COFFEE NEWS

It’s official. Diedrich Coffee is out of the retail cafe business.

The Irvine-based coffee company said it plans to sell its last cafe chain, Gloria Jean’s Coffees, to Praise International North America for $3.1 million. The deal, which includes 102 domestic cafes in 24 states, effectively ends Diedrich Coffee’s legacy as a cafe retailer.

Since selling several Diedrich cafes to Starbucks a few years ago, the company has focused on building its wholesale coffee roasting business. The Gloria Jean sale, announced after the market closed Friday, is another move in that direction,  Diedrich Chief executive J. Russell Phillips said during a phone interview Monday.

“We’re going to continue to stay the course of wholesale,” Phillips said. “This was certainly not a surprise to exit retail. It’s been our strategy.”

A decade ago, Diedrich Coffee pushed rapid growth via acquisitions of rival chains and expansion of its flagship coffee house brand. In 1999, Diedrich purchased Gloria Jean’s parent company, Coffee People, in a $27 million deal financed largely through a stock offering.

At the time, the mall-based Gloria Jean coffee retailer had 282 locations worldwide. But the company never appeared to recover financially from the rapid expansion.

It eventually sold off the international segment of Gloria Jean in 2005. A year later, it sold a bulk of the Diedrich Coffee and Coffee People cafes to Starbucks. The domestic Gloria Jean division was the Irvine coffee firm’s last remaining retail chain operation. (One Diedrich Coffee franchise kiosk remains at Crevier BMW in Santa Ana.)

Orange County is home to three Gloria Jean cafes in Brea, Mission Viejo and Westminster.

The $3.1 million deal includes a five-year roasting agreement that gives Diedrich the right to sell the Gloria Jean’s Coffees brand as part of its wholesale business. In the 2nd quarter, Diedrich said wholesale revenue increased $3.2 million or 32 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

Source: http://fastfood.freedomblogging.com/2009/03/30/diedrich-coffee-sells-its-last-retail-cafe-operations/16845/

Those of you who’ve sampled Thai coffee in Thai restaurants may be surprised to know that it contains corn and soy beans as well as coffee. You can buy Oliang powder, as the coffee is called, in most Asian groceries.

One of my favorites is Thai 888, just south of the Asian Center on South Federal. There are also several other Asian groceries in the area, including a couple actually in the Asian Center. In Aurora, Lek’s Asian Market, at 112 Del Mar Circle, is a great place to shop for all kinds of Thai, Filipino and other Asian ingredients. Other markets include Pacific Mercantile, at 1925 Lawrence downtown, Pacific Ocean International Supermarket at 2200 W. Alameda and many others around the city. Look in your local Yellow Pages under Groceries for more.

You can make traditional Thai iced coffee by mixing 4 T of the oiliang powder into 1 cup of boiling water. Strain the mixture into a glass of ice and add condensed milk to taste. Stir well.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-4213-Denver-Ethnic-Foods-Examiner~y2009m3d30-How-to-make-traditional-Thai-coffee

Even as timely pre-blossom showers hold promise of a better coffee crop for the next season starting November, growers are reportedly shifting to cultivation of robustas from arabicas.

“There seems to be no relief from the white stem borer, which has affected the arabica plants during the last few years. Growers are fed up of this and are, therefore, replanting the affected arabicas with robustas,” said a planter from Kodagu.

Plucking the plant from the soil and destroying it is seen as the best solution to overcome the stem borer menace.

However, despite best efforts, the problem is continuing, affecting arabica production. Usually, it takes four years for the first harvest from a coffee plant.

Growers will have to replant the crop that is plucked and it is here that they are going in for robustas.

“Though some of the estates may seem to grow arabicas, in many, robustas are grown inside,” said the planter.

Downslide

Arabica production touched a record 1.21 lakh tonnes (lt) in 2001-02. Since then, it has been on a downslide. The last time it topped one lakh tonnes was in 2004-05, when the production hit 1.03 lt. During 2006-07, it almost touched 1 lt but since then it has been on a downhill ride.

For the current year, the Coffee Board, in its revised estimated, had projected arabica production at 90,050 tonnes but actual production is reported to be lower.

