Starbucks Ticked at Kraft

Apparently Starbucks is very ticked off at Kraft foods right now.  Starbucks entered into a 13 year agreement with Kraft to push their coffee out into grocery stores and other venues.  To say the partnership hasn't been a success is a bit of an understatement.  Sales of their instant coffee, Via, in grocery stores seems to be tanking.  See the picture left for an example of how my local grocery store is slashing the price (over 50%) of Via to move the product off it's shelves.

In addition to that Starbuck's is missing out on the single serve coffee bonanza that is currently going on.  Since Starbucks is only available on the Tassimo (3% market share) coffee maker it is unavailable to the majority of single serve coffee makers as the Keurig brand controls about 70% of the market.

As much as I enjoy Starbucks coffee the availability of many different k-cups for the Keurig was the tipping point when we were deciding what single server coffee maker we would get at Christmas.

Where to Buy K-Cups in Ottawa

Thanks to Meegs I was directed to the Tweed and Hickory as a good place to pick up K-Cups. They had an in-store deal that allowed you to create a sample pack of 24 k-cups for $16.49 taxes included. The offer similar deals on line for 5, 10, 50 and 100 sample packs.

So far my favourite brew of the k-cups we picked up was Coffee People's Tree Hugger which is currently sold out on the on-line Tweed and Hickory store so I'm guessing other people like it as well.

Help me de-clutter my office

While this isn't a picture of my office it is indicative of the amount of books and videos I have hanging around.  I'm looking at doing some winter cleaning to make room for a number of items I received for Christmas.

To that end I'm putting a number of books and DVD's on sale for rock bottom prices.  Take a look at the following list and let me know if you'd be interested in any of them.  If you are leave a comment on the blog or @ me on twitter.

Books

$5 Paperbacks
Deathgate 1: Dragon Wing by Weis and Hickman
Deathgate 2: Elven Star by Weis and Hickman
Deathgate 3: Fire Sea by Weis and Hickman
Deathgate 4: Serpent Mage by Weis and Hickman
Deathgate 5: The Hand of Chaos by Weis and Hickman
Deathgate 6: Into the Labyrinth by Weis and Hickman
Deathgate 7: The Seventh Gate by Weis and Hickman

DVD's

$10 Collections
Family Guy Volume 1
Family Guy Volume 2

The Simpson's Season 1

The Simpson's Season 2

The Simpson's Season 3

The Simpson's Season 4

Graphic Novels

$5 Trades
Incredible Hercules: Against the World
JLA: Tower of Babel
Starman Vol 1: Sins of the Father
Starman Vol 2: Night and Day
Starman Vol 5: Infernal Devices
Starman Vol 6: To Reach the Stars
Starman Vol 7: A Starry Knight
Starman Vol 8: Stars My Destination
Starman Vol 9: Grand Guignol
Starman Vol 10: Sons of the Father

$10 Hardcover
X-Men Noir

$15 Collections
Cerebus by Dave Sim
High Society by Dave Sim
Church and State I by Dave Sim
Church and State II by Dave Sim
Jaka's Story by Dave Sim
Melmoth by Dave Sim
Flight by Dave Sim
Women by Dave Sim
Reads by Dave Sim
Minds by Dave Sim
Guys by Dave Sim
Rick's Story by Dave Sim
Going Home by Dave Sim
Form and Void by Dave Sim
Latter Days by Dave Sim

$20 Hardcover
Avengers/Invaders

K-Cup B-ball

I will begin practice immediately!

Book Review Catch Up: Mission of Honor

Initially I was very excited to get the latest Honor Harrington novel, Mission Of Honor, in my hands. It had been 5 years since the last book.  After reading it I can't even properly express how disappointed I was in the story.  To me it just seems like a bridge novel between the previous 11 books which dealt with Manticore's war with the Haven and the upcoming war with the Solarian League.

It's just a lot of shuffling of deck chairs where the villains, Haven, are shuffled out and replaced with the Solarians as well Honor is given a personal reason to hate the Solarians.  It just seems like the whole series has hit a point where it needed to be rebooted and can start fresh.

I'm rating this book a pants.  Skip it and look forward to the upcoming A Rising Thunder which is due in 2012.

Twitter Enabled Coffee Pot

Learn how to make your own over at the Instructables.