Monday Morning Coffee News

Happy Monday! Here’s what’s been going on with coffee lately: Starbucks expands the availability of their Cold Brew coffee, J. M. Smucker announced coffee price decrease, and MoJoe Brewing Co. launches a giveaway for one of their soon to be available mobile coffee makers.

Starbucks has announced they’ll be expanding their small-batch Cold Brew coffee to participating stores across the U.S and Canada as a core menu item (you may have seen their new, frequently aired commercials 😉 ). You may remember back in March when I first posted about the launch of Starbucks’ Cold Brew coffee and tried to figure out the logistics of how they would be going about making it – I had postulated huge batches brewed on a staggered schedule to keep up with demand, or jugs of pre-made cold coffee concentrate being shipped in. Turns out I was wrong on both accounts. Baristas at participating Starbucks stores freshly grind Starbucks® Cold Brew Blend coffee (a coffee created specifically for the cold brew method) and steep it in cold water for 20 hrs (the amount of time determined by Starbucks’ R & D team for achieving optimal flavor) to make small batches of Cold Coffee concentrate, which are then “topped of” with water and ice before serving.

Around this time last year, J.M. Smucker, the company under which Folgers and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee are sold, announced a 9% price increase for packaged bags of its coffee sold through grocery and retail stores (K-cups and bags sold through Dunkin’ Donuts stores were not affected). Now, the same company is announcing an average of 6% decrease in price. Again the price change is for most packaged Folgers and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee products, including canisters of Folgers ground coffee, but excludes K-cups and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee or other products for sale in Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants.

Mojoe, a personal mobile coffee brewer from MoJoe Brewing Co., is set to ship this August with a planned relaunch through Kickstarter in September. Mojoe is a completely self-contained travel-sized, mobile brewer that works at the touch of a button – just add water (any temperature) and your own coffee grounds (or loose tea if that’s your kind of thing). The mobile brewer can be powered by plugging it into a wall outlet, a car outlet, or by a removable rechargeable battery – making it perfect for taking it absolutely anywhere. The company is hosting a giveaway through their website for a chance to own one of the first mojoe mobile brewers hot off the production line – I’ve already entered ;), for your chance go here: http://www.mojoebrewing.com/giveaway