“Growers are switching over to robustas on a smaller scale, not on a large scale,” said Mr Ramesh Rajah, President of Coffee Exporters Association.

Mr Bose Mandanna, a planter in Kodagu, said growers were switching over to robustas and effects of it could be seen soon. From making up 73 per cent of the total area under coffee in 1950-51, arabicas now make up 47 per cent with robustas comprising the rest.

However, areas under robustas and arabicas have been increasing consistently every year.

Output

In terms of production, since 1990-91, robustas’ output has been consistently higher than that for arabicas.

Meanwhile, arabica production this year is feared to be the lowest since 1998-99.

“We hardly got 50 per cent of our usual production in our estates,” said Mr Mandanna.

Other growers reported much lower output and some exporters are reporting lower arrivals of arabicas. Mr Rajah said the actual production of arabicas, though lower, was yet to be ascertained.

“Arrivals may be lower because growers could be holding on to their produce,” he said.

Better crop

The Coffee Board has pegged this year’s production at 2.76 lt (1.875 lt robustas) against 2.62 lt last year. However, there are hopes of a better crop next season. “We have had good pre-blossom showers and could be getting a very good crop,” said Mr Mandanna.

“The timely showers are a good news,” said Mr Rajah.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/03/31/stories/2009033151121800.htm

US-based Starbucks (www.starbucks.com), the world’s largest coffee house chain, will open a store in the Black Seacity of Burgas on March 26, its third in Bulgaria.

The new 130-square-meter coffee shop is to open in Burgas Plaza Mall, company executives announced, without specifying the cost of the investment.

“We are very proud that almost four months after we entered the Bulgarian market, Starbucks will open its first unit on the Black Sea coast,” Giannis Kalfakakos, CEO of Marinopoulos Coffee Company, Starbuck’s joint venture partner, stated.

The chain, which entered the domestic market via Greece-based Marinopoulos Coffee Company in December 2008, has opened two units in the capital city of Sofia.

Starbucks and Marinopoulos also operate in Romania.

Source: http://www.balkans.com/open-news.php?uniquenumber=59240791

ICE   Change   RangeMay 1.1655   -95 pts   1.1625-1.1790Jly 1.1855   +95 pts   1.1820-1.1990

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/dj-ice-coffee-review-lower/story.aspx?guid={81CEBE93-7639-48EE-BB20-2D8C5883490A}&dist=msr_4

It turns out that it’s possible to develop film in a mixture of instant coffee, washing soda and vitamin C. This is, to me, amazing. Here’s the recipe.

12 oz. water

5 teaspoons instant coffee crystals

3 1/2 teaspoons washing soda

1/2 teaspoon vitamin C powder

Dubbed cafenol (its a geeky photochem joke), the developer is used just like a regular developing solution, only you can make it by raiding the kitchen cupboard (apart from the instant coffee, of course. We know you all have French presses and espresso machines). You will still need a real fixer solution to deactivate the light sensitive materials, and you’ll need to take the same care in loading the film into a developing tank as you would if using regular ol’ Perceptol, but the results are surprisingly good.

Cafenol will turn any film into a black and white negative, similar in effect to cross processing (developing a slide film in color print film chemicals, for example), and you’ll still want to keep the extractor fan running. Despite the ingredients, this mixture is foul smelling.

Source: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/03/develop-film-in.html

The greenback rose as much as 1.1 percent against a weighted basket of six major currencies. Before today, coffee dropped 4.3 percent this year, while the dollar gained 8.9 percent.

Weve got a stronger dollar, said Jimmy Tintle, a futures analyst at Transworld Futures in Tampa, Florida. Thats why coffee is working its way down.

Arabica coffee futures for May delivery fell 1.3 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $1.059 a pound at 11:24 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Last week, the price dropped 4.2 percent, the most in three months.

Coffee may fall to 95 cents should prices close below $1.05, Tintle said.

Cocoa futures for May delivery declined $12, or 0.5 percent, to $2,260 a metric ton. Before today, the price dropped 15 percent this year.

Source: http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/2009/03/09/20090309biz-coffee0309.html

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Source: http://www.prlog.org/10190906-leading-coffee-roasting-equipment-manufacturer-names-brioso-us-trading-partner.html

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