WVU Student Group Developes Micro-loan Fund by Selling Fair-Trade Coffee

Fair Trade 2.0 is a student led group on WVU's campus that's working with a coffee cooperative in the nation of Nicaragua. The group's goal is to ensure that farming organizations receive a suitable prices for the coffee they grow.

"We've connected with one community of farmers who do grow coffee for the fair trade market and are trying to work with them and support them in a range of different ways to improve income and liveliness," Geography professor Bradley Wilson said. Students involved with Fair Trade 2.0 are partnering with a coffee cooperative called "La Hermandad" in Nicaragua, which means brotherhood or sisterhood in Spanish.

"La Hermandad" is an organization made up more than 100 people in the community of San Ramon. Professor Bradley Wilson has been working with La Hermandad members since 2005. He says, farmers don't make enough money from the coffee they produce, and that isn't fair trade.

"For farmers in Nicaragua, coffee is a livelihood, it's a means for living. Coffee as we know, you can't live by Coffee alone. They need to find other ways to earn money as well, so we're providing a small loan to do that."

The group has used a $1,000 micro-loan to purchase coffee picked by La Hermandad members. Students turned around and then sold about 100 pounds of coffee. The money made was used to create a low-cost credit fund to buy dairy cows, hens for eggs, and other farm supplies.

"This is a way in which students can do more by doing a direct investment, actually in the lives of farming communities in Nicaragua and elsewhere," Bradley said. Senior Amanda Rivera says her work with Fair trade 2.0 is making her understand the struggles many of these farmers face.

"I have more of a prospective of what people go through day-to-day just to support themselves, how people are living in different places in the world," she said. Fair Trade 2.0 plans to continue raising funds and selling coffee for its Café con Leche Campaign in the spring.

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Coffee Party of Canada proposes better way to spend coffee break

The mythical “Tim Hortons voters” of Canada now have a political movement to call their own — the Coffee Party of Canada, for those who want better service from their governments and big business. It’s not a Tea Party movement, nor is it affiliated with the U.S version of the Coffee Party.

In fact, this Coffee Party is not a political party at all — it’s an offshoot of Democracy Watch, a long-time Ottawa ethics advocacy group led by Duff Conacher. “If Canadians spent as much time writing politicians about their concerns as they spend lining up to buy coffee, we would have the good, democratic governments and responsible big businesses we want,” the Coffee Party declared in its debut news release Thursday.

Conacher says the Coffee Party, to be launched Friday, will be composed of citizens who want to make “governments and big businesses operate more honestly, ethically, openly, representatively, efficiently and effectively.”

The Canadian version of the Coffee Party wants voters simply to use their coffee breaks to press for more accountability from governments and business.

“So please gather a few friends together, make or buy some coffee, and no matter what problem concerns, you help make Canadian governments and corporations solve your problem by writing letters, printing out the “I’m Voting for Good Government” sticker, donating and telling everyone you know about CoffeeParty.ca,” the news release states.

This new movement comes just as the issue of corporate tax cuts — and the issue of corporate privilege overall — is shaping up to be a major issue in any future election campaign.

Pollster Nik Nanos says corporations may be emerging as a target of public antipathy because of high-profile failures in recent years that have resulted in economic chaos, unemployment and lost pensions, on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.

“Things like Enron, the demise of Nortel and the banking crisis have severely undermined the confidence that many Canadians have in big business,” Nanos says.

“In terms of the cuts to corporate taxes, a key factor is that the greater the proximity of a political initiative to the everyday lives of Canadians the more likely it can move the numbers. Personal income tax relief can move numbers — corporate tax relief is once removed for most Canadians and therefore has less of a direct impact.”

As well, since the banning of corporate donations to political parties, federal politicians may now feel freer to be less cozy with big business. On Wednesday, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff described big corporations — once a large source of Liberal donations — as the “richest and most powerful” interests in the country, at odds with the interests of Canadian families.

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Fairtrade coffee producers face challenge of climate change

The Fairtrade Foundation is hoping that new links between British retailers and small farmers can help tackle the impact of climate change on supplies of some of the world's tastiest coffee.

