Starbucks Corporation

Woman Named "Virginia" Goes To Starbucks; Gets "Vagina" Written On Her Cup

It was bound to happen sooner or later: a Starbucks barista, either having misheard the name "Virginia" or not able to spell it, has written "Vagina" on a customer's order.

Starbucks CEO The Subject Of A Comic Book

Spider-Man, Superman, they may have superpowers but do they have a worldwide empire and an army of baristas they built up from a local Seattle coffee shop called Starbucks? Howard Schultz did, became a billionaire and the subject of many a business school case study, and now he's also a comic book h ... More >>

Starbucks Tests Video Chat Screens At Drive-Thrus

Compared to the fast food stalwarts that pioneered it, Starbucks drive-thrus are still kind of a new thing. The company's first foray with it began in 1994, seven years after Howard Schultz bought it from the original owners and twenty-three years after the first Starbucks opened in 1971. But now i ... More >>

Seattle Woman Vows To Only Eat Starbucks For a Year

A Seattle blogger named Beautiful Existence, no really,  that's her name, has vowed to only eat what she can find at Starbucks and its affiliated stores like Tazo and Evolution Fresh for the entire year.

Stocking Stuffer For One-Percenters: Starbucks' $450 Stainless Steel Gift Card

When a regular old Starbucks gift card just won't do, there's the Starbucks Metal Card--the coffee gift card to end all coffee gift cards. It will be available for sale for $450 starting this Friday at the luxury goods site gilt.com and will be preloaded with $400 of Starbucks credit on it. The extr ... More >>

Starbucks Says There Is No Pumpkin Spice Latte Shortage; Confirms Pumpkin Spice Latte Ice Cream Rumors

To be honest, I had never heard of the Pumpkin Spice Latte until this year. And I've still not tasted what people are calling the "hipster's McRib". Then again, I don't have a Twitter account and I'm barely on Facebook. But apparently there was two pieces of Pumpkin Spice Latte news yesterday:  ... More >>

A Very Brief Review of Starbucks' Cool Lime Refresher

I ended up at the Starbucks on Bristol and Memory Lane today because my favorite Mexican bakery, Las 3 Princesas, didn't make any champurrado today and I needed something to dip their excellent pan de anís in. While I placed my order for a latte, the barista offered me a sample of the new Refresher ... More >>

Starbucks Introduces New Fruity Energy Drinks Made From Unroasted Coffee Beans; Free Samples This Friday

It was early last month that Starbucks announced it was buying a San Francisco bakery in an effort to improve its food offerings. It was late last month that it said it was opening a standalone store dedicated to serving its Tazo brand of tea. This month Schultz and Co. is getting into the energy dr ... More >>

Two OC Starbucks To Sell Beer and Wine

Earlier this year, Starbucks reported plans to test-market beer and wine sales in a few, select markets across the country, and named Southern California as one such region. We learned the chain has chosen two Orange County locations where their baristi won't have to change their job titles, since t ... More >>

McDonald's And Starbucks To Get Greener With Coffee Cups

​There's a bit of news that came one after this week regarding how two of the biggest coffee drink purveyors, McDonald's and Starbucks, are both rethinking the way they serve coffee. MSNBC reports that McDonald's is trying out new, more easily recyclable paper coffee cups in about 2,000 of it ... More >>

Starbucks Opens First Juice Bar

​Starbucks, after introducing alcohol to a few test stores, is now going into juices. It's going to open its first juice bar in Bellevue, Washington today. Called Evolution Fresh, these new stores will sell fresh and bottled fruit and vegetable juices as well as smoothies, salad, wraps and soups, ... More >>

AleSmith's Speedway Stout, Our Drink of the Week

​Sometimes, I just want beer and coffee at the same time, not because I enjoy being wired and inebriated simultaneously, just as my Four Loko-loving college-aged brethren do, but because beer and coffee both have a relaxing quality that is unmatched. Unfortunately, bringing a six-pack into Starbu ... More >>

Starbucks Supports Gay Marriage

​Even if their coffee's not really your thing, this might warm you up to the StarCorp. The company has come out in support of Washington State legislation that recognizes marriage equality for same-sex couples.Here's the letter sent out to nearly 150,000 employees: 

Martin Diedrich Did It First: Starbucks Introduces "Blonde Roast"

​Ask a coffee connoisseur why they don't like Starbucks coffee and it's a fair bet they'll tell you that it tastes burnt, that it's over-roasted, that it's the world's most expensive and least efficient charcoal filter for water.

