Police are looking for a thief or thieves who took off with four commercial coffee machines valued at $29,000 from a private home in the Isle of Capri. The resident planned to show off his Barista machines to friends in preparation for opening a new coffee vending business. While a robbery might seem run-of-the-course, it might not be so easy to pawn such large machines in such a small area. Good luck, robbers! Read the story at the St. Petersburg Times.

I reported earlier this month about some Orangeburg, South Carolina, police who might have been affected by coffee cleaner as they sipped their morning brew. But, it turns out that nothing was found to justify this claim. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) completed tests on coffee samples taken from the Orangeburg IHOP restaurant where four Orangeburg County Sheriff’s deputies became ill earlier this month. The tests results have been forwarded to the State Law Enforcement Division. This is turning into a real mystery! Read more at the Times and Democrat.

Starbucks is stranger than any truth, but they’ve really stretched the limits this time. Chinese authorities are training their official censorious guns on a Starbucks retail shop nestled subversively in Beijing’s famed Forbidden City compound. It seems that this Starbucks is an insult to down-home, homegrown, true-red Chinese culture. According to Tom Plate, “In truth, any Starbucks is a kind of unintended insult to any local culture — everywhere, period. Starbucks infest the planet like corporate locusts that quietly but steadily eat away at local cultural foliage.” Read his opinion and facts about the Chinese connection at Asia Media.

Posted by beanybabe at 1:16 AM PST

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This shot is making its way around the Web, so I thought I’d get in on the rumour mill (ground medium, please). It’s a hoax, I’m sure of it, although NewLaunches.com added it to their site. Granted, the last paragraph makes room for the possibility of a joke: “Though still in a conceptual stage the practicality of the MugMouse is rather questionable, for I’m sure sooner or later there will be coffee spill all over the desks!”

Posted by beanybabe at 12:50 AM PST

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This year’s Hawaii coffee crop is a double shot — lower Kona production but higher output on the other islands. In an off-year for a crop that tends to alternate between larger and smaller harvests because of the way the trees grow, Hawaii coffee growers will produce 7.3 million pounds this season. Read more at Pacific Business News.

The Kalinga province has another brand of brewed coffee to capture the renowned “Kalinga taste” among coffee lovers. Noryn Bagano of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) provincial office said the new brand — Saltan Brewed Coffee — carries the name of the place where it originates, along the bank of Saltan River in Taga, Pinukpuk. Read more at the Sun Star.

More than a year after coffee futures in India met with a major snag and never came out of that, another leading exchange has sought the approval of the Forwards Market Commission (FMC) to launch coffee futures. The request of the MCX is before the FMC, though exchange officials refused to comment on it. Read more at Yahoo! Finance India

Posted by beanybabe at 12:50 AM PST

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Found this cartoon in the monthly AARP (Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons) newsletter (yes, I’m old enough, just not retired!). If you can’t read the text in the balloon, it says, “I’m pretty sure we’re in the last unexplored territory on earth.” Right.

Posted by beanybabe at 12:47 AM PST

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Ok, so we all now know about Starbucks and their use of bovine growth hormone in their dairy products (rBGH). But would you dress up like a cow to protest this usage? Some folks from the activist group Food and Water Watch did in D.C. - but would you expect anything less in the nation’s capitol? Read more at NBC.

Here’s a little detail that could add to your fiction: It’s a felony to add any type of foreign material inside food; so if you’re a Detroit teenager who adds hand lotion to your teacher’s coffee, you could be in a world of crap. Just ask the two teens who were suspended from school for this prank. Read more at NewsNet5.

A 28-year-old San Rafael, California coffee shop employee was caught stealing from his employer at Peet’s Coffee and Tea on Third Street after detectives reviewed the store’s video surveillance system. They were able to identify the suspect “”based on his clothing, mannerisms, and use of the safe code.” DUH! Police found the employee at home, where most of the cash, as well as the clothing worn during the crime, were found in his bedroom. DOUBLE DUH! Read more at CBS5.

Posted by beanybabe at 12:46 AM PST

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