In the past year, coffee prices have soared to an all-time high as production of the most aromatic and widely used type of bean, arabica, has suffered from unusual weather conditions worldwide.

Toby Quantrill, head of public policy for the foundation, which aims to guarantee a fair price for farmers in developing countries, said: "We are very concerned. The small-scale and poorer farmers we work with are the most vulnerable, and they need support."

The organisation wants to act as a broker between retailers, which can buy carbon credits as a way of offsetting their energy use, and small farmers who can create credits to earn money by planting trees or using more environmentally friendly ways to light or heat their homes.

Fairtrade's move comes amid increasing concern among coffee buyers, particularly those working with small-scale farmers, about the security of supply. They fear not merely disappointment for those who enjoy their caffeine hit with a little more flavour and fragrance, but a global disaster for the coffee industry.

Andrea Olivar at Twin Trading, which buys Fairtrade-approved coffee for supermarkets including Sainsbury's, as well as specialist labels such as Traidcraft and Equal Exchange, said: "If roasters and supermarkets want to continue buying good-quality coffee, with all the changes in the climate, it could get difficult in future. The high-quality arabica bean only grows in specific conditions."

The problem is already apparent to coffee farmers in the Mbale region of Uganda, on the slopes of Mount Elgon, where it is feared that production of arabica beans could cease in the next decade. They are experiencing unprecedented levels of pests and disease, and struggling to deal with unpredictable weather conditions that are dramatically affecting coffee production.

The bean flourishes at 18-23C (64-73F), and in Mbale temperatures appear to be rising – a view held by local farmers and backed up by a recent study by Oxfam.

Willington Wamayeye, managing director of the Gumutindo Fairtrade coffee co-operative in Mbale, which buys from about 6,000 farmers in the region, said: "When temperatures rise we have a humid environment and it enables diseases and pests to grow, and we have unprecedented levels of pest attack of the coffee. In the past it was manageable – now it's running out of control and you can see a whole garden of plants drying up. It's like an epidemic."

He said 80% of coffee trees were now affected by pests compared with about 10% three or four years ago. In the past a coffee tree used to produce an average 2kg of beans a year but now farmers are barely collecting 0.5kg a tree. Quality is also being affected.

While politicians stall on action to tackle climate change, Ugandan farmers are already being forced to deal with the daily reality of higher temperatures, drought and ill-timed or extreme rainfall. Wamayeye said: "The rivers I used to jump in when I was a small boy are completely dried up apart from when it rains heavily."

Heavy rains coupled with deforestation have also increased the incidence of landslides in the region, which can devastate farms and communities. In March last year, a school, a health centre and several farms were buried after torrential rain.

The fall in coffee production may be a less immediate problem but it does have implications for people in Uganda and beyond. As a lucrative cash crop, coffee is vital to smallholders in providing the money they need for medicines, daily household necessities such as soap and their children's school fees.

While coffee prices are high at the moment, amid increasing demand for high-quality Fairtrade organic coffee of the kind grown by the Gumutindo co-operative, farmers' income is under pressure because yields are falling.

Wamayeye says that, although his co-operative has taken on new farmers, this year he will not be able to meet demand: "I need to raise 40 containers of coffee. I have just fewer than 20 now and I think I will fall short by maybe 10 containers by the end of the season."

That reflects a wider problem in Uganda, where the government says exports of the lower-quality robusta coffee bean have also been hit. Between October and December, 692,485 bags of robusta coffee were shipped, down from 705,277 in the same quarter a year before.

The Fairtrade Foundation is not alone in its endeavours to improve the situation. Partly thanks to the National Assembly for Wales, Mbale is being used to pilot schemes that can help these farmers adapt to climate change.

A project orchestrated by the Welsh assembly is aiming to return Mbale's bare hillsides to the lushly forested slopes they once were. The Cardiff-based Waterloo Foundation, set up by David and Heather Stevens, co-founders of part of insurers Admiral Group, has given £150,000 over three years towards planting about 1m trees in Uganda.

