Results tagged “coffee”

Crain's reports that Kraft is in talks to sell its Maxwell House brand coffee to Sara Lee. This is part of Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld's ongoing efforts to raise enough capital to increase its bid to purchase confectioner Cadbury. That bid now stands at over $16 billion. Kraft has until November 9 to raise $9 billion in financing and make a formal offer for Cadbury to the British Takeover Panel. [Crain's]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, The average commute in Chicago lasts 31.6 minutes. That's among the nation's longest and, if we're "average" in any way, usually means that coffee is necessary whether you park, lock your bike, or leave the train or bus.

Early this year Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea stirred up some controversy over how they produced single-cup coffee orders. To wit: the local coffee purveyor had begun to switch how they brewed single cup coffee for patrons, abandoning the drip coffee method for a more labor and time intensive brew in the $11,000 Clover machine. That system, which was deployed in all but the Monadnock store resulted in a pricier cup of coffee and a longer wait. Fast forward seven months and Intelligentsia is again making changes in their stores.

• WTF is Homaro Cantu up to now? "Disruptive food?" [Homaro Cantu's Twitter]
• Chicken McNuggets confit [Fancy Fast Food]
• Ice Cream from one single ingredient [the Kitchn]

        

The South Loop, especially the area south of Roosevelt, is not exactly filled with brunch spots. Most weekends, we make the trek up to Hot Chocolate or the Bongo Room - both excellent options, but they’re usually packed. In our desperate search for another option, we turned (sadly) to Google - and it led us to Little Branch Café. Hidden away in the Museum Park complex, not visible from the street, Little Branch Café is an absolute gem of a restaurant, designed with style and care.

Congratulations go out to Intelligentsia's Mike Phillips. The reigning U.S. barista champion placed third in last weekend's World Championships in Atlanta. Phillips, who can be found doing latte art at Intelligentsia's Broadway store, wound up 47.5 points behind new champ Gwylim Davies of Great Britain.

    

Hadn't had the chance to visit Uncommon Ground's Edgewater location (1401 W. Devon, 773-465-9801) since it opened last year. With an old friend visiting from Colorado over the weekend, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to see how the place is doing. Judging from the bustle in the dining room Saturday night the answer was "quite well." This was "slow food" without the pretense, served masterfully with a well-trained, informed and opinionated waitstaff. The bar is also an underrated gem, although the flashing blue light of the police camera outside may trick some into thinking there's a perpetual special running.

Foodie/urban explorer, carless advocate and eager drinker of bucket boy haterade Mike Doyle is beating on a bucket of his own over at Gapers Block's Drive-Thru blog regarding Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea's decision to replace drip coffee in their retail locations with more intensive brews extracted from $11,000 Clover machines. "(A) sub-$3 cup of coffee is now a thing of the past at Intelligentsia," Doyle writes. From there, Doyle launches into overdrive, wondering if all the changes Intelligentsia has implemented in its retail locations in recent months is a case of a company putting the cart before the horse, especially in our current banana republic of an economy.

Damn you, Tampa! Some of you might remember the announcement in November 2007 that a HealthSaver Caffeinated Cities Survey listed Chicago as America's most caffeinated city. Today, the company released a new survey and we are no longer number one. In the 14+ months since that last survey, Tampa and Seattle have moved ahead of us to claim the number one and two spots, respectively. Tampa? Really? According to HealthSaver's Todd Smith, "Despite Tampa being the most caffeinated, respondents in Tampa rank number one in saying they're least likely to be addicted to caffeine...They are number one in pain reliever consumption and they are also third most likely to do energy drink consumption." Tea consumption also accounts for Tampa's high rank. So, third place? That's okay cause we still beat New York. Suck it!

    

After receiving a tip from a Chicagoist reader, we recently visited Ukrainian Village coffee shop, Star Lounge Café. The space is open and welcoming, with pieces by local artists decorating the burnt orange walls. There is the usual mixture of tables and couches, but what stood out most was the actual bar at the front of the café complete with tall barstools and close-up view of the baristas at work. Continue walking back through the glass doors and there's a hammock hanging on a spacious wooden deck and a slew of patio furniture on a grassy backyard. For a moment we thought we were transported to a mini Happy Village.

Former art teacher Dave Beckham was sick of “traditional liberal bastion coffeehouses” so he opened Conservative Café an uber-conservative, "pro-American" coffee house in Crown Point, Indiana

We were wandering around Chinatown a few weekends back and picked up some beverages from the various bakeries we passed on Wentworth Avenue. Our grandmother regularly has these odd drinks on hand, but we'd never had the privilege of having these curious libations ever pass our lips. We decided to dive in and sample the following beverages.