Starbucks Frappuccino Bottles 'Perfect Containers'for Molotov Cocktails

​The New York Times reports that in a rash of firebombings in the city this past Sunday, the vessel of choice of the perpetrator was not beer bottles, not mason jars, but rather the "dainty, 9.5-ounce glass containers" of the popular Starbucks Frappuccino drink.

Website Features Names Misspelled by Starbucks Baristas

Starbucks SpellingAka Colin. ​Our new favorite way to waste four minutes. Starbucks Spelling is an amusing Tumblr blog that collects photos of misspelled names on drinks. Carina is translated as "Borin," Craig gets translated as "Wreck" and Kendall is interpreted as "Tandul." Hey, as long as the b ... More >>

Starbucks Gets Sued by The Feds for Firing Worker with Dwarfism

Reuters reports that Starbucks has been slapped by a lawsuit from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for firing a barista-in-training with dwarfism in El Paso, Texas. The barista was terminated because she asked for a stool or a small stepladder to perform her job.The feds argue that this v ... More >>

[UPDATED: Residents Speak Out] Garden Grove Police Want Little Saigon Waitresses To Put On Some Clothes

Cafe Miss Cutie Facebook PageWaitresses at Cafe Miss Cutie: "Would you like a smoothie with melons?"UPDATE, MAY 11, 1:17 A.M.: After the jump, read community responses to the proposed ordinance. ORIGINAL POST, MAY 10, 9:21 A.M.: Vietnamese coffee shops are getting too hot for Garden Grove polic ... More >>

Starbucks "Secret Menu": The Key Lime Pie Frappuccino

Daniel Tomita​So it's no secret that there are all sorts of crazy personalized concoctions people foist upon their local Starbucks baristas, but this is the first time we heard of this one. OC Weekly Twitter follower @RikiYamada (follow us on Twitter at @OCWeekly and @OCWeeklyFood) was kind enough ... More >>

Starbucks Offering Free Coffee And Tea On Earth Day

​Earth Day is on Friday, April 22, and if receiving a Pike Place or Passion tea on-the-go at no cost sounds like a plan, then you're in for a treat. Select Starbucks locations will be pouring your choice of hot coffee or tea that day just for bringing in your own travel mug. The website does not ... More >>

Free Gourmet Dessert at Starbucks This Weekend to Celebrate 40th Birthday

Looking fresher at 40...​On Tuesday, Starbucks introduced a redesigned Siren logo, special merchandise, a new blend and petite sweets to celebrate 40 years of teaching the world the difference between tall, grande and venti. Those Seattle folk certainly know how to throw a party, and it continues ... More >>

Gift Wrath: Retailers Walk Fine Line at Christmas

Be more jolly!​Gustavo blogged about California Coalition for Immigration Reform head Barbara Coe forwarding to her knuckle-dragging followers an article critical of Best Buy's all inclusive Thanksgiving greeting including a happy Eid Al-Adha wish to Muslims, which naturally forced Babs to conclud ... More >>

What's the Rush: Topics on Convenience

Cal State Fullerton

Starbucks Paying for Legal Defense of Former Barista, Admitted Statutory Rapist

Generic picture of coffee lest Starbucks get snippy with any parodies of its stupid logo...​Better stop buying your Frappuccinos and whatever other drinks Starbucks brews--your hard-earned cash just might be going to the legal defense of a former barista criminally convicted of statutory rape. In ... More >>

Now Peet's Joins the Coffee Wars: Freebie on Friday

​As if Starbucks and McDonald's weren't enough, we now have the superior (in my opinion) Peet's in the mix, luring us in with comp'd drinks.Participating locations will be offering a free 8oz Caffè Freddo (that's a cold one) from 2 to 3 p.m. on Friday, August 7.

