errors and bipolarity-tinged posts. But we got word of an especially egregious error we made today--something, we're ashamed to admit, we never knew. From the SFist inbox: more ›

This tickles us ever so. Last year after 4,000+ folks in the Richmond held their breath until their faces turned blue, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to ban the popular coffee chain Starbucks from setting up shop at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Geary. Problem solved, right? Wrong. more ›

Here's todays sports news more ›

Last week's winner, the San Jose Metro. Alas! They haven't updated their site for this week yet, and we didn't manage to snag a hard copy of the paper, so they'll have to forfeit in the Weekly of the Week contest for the week. more ›

Since our trimethyldioxypurist is on the road for Labor Day, we're stepping in on the caffeine beat to pass along some sad news: Peet's Coffee founder Alfred Peet died earlier this week (Wednesday) in Oregon. more ›

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. We should totally put needle disposal boxes in Golden Gate Park. Also, C.W. Nevius says that Newsom called him and yelled at him for 45 minutes after he wrote his first article on the issue. We'd put that call on mute. Gentrification is destroying Polk Street. City contractors still use sweatshop labor. Annalee Newitz has mice. Sonic Reducer's still at the Guardian. Cover article: Local bands to watch. You've got your whisky swillers, your barefoot folksters, your hip-hoppers, and some fey whimsy. And read Marke B's column and show him not everyone's away for Burning Man! more ›

. Meredith ventures back to the Mission to try that place that opened in the old KFC (she had the lobster). Minnie Driver uses the word love 54 times on her album. And former SFist Violet Blue guests in the Savage Love. more ›

-- No official Halloween bash happening in the Castro, anywhere in SF. Hmm, this will be interesting/scary to watch come 10/31. [Chron, The Snitch] more ›

-- Will Harper has it that Chris Daly might run for mayor now that Gonzalez is out. Whoa, a real contender! Interesting. [The Snitch (SF Weekly)] more ›

Hey, have you seen all those annoying "Let's meet at Starbucks" adverts? Quite irritating. Well, SBUX is indeed bringing folks together -- in a way they may not be too happy about. many businesses and residents in the Inner Richmond are protesting via petition an invasion of one of Starbuck's nigh ubiquitous stores. more ›

Photo of an overwhelmed garbage can with news of fewer cans in S.F. than before. more ›

Friend-of-SFist Matt V passes along these photos of a verrrrry safe looking taxi, sighted outside a Starbucks in the Abandoned Warehouse district of the Mission. "You choose what you pay," it says on the side, which is exactly how Lucifer would phrase an offer. more ›

What's with all the "McDonald's coffee is better than Starbucks," survey stuff going around? Evidently, a taste test or two places the coffee from the Golden Arches in a higher position than the ubiquitous chain-coffee house. This started about a month back with this Consumer Reports study, and has been percolating further on recent "stunning revelations" that McD's is going to serve actual espresso as well. One of the most bothersome aspects of this is major news concerns are talking and talking about it. STOP! PLEASE! more ›