Expect More Starbucks Products in Your Local Grocery Store

Buoyed by the success of Via instant coffee Starbucks will continue to push it's product into grocery stores.

Aeropress Review by Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow has a nice write up of the Aeropress over at Boing Boing.

Friday Book Review: The Girl Who Played with Fire

I don't have time to write about how good The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson is as I am too busy reading the final book in the trilogy. I think you all should just go out and buy the whole series.

Coffee Etiquette from the Nerdist

A great post from the Nerdist on 8 simple etiquette rules to follow at your local coffee shop.

Caffeine Helps You Work Out

A recently release position paper by the International Society of Sports Nutrition details how caffeine can help you work out. Oh caffeine, is there nothing you can't do?

Coffee Prices Going Up, Up, Up

Coffee beans reached a 12 year high today.  Expect your local coffee slinger to pass those savings on to you.

Friday Book Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

There certainly has been a lot written about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. So much so that I initially resisted reading the book.  The last book I remember with this much hype was Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code which I found fairly pedantic and predictable.

Happily this book lives up to the hype.  Larsson's is writing a closed room mystery which is also wrapped up in a financial thriller all while being set in Sweden.  The mystery section is tightly written and having it set in Sweden really adds to the oddness of the entire story.

The main characters in the novel are very well developed and who's motivations are very real.  Of course, the break out character that everyone is talking about is Lisbeth Salander, the afore mentioned girl with the dragon tattoo.  While she makes a big impression on the reader the other main characters like Mikael Blomkvist, are no less interesting.

I have to recommend this book as a buy for the engaging mystery and believable characters.  I'm going to be starting in on the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire, just as soon as I can clear some of these other books off my queue.

Free Coffee from Nestle

Red Flag Deals has a link to coupon where you can get a six pack of single serve coffee sticks from Nestle.

More News on Starbucks Mobile Payment Program

Starbucks is expanding their mobile payment program to even more stores. Personally, this can't come fast enough for me. Anything that reduces the size of my Costanza wallet.

How to Make Money on Free Wifi

As I mentioned yesterday, some coffee houses are cutting off their free wifi offers. So, how does Starbucks plan to make money from the free wifi they now offer in all their stores? Well Mashable answers that question by shedding light on the upcoming Starbucks Digital Network which will be providing exclusive and premium content.

Free WiFi Killing Coffee Culture?

Now that Starbucks is providing free wifi to all some coffee shops are cutting back or cutting off their wifi offers.  Shop owners are saying that it detracts from the coffee house ambiance.

What do you think, are you more likely or less likely to visit a coffee house that offers free wifi?

Friday Book Review: Batwoman Elegy

Um, Wow! I got my copy of Batwoman: Elegy about two weeks ago and I've had a chance to read and re-read it over that time and I have to say I'm amazingly impressed. The book is an amazing collaboration by artist J.H. Williams III, colorist Dave Stewart and writer Greg Rucka.

I have to start with J.H. Williams art as it is the first thing that really draws you into the book. In my honest opinion this is the best work of Williams career and remember his career includes his mind bendingly great work on Promethea. I've never seen an artist and writer so in-sync in their work. Williams really goes beyond the 6 or 9 page panel and brings out some very stylish non traditional page layouts. These layouts really make the story pop. Additionally, there are things in the art that are required by the story in the grand tradition of show, don't tell. No worries if you miss the clues the first time around as you are going to want to read this book more than twice. Flashbacks are handled by Williams by flipping to different art style than the main narrative to give the reader a visual clue as to what is going on.

Colorist Dave Stewart does some great work bringing the world to life as well. Batwoman's costume with the bright red and Alice's outfit are stand outs.

Finally, Greg Rucka delivers a story that people have been waiting for these past four years. Rucka does a fantastic job of building up the Batwoman character giving her a credible backstory. You can really understand why she'd want to fight crime for a living after you discover some of the tragic events from her past. Rucka also brings in a number of supporting characters in order to fill out the book and develop a whole new world outside of the traditional Bat-Family.

Even if there were no dialog in this book I would rate it a buy for the incredible J.H. Williams art and Dave Stewart's colors but combined with the engaging story told by Greg Rucka it is a must buy!

Update: Just released news on the new Batwoman on-going series.

Tea's Comeback in the USA

Another good article from the Atlantic on American's renaissance of tea.  Since the 70's there has been a race to the bottom to produce a cheap tea in a bag but now it seems that better tasting loose leaf teas are on the rise.  For bagged teas I still recommend Lipton Yellow Label.

Treehugger Reviews New Toronto Starbucks

Treehugger checks out one of the new concept Starbucks stores in Toronto.

The History of Coffee

A good write up in the Atlantic on the origins of coffee.

The Most Awesome Thing Ever! Part 3

Well everyone knows that Sharpie pens are amazing.  I keep one in near constant reach of myself at all times.  Now the Sharpie company has gone one better by introducing the Liquid Pencil!  It is a stylus that writes like a pen but the ink is actually a made of graphite so you can erase it.  Then after three days of drying in the air the ink becomes permanent. Bravo Sharpie, Bravo.  (via Boing Boing).

The Most Awesome Thing Ever! Part 2

Oh thank you Foolish Gadgets for letting me know that these Star Wars Sandwitch Cutters even exist.  Honey, we heading down to Syracuse so I can go to Williams-Sonoma.  I'm willing to bet she never thought she'd hear those words but I need my peanut butter Millennium Falcon to be chased by a ham and cheese Tie Fighter.

Coffee Prices Going Up

Expect to pay more soon for your morning cup of coffee.  The JM Smucker Corp has raised the prices on their Folgers, Dunkin' Donuts and Millstone brands.  Expect other companies to follow suit soon.