Monday Morning Coffee News

Happy Monday! This past week in coffee: Dunkin’ Donuts is doing Valentine’s Day up in style, Scientists design prototype of coffee cup for astronauts, and Starbucks partners up with Match to host world’s largest coffee date, creates Pantheon Blend exclusively for Starbucks Roastery, and provides coffee for troops overseas.

This Valentine’s Day season, Dunkin’ Donuts is getting all kinds of deliciously festive. They’ve added new White Chocolate Raspberry Coffee and Lattes (hot and iced) to their menus, topped off with sprinkles of red, white, and pink hearts (so cute). They’re also bringing back their heart-shaped donuts in two yummy flavors: Brownie Batter (chocolate brownie batter flavored buttercreme filling, topped with chocolate icing and heart sprinkles) and Cookie Dough (cookie dough flavored buttercreme filling, topped with chocolate icing and chocolate chips). All of these “sweet heart treats” will be available at participating Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants nationwide through the end of February. – I need to try these. Seriously, they look and sound soooo good (I’m drooling a little here, excuse me).

Researchers at Portland State University have designed a prototype of a coffee cup that can used by astronauts to sip espresso in space. They started working on the special cup after it was announced Italy planned to send an espresso machine to the International Space Station sometime this year. The prototype cups are shaped somewhat like futuristic baby-booties with a handle on the side and cost $500 dollars to make out of plastic using a 3-D printer. – Espresso machines in space? Coffee cups costing hundreds of dollars? I think the Space Station is a lot fancier than I thought it was!

Match.com, a leading online dating site, is now offering its members a new “Meet at Starbucks” feature, which allows users to send coffee invites to other members they are interesting in meeting. On Friday, February 13th, Match and Starbucks are hosting the “World’s Largest Starbucks Date” at participating Starbucks locations. The event will last from 2 pm until closing and has a special menu with coffee and treat pairings available for $5. Some of these pairing on the Starbucks US menu include Caffé Verona Coffee Press for Two with a Double Chocolate Chunk Brownie, Tall Flat White with a Chocolate Croissant, and Grande Raspberry Mocha or Grande White Chocolate Mocha with a Heart Cookie.

To celebrate the opening of their first Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room, Starbucks has crafted it’s first blend of Starbucks Reserve coffee. Called Pantheon Blend (No.1), the blend is a combination of coffees from Guatemala, Colombia, and Java. According to Leslie Wolford, senior coffee specialist at Starbucks, “The experience of this coffee comes in waves. We started with Guatemala as the anchor – it’s rich and complex. Next comes the Colombia, which has black currant notes with some sweetness that’s not too overpowering. Finally, the semi-washed Java brings in more of the body and savory notes in the coffee.” The blend is a limited time exclusive only available at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle. – I need to get a bag of this stuff. Now I’m even more tempted to take a special road trip…

Over the holidays, Starbucks sent 32,000 three-pack servings of its VIA Ready Brew Coffee (a just add water instant coffee) to U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan. The coffee donation has only recently been made public due to security concerns. – This was really nice of them, and I applaud them for giving back to the brave men and women in military service.