The Waterloo Foundation project is seen as a pilot for a broader scheme, backed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), to fund tree planting and other climate change adaptation initiatives. It has just secured $1m (£630,000) of funding for work in Mbale, one of 10 regions around the world that are expected to participate. After months of political wrangling, the UK's Department for International Development has put up £300,000 over three years, with the rest coming from Denmark's international development agency and the UNDP.

Meanwhile other smaller projects are forging ahead. Twin Trading is asking coffee roasters in the UK to pay a slightly higher price in order to guarantee the future of supply through climate change-related projects, including responsible livestock farming, tree-planting and fuel-efficient stoves. Its cow-sharing project is starting this month and it is hoping to find a retail or roaster partner to help it continue the work. It is encouraged by a deal in which Cadbury's, the British chocolate manufacturer acquired last year by the US group Kraft Foods, has committed to help cocoa farmers in Ghana adapt to climate change.

But, as Wamayeye says, the farmers can only help themselves so much: "What we can do, we are doing. We can plant trees. We can't stop people from driving or flying."

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'Hot cup of coffee warms the soul'

Montreal's homeless shelters managed to keep the city's most vulnerable residents safe during the past few nights when temperatures dropped into the minus 20s by stepping up patrols, extending their hours and setting up emergency-camp cots and mattresses in their facilities.

But the cold, frigid air that has gripped the city since Saturday and, according to Environment Canada, will only begin to relent today as a new weather system moves in from the Great Lakes bringing with it more seasonal temperatures, has left the vital social safety net facing a new problem.

The Old Brewery Mission and the Welcome Hall Mission, both emergency shelters and, St. Michael's Mission, a downtown day centre for the homeless, report they are facing coffee shortages resulting from the cold weather that has spiked demand for the soothing hot beverage by upward of 20 per cent.

So in addition to the basic items that help the homeless weather the winter -sleeping bags, gloves, tuques, ski pants and new underwear and socks -shelters are now asking the public for coffee donations, too.

"It helps to keep the guys steady and calm," said Matthew Pearce, director-general of the Old Brewery Mission, where a coffee-drop-box was brimming yesterday.

Although not a life-threatening problem, shelter officials said yesterday that their inability to offer one of life's simpler creature comforts - a good, hot cup of coffee -is an important issue for the homeless, many of whom are struggling to stay sober.

"Some of our guys do get a little bit of a rush with coffee, it's caffeine," said Cyril Morgan, director-general of the Welcome Hall Mission. "But really it's to warm up.

"In our society, having a hot cup of coffee warms the soul."

George Greene is a volunteer at St. Michael's Mission, a drop-in centre on President Kennedy Ave., which serves about 300 cups of coffee a day.

Greene said there were almost 100 people looking for a hot cup of coffee, lining up before the centre opened at 8 a.m. yesterday. "Our coffee situation is precarious."

A St. Michael's volunteer goes around to local food banks each month to collect coffee but this month, he said, supply ran out by mid-month, forcing the centre to purchase a cheaper substitute, tea.

Over at the Old Brewery Mission, Pearce said, staff have had to start watering down its coffee in order to stretch remaining supplies. About 2,000 cups of coffee a day are served by the mission across its various facilities for men and women,

For the past six years, the mission has received a huge donation -the equivalent of about 184,000 cups of coffee a year -from Van Houtte Inc. The Montreal-based coffee roaster stepped in 2005 when the cash-strapped mission was about to stop giving out free coffee in order to cut costs. At that time the coffee budget was $30,000 annually.

But that shipment from Van Houtte arrives in March and it has been drawn down to such a point, the coffee now being served at the Old Brewery Mission is being watered down, he said. "It doesn't supply a satisfying hit."

In addition, Pearce said, the mission has had to cut its 9 p.m. coffee break, a usually calming ritual for the men as they settle in for the night at the Webster Pavilion, a 237-bed emergency shelter on Clark Street. "It brings the place down," he said. "Hopefully we will be able to start it up again soon."

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Coffee Breaks Benefits Health, Makes People More Productive

Coffee breaks, according to the National Coffee Association, not only provide health benefits but also make people more productive during the work day. Today, the NCA celebrates its 100th anniversary. But for many of us, National Coffee Break Day is every day. The National Coffee Association asserts that coffee has been scientifically proven to have four times more antioxidants than green tea.

