“It’s not just coffee. It’s Starbucks.”

I knew it...It was never about the coffee...Now let's see these two caffeine pushers duke it out.

Back To The Basics

SBUX is going back to the semi-auto espresso machines.

Slutbucks??

What is the big fuss?? The naked half naked mermaid was SBUX's original logo. People got way too much free time on their hands...

Here Comes the Bear.

I wish this post doesn’t make me appear to be as a cheerleader for the bad news, quite contrary, I am not. I believe in good, I always try to find the positives in any adverse situations, and my glass is always half full.

About 2 weeks before that Frenchy dropped the Financial bomb, and that caused the panic selling around the global equity markets, a trader friend of mine already painted a bleak picture; a devastating plunge in US equity indices. Well, it happened, and the scary part is that we are not done yet! In the immediate future, we could see at least another 1,000 point drop in Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is currently at 12,552.24 after closed up 178.83 for today.

Well, I am not a financial planner, and I am not qualified to give any financial advices. But if you want to know what financial vehicles that will increase in value during the down market, because they have the inverse relationships (short) with their counterparts. Here is the list. I don’t mean to alarm you, and maybe I am totally wrong about the impending doom. I also heard that the market could bottom out by mid March, and I guess that is the bright side.

Here is a simple list;
DOG (Dow 30) 62.80
SH (S&P 500), 65.22
PSQ (QQQQ), 61.68

La Marzocco GS/3.

It is sleek, beautiful, and from a great name in the business. I played with it at the Coffee Fest in Chicago last year, and I was impressive with it from the shots (Alterra's Espresso Blend) I pulled myself. At US$7500.00, they sure priced themselves out of the home machine market...

The Coffee Studio

Our coffee friends at The Coffee Studio is in today’s Chicago Tribune! They don’t need me to pump them up, their coffee can do the talking for them. This charming place is a must visit on the Chicago’s coffee shop list.

Chicago Transit Espresso.

Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is toying with the ideas of having the limited hour coffee services on some of its “L” platform stops. Starbucks and Intelligentsia were mentioned as the potential vendors in the local WBBM News Radio segment.

The Bottom Is In!

The greenback is so unloved even the supermodel Gisele Bundchen demands to get paid in any currency other than our dollars. I had a conversation with a trader friend of mine a few weeks ago, and later I ran a Fibonacci calculation, which offered the projection that matched the high end target in this Bloomberg news article. I am sure you all have heard of “Herd Mentality”, and Gisele is one of the confirmations that the bottome is near...

Happy 20th Anniversary!

Yup! It has been twenty years since the “Black Monday” in 1987. This quarter's quadruple witching also puts a damper in today’s market action.

Esmeralda's Preview Party.

Intelligentsia is having a special preview party for the 2007 award winning Esmeralda at its roasting facility on October 1. For US$25.00, you get to taste one the most expensive coffee in the world and a ¼ pound of its less famous kin. I may just pony up the money for the bragging right.

Tsk...Tsk...Tsk...God Bless You...

If you can’t tell the difference between the two.

Hyper Espresso.

Illy has a new home espresso machine coming out in September according to an article in today's Wall Street Journal. This new machine (US$600~US$800) requires Illy's proprietary coffee filled capsules, which comes in about $50.00 per pound of coffee. As far as I know, it doesn't do latte art...

Attention Stock Jockeys!

Sunny Micro (NASDAQ:SUNW) is changing its ticker to JAVA on Monday, August 27th, and, no, its business has nothing to do with "coffee".

The New WBC Champ.

James Hoffmann, the barista champion from UK is crowned as the 2007 World barista champ this past weekend. His name has emerged from the coffee-centric forums and blogs onto the front page of the international news (although all of them misspelled his last name). I don’t know James personally, but I follow his blog and Flickr. In the end, I congratulate James and his team for the job well done.

Click here to watch his title winning presentation.

Bonus feature: Milk tasting. Selecting the right milk for James’ cappuccini.

Sun Lovers.

MB Kiting: 0903, Rokkaku & Icarus
Originally uploaded by ciordia9.

I am a sun worshiper. I love the sun in the big blue sky and the smell of the sun kissed skin, but I also concern about the skin cancer. This research report gives me some hope even though the researchers did this study on the mice.

L’Orange.

ING (Internationale Nederlanden Group) is a global financial services company with its HQ in Netherlands. It has been quietly opening up cafes around the country, and there is one in Chicago.

A friend of mine texted me about it a week ago, and Chicago Tribune just ran a story yesterday. Go check it out, use their free wi-fi and drink their free coffee when they're open later this month!

What Would You Do to Win A Million Dollars?

The contest was long over. Even though I didn't make it to the final, I was satisfied with my result.

Then, I read something about the alleged cheatings among some finalists a few days ago, but it didn't elaborate on the details until today.

During the contest, I was amazed by some contestants who were able to pick big winners consistently, while I labored myself trying to keep up with them. Now we know that they took the advantage of CNBC's flawed software design.

Anyway, I had fun, and it was a lot easier to trade with the funny money with no emotional burden...

Money Never Sleeps Pal.

A little birdie tells me that 20th Century Fox is planning on filming Wall Street II.

Gordo the Great, way to go!

SKIN, BABY, SKIN!

USA TODAY
Seattle-area coffee shops show a little skin to compete for business, and I say, "Why not?!"

Click and meet the baristas at The Sweet Spot Cafe, Cowgirls Espresso, Natte Latte, and Moka Girls.

Congratulations to Rob and Chris.

Rob and Chris are my favorite CGs, and both of whom can pour some killer latte art (Rob taught me how to pour latte art). Rob and Chris won the Latte Art Contest in two different categories that was sponsored by Whole Latte Love. Pretty awesome, eh?

Just one coffee related news...

Ghetto latte. This is nothing new, but it is funny to see people (cheap people) always trying to beat the system...