McDonald's Coffee Update--And "Free Mocha Mondays"

Every Monday from July 13 through August 3, participating McDonald's will be handing out one complimentary reduced-size cup of hot or iced mocha per person as part of a "nationwide sampling". An estimated 10 million cups will be served over the four weeks.As for whether or not McD's attempt at corne ... More >>

This Week In Food

Starbucks and Subway inexplicably made it to the top of Zagat's latest fast food and chain list.There was news of another OC Restaurant Week in September. Can't wait!More stuff to look forward to: Stars of Santa Barbara--complete with top DJ!--at South Coast Plaza, and SOL Cucina in Newport Beach.An ... More >>

The New Kéan Coffee in Tustin Has a Familiar Feel, Smell and Taste

In The Battle Of The Beans, Starbucks Should Be Worried

Just as the new ads for Starbucks are lazy, the ones for McDonald's new coffees are horrendously grating, not to mention lowbrow. "McCafé Your Day" is bad enough, but how about "A Better Day is Possiblé"? Huh?. Or  "It's All About The Accent Mark"? Accent mark???.So I naturally assumed that t ... More >>

Starbucks News, Including Four Imminent Closures

Yet another round of Starbucks closures was recently announced, including a dozen locations in Orange County. Combined with those from the previous wave that are yet to shutter, that makes 15, four of which (in bold below) have definite closing dates at this time.The branches set to close are:Anahei ... More >>

Starbucks Doing Cheap Breakfast Combos?

"Starbucks Launches Cheaper Coffee-and-Food Combos" the article in Reuters was titled, and with it, I saw two words I'd never thought I'd see in the same sentence with the name "Starbucks": Cheaper and Food Combos.  But that's exactly what they're doing. Why? Well, I.T.E.S (it's the economy stupi ... More >>

[Trendzilla] Necklush Life

Tustin's Lost Bean Coffeehouse Is How Starbucks Should've Been

Because You're Ugly: "I am Not a Paper Cup!"

Those $1.80 daily cups of Starbucks coffee not only add up after a while—that's $54 a month and $648 a year—but those disposable paper cups do, too. Now you can bring in a totally reusable and totally eco-friendly coffee cup to the shop everyday, without worrying about plastic toxins and the l ... More >>

Landscape Legend

William Wendt: In Nature’s Temple

Mmm . . . Vittles

Hardtack, biscuits & gravy, salt pork, beef jerky, burritos, falafel, & banh mi—you know, cowboy  food

Irvine Starbucks Climate Crisis Discussion Today

Just came over the wire: At 2 p.m. today, the Starbucks Coffee at 3995 Alton Pkwy. in Irvine is hosting a "National Day of Discussion" on the issue of "climate crisis" in support of a new Paramount/National Geographic-sponsored film, Arctic Tale. Filmmakers Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson, as wel ... More >>

Free crap that came in the mail

When you write for a paper, people just send you stuff, hoping you'll do a story about it. These two big packages came in the OC Weekly mail the other day, addressed to me, presumably because they read my cover story about puppets and thought that somehow I'd be up for a feature on Starbucks' new l ... More >>

Meet the New Music Boss

Not the same as the old music boss

There's a Spotlight Here with Your Name on It (Possibly)

Hello... is this thing on? Check! Check! Okay. Everything appears to be in working order. I'm Dave Segal, the new music editor of OC Weekly. Pleased to meet you. To expand a bit on this post by Tom Child, I come here from Seattle, where there are as many bands as there are Starbucks units. A fa ... More >>

'Back to Square One'

Martin Diedrich celebrates the death of his familys coffee chain

Hey, You!

The Bicyclist Manifesto

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Cave

Ah, the Starbucks at UCI. There are few better places to score (or, in my case, just scope) erudite chicks. Right now there's a blonde sitting nearby who could pass for Galadriel: tall, willowy, with eyes like emerald searchlights. Or maybe they're hazel - to find out would require exceedingly cree ... More >>

Young Man-Baby Spotted

As I sit outside a Newport Beach Starbucks, four young folk stride out of the parking lot in mid-conversation. "Oh," exclaims one girl, "if only we could live off our parents' money forever." Everyone laughs. "Wouldn't that be great?" They look young. High school, maybe. They don't sound sarcastic ... More >>

Star-bucker

Xtine Hanson takes on corporate coffee with Delocator.net

Hey, You!

Late Latte

MONKEY IN THE WINDOW

Your Rainy-Day Reader

Too much time on your hands? Clone Bukowski from barf

No-Show Perot

The Starbucks Solution

Mike Sheldrake figured he was dead when Starbucks opened two stores near his indie coffeehouse. Now his business is up 40 percent.