Furthermore, coffee has a significantly higher amount of soluble dietary fiber (even more than orange juice), can improve your mood, and help you better perform tasks that involve the use of memory and logical reasoning. So enjoy your coffee breaks today in celebration of NCA's National Coffee Break Day!

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Coffee and an aspirin 'best hangover cure' after all

Scientists have confirmed what millions have suspected for years if you want to soothe a tired head - simply take some caffeine and a painkiller. They found the caffeine in coffee and the anti-inflammatory ingredients of aspirin and other painkillers reacted against the chemical compounds of ethanol, or pure alcohol.

Ethanol brings on headaches thanks to a chemical acetate it can produce and even low doses can affect some people more than others, said the study. Professor Michael Oshinsky, of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, induced headaches in rats using small amounts of ethanol. He then gave them doses of caffeine and anti-inflammatories to find it blocked the acetate and relieved the headaches.

Prof Oshinsky told the journal New Scientist "none of the commonly cited causes of hangovers could have caused this response". The rats were not dehydrated either, going against an argument that coffee should not be used as a hangover cure because it just causes further dehydration.

The research will spark a new debate over just what is the best cure for a throbbing head after a night on the town. Some argue drinking water is better than a caffeinated drink because it rehydrates the body while others still swear by the restorative powers of a full English breakfast to redress the body's balance.

Others argue for a hair of the dog, in particular something including a fruit juice and a little bit of spice which is why a Bloody Mary is often cited as a popular choice. And some advise against using painkillers, particularly the stronger ones like aspirin and ibuprofen, as they can cause stomach upsets after a heavy night out.

This is because they give the liver work to do when it is already stretched trying to deal with all the alcohol from the previous evening, so the argument goes. Oshinsky's tests on rats left a 4-6 hour gap between giving them the alcohol and giving them the cure as this allowed time for the headaches to develop.

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Drinking coffee lowers diabetes risk by over 50%--study

Sipping hot cup of coffee not only helps kick start your mornings, but also lowers the risk of diabetes by more than half, a new study delving into the link between coffee and type 2 diabetes [Also called non-insulin dependent diabetes; a condition in which the pancreas produces so little insulin that the body cannot use the blood glucose as energy; can often be controlled through meal plans and physical activity plans, and diabetes pills or insulin.] suggests.

According to the study, published in current issue of the journal 'Diabetes,' women who drink three to four cups of coffee a day cut their risk of diabetes by 50 percent or more. Hitherto studies have shown that coffee offers a protective effect against type 2 diabetes [Also called non-insulin dependent diabetes; a condition in which the pancreas produces so little insulin that the body cannot use the blood glucose as energy; can often be controlled through meal plans and physical activity plans, and diabetes pills or insulin.] , but the real reason behind the effect was not known.

Now, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have discovered a possible molecular mechanism that might be responsible for preventing the metabolic condition.

A plausible explanation
Sex hormone–binding globulin (SHBG) is a type of glycoprotein that regulates the production of sex hormones [chemical substances created by the body that control numerous body functions.] , testosterone and estrogen which are believed to play a crucial role in triggering diabetes.

As per researchers, coffee consumption increases plasma [the watery, straw-colored fluid which carries the cellular elements of the blood through circulation] levels of sex hormone–binding globulin, thereby maintaining the insulin [a hormone produced by the pancreas. Insulin affects the amount of glucose absorbed by the liver.] levels required by the body in order to function properly.

Study details and findings
In order to assess the link between daily consumption of coffee and type 2 diabetes, study author Atsushi Goto, a doctoral student in epidemiology and Dr. Simin Liu, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at UCLA, conducted a study.

For the study, researchers examined 359 diabetes patients and 359 healthy controls of similar age and race selected from the database of nearly 400,000 women enrolled in a large scale Women's Health Study.

It was found that women who drank three to four cups of coffee regularly reported higher levels of sex hormone–binding globulin as compared to non-drinkers. In fact, the coffee sippers were 56 percent less likely to develop diabetes than non-drinkers, the study authors averred.