A wee exaggeration on our part: the two stores scheduled for shuttering are not literally across the street from other stores (the Country Club Hills store is four miles from the nearest one and the other in Elmhurst is a few blocks). The Trib offers a deeper meaning: "To people who live in more fashionable ZIP codes, the loss of a Starbucks might not be viewed as a wound to civic pride. But in Country Club Hills, the opening of the ubiquitous chain in May 2007 signified a certain cachet." Cachet or no, a few moments with our bff Google confirms that there are places in the area other than Starbucks where one can get a cup of Good Morming America.

Starbucks announced the first round of store closing across the nation, and Chicago came out unscathed ... so far.

The Tribune reports today that Intelligentsia will no longer sell 20-ounce cups of drip coffee or espresso drinks, effective August 1. Company founder and President Doug Zell said the move is all part of Intelligentsia's larger plan to "focus(ing) on intensity of flavors and providing coffee in the way it tastes best," a philosophy that Zell has long espoused.

The Tribune today listed Seattle's Best (you know, those cafés you tend to forget are located inside Borders bookstores) as having the best iced coffee in the city. In making such a bold proclamation. In doing so, they prove that one can apply words and phrases used for wine or beer reviews such as "fragrance," "bold but mellow," "smooth," and "nutty" and still not know what one's talking about.

Best for Food: Lovely Bakery in Wicker Park. Their homemade soups are creative and fresh and their Mollie’s Dollies are the best treat around to spend your calories-er, money on.

It's free iced coffee day at Dunkin Donuts. Here are Dunkin's Chicago locations, and while we stick with regular or French vanilla (we know, we know, diabetes juice, but it's so tasty), you can also get toasted almond, raspberry, hazelnut, coconut, chocolate, cinnamon, caramel, and blueberry. They're hyping "berry berry," which is made with the flavors of berries both rasp and blue.

The Cubs have recently instructed Carlos Zambrano to cut the caffeine. While he admits to reducing his intake, he hasn't been able to quit cold turkey.

If you're cramming for a test, need a post-dinner pick me up or want a Paul McCartney CD between the hours of 5:30 and 8:30 tonight, you'll have to go somewhere other than Starbucks. Nearly all of the coffee chain's locations will be closed for a company-wide education and training session for employees. Dunkin' Donuts just happens to have a promotion running today and will be giving away free lattes. Our favorite quote in the Trib's story comes courtesy of Frances Allen, Dunkin' Donuts' brand marketing officer: "We never want any customers to ever be denied access to their specialty drinks." You tell 'em, Ms. Allen. Let's draft a constitutional amendment guaranteeing Frappuncino availability.

Help Me Wake Up!

Steve Jobs unveiled the Macbook Air today, and it's reaaaaaally skinny--less than an inch thick--and pretty. Quick, somebody spot us $1,800 and we'll take it for a testblog. [Apple]

Having tasted the Holy Grail of coffee in October, we were curious to see how some also-rans fared, in comparison. By chance we came across a second place winner from last year's Nicaragua Cup of Excellence while making our monthly bean run at our local coffee shop.

There are precious few days left for your last-minute holiday shopping. If you're out to get a jump on the crowds, consider catching an early breakfast and shopping through the lunch rush by hitting one of these Near West Side joints.

Sixty years ago today, David Mamet was born, and we get a kick imagining the first word out of his mouth once he acquired the ability to speak being "fuck." To be fair, anyone who watches The Unit on CBS 2 Tuesday nights knows that Mamet doesn't need to swear to get his dialogue across. But sometimes it's just funner. In honor of Mamet's birthday we look back at one of his classic scenes:...

What? You didn't think you'd go a day without reading something from us, did you? Anyway, we were cleaning up our inbox when we came across a press release trumpeting the Monday opening of Uncommon Ground's new eco-friendly Edgewater location. The space at 1401 W. Devon will feature rooftop solar thermal panels, wood table tops made using reclaimed wood from Jackson Park, a 100-year-old art deco bar and eventually a rooftop will be utilized as...

When the weather turns, we tend to switch up our beer choices. Colder weather typically calls for heartier brews: monster ales, porters, and stouts. Now we love a good stout as much as anyone, but as someone with not a drop of Irish to be found in our genealogy, we like to explore the darkest of beers. Often, the sweet flavor and clingy, slightly sour finish in stouts comes from the addition of lactic acid...

So we picked up this morning's Onion, we're sorry, we mean RedEye, and spit our coffee after reading Dustin J. Seibert's column. Who is Dustin J. Seibert you ask? Yeah, we didn't know either, but his theory about women has absolutely entranced us. His theory? Women who aren't much to look at (and aren't bitter because of it) tend to compensate with solid personalities. And some beautiful ladies don't really need personalities to get what...

Don't forget to baste that turducken. Buy-backs at Goldstar Rory Lake's Karaoke Dreams The after-show mainstage improv sets at Second City -- Margaret Christmas morning shots at Inner Town Atomix Coffee Free Monday shows at the Empty Bottle -- Sarah Swanksalot helps us celebrate swanksgiving by turning the world on its ear....