A three-week-old McDonald's in Saratoga Springs is a prototype for a new upscale, Starbucks-like redesign for the chain that could be making its way around the globe, featuring "trendy, upholstered booths, a stone fireplace, and comfy lounge chairs. Gone are the iconic Golden Arches. Instead, there's a short, modern sign on a tuft of grass outside. Instead of a cardboard cutout of the 'Hamburglar' next to the counter, there's a bowl full of Granny Smith apples and a glass display of salads. There are warm tones of sage green and brown, not the traditional bright yellow and red."... More

Coffee drinkers, prepare to get jittery on someone else's dime—the NY Sun says you're "in for a lot of free coffee in the next couple of weeks": The first freebie is tomorrow, when McDonald's will hand out free cups of the stuff to anyone who asks for it, at any location. It's in celebration of being named by Consumer Reports as having the best coffee for the price (compared with other fastfood chains).Then next Thursday, Starbucks is celebrating its second annual "coffee break" by pouring free 12-ounce cups (tall, not grande or venti) of brewed coffee between 10 a.m. and noon.And then finally, on Wednesday, March 21, Dunkin' Donuts will celebrate the first day of spring with a free 16-ounce... More

One of the most surprising vistas in China is the Starbucks tucked into a corner of Beijing's Forbidden City, which has sold coffee to all and sundry since 2000 (at the behest of palace managers, who needed to raise money for maintenace of the villas and gardens). Apparently it may not stay there much longer.... More

Remember our post on Starbucks getting rid of milk from cows treated with rBGH in half its stores? Apparently, rBGH does not show up in milk--the fluid itself is rBGH free. However, cows given rBGH are at a much higher risk of mastitis, an udder infection usually treated with antibiotics, which do come through the milk. See the NRN Food Service Blog for a fleshing out of the semantics.... More

Yay Starbucks for ridding its milk supply of the controversial artificial growth hormone rBGH. (Apparently last month, they stopped selling pastries made with trans fats at half of their locations. Which half, we wonder? And what about the other half?) Spokesman Brandon Borrman says the company boosted its hormone-free milk percentage from 27 to 37 percent this month and will keep going until all the milk is hormone-free. So far, they've found hormone-free milk suppliers in Northern California, New England, New Mexico, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. It's especially telling that Borrman mentioned that the action isn't necessary for Starbucks' overseas locations because the supplement is not allowed in "most other nations." Taiwan and Mexico never allowed Starbucks to... More

We don't know that there's an answer to this puzzling question, but the best place to look would be Starbucking, an indie documentary out on April 24th that follows a man named Winter as he attempts to visit every Starbucks-owned (non-franchise) Starbucks in the world. The company opens an average of 10 new Starbucks-owned Starbucks a week, but Winter's already hit up over 6,000 since 1997. Can anyone do the math? Will he actually make it? "My name is Winter. Only Winter. Past articles referring to a name other than Winter reflect inaccurate/imprecise reporting because they do not tell the whole story. Since most articles do not have space to tell the whole story, simply stick to this fact: my... More