When the findings of the study were adjusted for the glycoprotein levels, it was noted that the protective effect of coffee disappeared. SHBG blood levels may hold the key to reducing risks for type 2 diabetes, said Dr. Simin Liu, director of the Center for Metabolic Disease Prevention at UCLA and study co-author.

Though the research gives new light to diabetes prevention in middle-aged women, health experts maintain that excess of everything is bad, and this is no different in case of caffeine.

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How Coffee Protects Against Diabetes

Coffee, that morning elixir, may give us an early jump-start to the day, but numerous studies have shown that it also may be protective against type 2 diabetes.

Yet no one has really understood why. Now, researchers at UCLA have discovered a possible molecular mechanism behind coffee's protective effect.

A protein called sex hormone–binding globulin (SHBG) regulates the biological activity of the body's sex hormones, testosterone and estrogen, which have long been thought to play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes. And coffee consumption, it turns out, increases plasma levels of SHBG.

Reporting with colleagues in the current edition of the journal Diabetes, first author Atsushi Goto, a UCLA doctoral student in epidemiology, and Dr. Simin Liu, a professor of epidemiology and medicine, show that women who drink at least four cups of coffee a day are less than half as likely to develop diabetes as non-coffee drinkers.

When the findings were adjusted for levels of SHBG, the researchers say, protective effect disappeared. The American Diabetes Association estimates that nearly 24 million children and adults in the U.S. — nearly 8 percent of the population — have diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease and accounts for about 90 to 95 percent of these cases. Early studies have consistently shown that an "inverse association" exists between coffee consumption and risk for type 2 diabetes, Liu says. That is, the greater the consumption of coffee, the lesser the risk of diabetes. It was thought that coffee may improve the body's tolerance to glucose by increasing metabolism or improving its tolerance to insulin.

"But exactly how is elusive," says Liu, "although we now know that this protein, SHBG, is critical as an early target for assessing the risk and prevention of the onset of diabetes." Earlier work by Liu and his colleagues published in the New England Journal of Medicine had identified two mutations in the gene coding for SHBG and their effect on the risk of developing type 2 diabetes; one increases risk while the other decreases it, depending on the levels of SHBG in the blood.

A large body of clinical studies has implicated the important role of sex hormones in the development of type 2 diabetes, and it's known that SHBG not only regulates the sex hormones that are biologically active but may also bind to receptors in a variety of cells, directly mediating the signaling of sex hormones. "That genetic evidence significantly advanced the field," says Goto, "because it indicated that SHBG may indeed play a causal role in affecting risk for type 2 diabetes."

"It seems that SHBG in the blood does reflect a genetic susceptibility to developing type 2 diabetes," Liu says."But we now further show that this protein can be influenced by dietary factors such as coffee intake in affecting diabetes risk — the lower the levels of SHBG, the greater the risk beyond any known diabetes risk factors."

For the study, the researchers identified 359 new diabetes cases matched by age and race with 359 apparently healthy controls selected from among nearly 40,000 women enrolled in the Women's Health Study, a large-scale cardiovascular trial originally designed to evaluate the benefits and risks of low-dose aspirin and vitamin E in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

They found that women who drank four cups of caffeinated coffee each day had significantly higher levels of SHBG than did non-drinkers and were 56 percent less likely to develop diabetes than were non-drinkers. And those who also carried the protective copy of the SHBG gene appeared to benefit the most from coffee consumption.

When the investigators controlled for blood SHBG levels, the decrease in risk associated with coffee consumption was not significant. This suggests that it is SHBG that mediates the decrease in risk of developing type 2 diabetes, Liu says. And there's bad news for decaf lovers. "Consumption of decaffeinated coffee was not significantly associated with SHBG levels, nor diabetes risk," Goto says. "So you probably have to go for the octane."

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Starbuck Coffee Making A Change For The Better?

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) is celebrating their fortieth anniversary by changing it’s logo. The new one is not totally unfamiliar. It’s still a green circle that features a mermaid; but the words “Starbucks” and “Coffee” are gone. Actually, the figure in the circle, who has been part of the logo since the beginning, is Melusine, a feminine fresh water nymph or spirit of sacred springs and rivers.

