Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Starbucks to grow coffee in China

Starbucks will grow coffee in the Yunnan province of China.

http://business.globaltimes.cn/industries/2010-11/591953.html

How much coffee does the world drink?

According to economist Stefano Ponte, 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed daily throughout the world. 

Coffee as a substitute for alcohol in 19th-century Norway (article)

Ole-Jørgen Skog, "Studying Cultural Change: Were the Changes in Alcohol and Coffee Consumption in the Nineteenth Century a Case of Beverage Substitution," Acta Sociologica 49/3 (September 2006): 287-302.  Evidence from Norway.

Upmarket Cadbury Cocoa Houses to challenge coffee shops in England

Borrowing from the tradition of the Lyons tea shops (begun in 1894), the Cadbury Cocoa Houses will challenge American-style coffee shops with upmarket foods and service.

English pubs that serve breakfast and good coffee

The Economist, 18-24 September 2010, reports on J.D.Wetherspoon, a chain of 775 pubs that opens in the morning to serve breakfast and coffee.  Wetherspoon serves more breakfasts than any other chain except McDonalds and more coffee than any other chain than Starbucks and Costa.    By opening in morning to serve non-alcoholic food and drink, Wetherspoon hopes to avoid the fate of other pubs that are disappearing at the rate of 39 per week. 

Coffee culture (book)

Catherine M. Tucker, Coffee Culture: Local Experiences, Global Connections (Routledge Series for Creative Teaching and Learning in Anthropology) (Routledge, forthcoming 2010).  By an anthropologist.

European coffee war brewing over pods: Nestle versus Sara Lee and others

Once consigned to the dull office coffee market, coffee pods have become increasingly fashionable and popular.  In the European ground coffee market (worth $17 billions) pods comprise 20% to 40% of sales. Coffee pod pioneer Nestle is fighting off Sara Lee and other competitors for this growing business.  For more, see here.

Did coffee kill Balzac?

Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac reminds us that on August 18, 1850, the French writer Honoré de Balzac died at the age of 51.  His death has been attributed to heavy coffee drinking, each day twenty to forty cups of strong Turkish coffee. For a quotation from Balzac describing how coffee fueled his literary imagination, see here.

Coffee in the context of European drinking habits (book)

Daniela U. Ball, ed., Kaffee im Spiegel europäischer Trinksitten (Zurich: Johann Jacobs Museum, 1991). Courtesy of Bob Thurston.

Wi-Fi or no/limited wi-fi at coffee shops?

Coffee shops pioneered free wi-fi.  Belatedly, Starbucks joined the free wi-fi movement a few weeks ago. Now more and more coffee shops are closing down wi-fi at meal hours or eliminating it altogether.  Part of the reason for eliminating or restricting wi-fi is to provide more table for active customers, especially those eating a meal, instead of computer users nursing a small coffee.. Part of the motive is to restore an atmosphere of conversation and not one of isolated zombie tables with computers users equipped with earbuds for music and with their eyes on their screens.  For more, see here.