Melusine was a character from European folklore and legends, usually depicted as a woman from the waist up and a snake or fish from the waist down, sometimes shown with two tails and/or wings. In heraldry, Melusine was usually shown on German coats of arms supporting her split tail with her arms, as in Starbucks’ familiar icon. The folks at Starbucks consistently insist that Melusine is a siren, not a mermaid. As we all know, mermaids live in salt water oceans, so a siren of fresh-water and sacred springs is certainly a better choice as a mascot for coffee.

Predictably, the change has caused a storm of protest and controversy. Many wonder why any company would take their name off their products, forgetting that Nike (NYSE:NKE) did just that, leaving their perfectly recognizable swoosh as their brand. Others point to the Gap (NYSE:GPS) logo fiasco, in which public outcry forced that struggling company to change back within a week.

However this is not the first time that the coffee giant has changed its logo. Their first was developed when the company started in 1971. The first time they changed it was in 1987, when they added espresso beverages. They changed it again when the company went public in 1992. Now, on their 40th birthday, Starbucks has decided to expand their product line beyond coffee and tea. They might even begin serving beer and wine after hours.

If that’s the case, it makes sense to remove the limiting “coffee” label from their emblem. Customers can expect to begin seeing the new symbol in March 2011. As to whether the public will learn to associate coffee with a mermaid…ur…siren, is yet to be seen.

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Coffee And Tea ‘Cut Heart Disease Risk’!

Drinking coffee or tea in moderation reduces the risk of developing heart disease, according to a new study.Researchers in The Netherlands found that drinking more than six cups of tea per day was associated with a 36 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to those who drank less than one cup of tea per day. Drinking three to six cups of tea per day was associated with a 45 percent reduced risk of death from heart disease, compared to consumption of less than one cup per day.

And for coffee, the researchers found that drinkers with a modest intake, two to four cups per day, had a 20 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to those drinking less than two cups or more than four cups.Although not considered significant, moderate coffee consumption slightly reduced the risk of heart disease death and deaths from all causes.Researchers also found that neither coffee nor tea consumption affected stroke risk.

“While previous studies have shown that coffee and tea seem to reduce the risk of heart disease, evidence on stroke risk and the risk of death from heart disease was not conclusive. Our results found the benefits of drinking coffee and tea occur without increasing risk of stroke or death from all causes,” said Yvonne T. van der Schouw, study senior author and professor of chronic disease epidemiology, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Van der Schouw and colleagues used a questionnaire to evaluate coffee and tea consumption among 37,514 participants. They followed the participants for 13 years for occurrences of cardiovascular disease and death.

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Coffee sellers create a showcase

Sometimes it’s not just about the bottom line. Parisi Artisan Coffee wants to make a profit with its first retail location, of course, but it also wants a flagship location that will showcase its products and give back to the community.

So the owners are taking two small spaces in Union Station. They plan a late spring opening in the historic station at 30 W. Pershing Road. “It gives us an opportunity to show who we are, and it provides a service for a civic location,” said Joseph Paris, vice president of Paris Brothers, parent company of Parisi. “If we were worried strictly about a return on investment it may not make sense. But we believe in what is going on down there.

Union Station also is home to an expanding list of new tenants, including the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the Kansas City Area Development Council. Paris Brothers is a specialty food company founded in 1983. It imports, manufactures and distributes products such as pastas, olive oils and cheeses to local grocery stores and many in the four-state area. It also sells to institutional suppliers such as Sysco Corp. and U.S. Foodservice.

Brothers Joseph and Salvatore Paris founded Parisi Artisan Coffee in 2006 using 100 percent arabica beans drum-roasted in small batches. Clients include the Raphael Hotel, the New Theatre Restaurant, Westport Coffee House, Café Europa and the Kansas City Ballet.

“Coffee for us was a natural progression. Way back when, we used to distribute Italian coffees, before espresso became a craze,” Joseph Paris said. Parisi also has one of the largest temperature-controlled, green coffee storage facilities in the country, in the Hunt Midwest SubTropolis underground industrial park. Coffee importers across the country store their green coffee beans there for distribution to roasters.

The brothers will test the retail waters with the Union Station location before considering other locations. The shop will not only offer coffee drinks, but food designed to go with specific drinks. The menu is still in the planning stages.

“Upscale items, a few surprises. Something to get your eyes and palate going,” Joseph Paris said. Plaza favorite signs 10-year lease Fans of the Country Club Plaza’s Granfalloon — rejoice. The bar at 608 Ward Parkway is sticking around. It signed a new 10-year lease that will take it to the end of 2020.

Not only that, this spring the owner will remodel, add an outdoor patio on the east side (taking six of the parking spots in that small lot), and introduce a new menu that will be a bit more upscale. The Granfalloon has been on the Plaza since 1977 and in its current spot for more than a decade. Tim Caniglia has owned it since 1994.

“I’m excited because we are getting a patio. That’s the big thing we have been missing,” Caniglia said. “And the last couple, three months, it has been really busy down here. I looked at other locations, and even though the rent is cheaper I was worried about traffic. Here, we are guaranteed traffic on certain months.”

Reports were rampant last March that Highwoods Properties planned to replace both re:Verse and Granfalloon. Re:Verse did close to make way for Coal Vines, a specialty pizza and wine bar that is scheduled to open in early February. Granfalloon’s lease was up in July and when negotiations weren’t completed then, Caniglia just extended his lease.

As for those rumors that Highwoods is in discussion with Chili’s Grill & Bar to open on the Plaza, not true, said Gayle Terry, director of marketing for the Plaza: “We have not had any discussions with Chili’s.”

Quick bites

•Firehouse Subs plans to open at Olathe Pointe, 15137 W. 119th St., Olathe, on March 1.

•Three tenants at the Legends Outlets Kansas City have closed. However, the center already has tentative agreements to replace them with tenants tied more to its new destination outlet concept.

The locally owned Los Cabos, A Mexican Restaurant & Rooftop Fiesta specialized in foods from Mexico and had an expansive tequila bar. There is still a location in Mission Farms in Leawood. The owners did not return phone calls. Pin-Up Bowl, a St. Louis-based trendy bowling alley concept, had a posh lounge serving 30 martinis. It opened four years ago.

“They asked us to move as part of their transition process,” said Joe Edwards, owner of the original Pin-Up Bowl in St. Louis. “We thank everyone who came. It was a nice time in Kansas City, Kan. — the customers, staff, vendors and the Legends were all top-notch.”

Wyldewood Cellars operated there for five years. “In my opinion it had extremely high overhead, it was not a good location and it was bad timing with the economy,” said Merry O’Callahan-Bauman, spokeswoman for the company. Legends Outlets Kansas City is at Interstate 435 and State Avenue in Kansas City, Kan.

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Starbucks stirs ire with new logo

Starbucks, the world's biggest coffee chain, has unveiled a new logo that omits its name and the word "coffee", infuriating loyal customers. The new green logo is essentially Starbucks' representation of a female siren - a half-human mythical temptress who led sailors to their deaths. The change, announced overnight during a webcast of a company meeting, comes as Starbucks is building new billion-dollar brands sold outside its cafes.

"Even though we have been, and always will be, a coffee company and retailer, it's possible we'll have other products with our name on it and no coffee in it," chief executive Howard Schultz said on the webcast. The company, based in Seattle, Washington, has not changed its logo since it went public in 1992.

Self-described Starbucks fanatics were not impressed and, among hundreds of comments on Starbucks' website, called for the company's name to be put back into the logo.

"Who's the bonehead in your marketing department that removed the world-famous name of Starbucks Coffee from your new logo? This gold card user isn't impressed!" wrote one customer who identified herself as MimiKatz.

Another wrote: "I have been a big supporter of (Starbucks) since the early days, taken expensive rides in taxis to get my morning coffee, even waded through two feet of snow in my business suit ... but I do not see the logic of your Business Development folks for the removal of the Starbucks name."

Executives said the logo, designed in-house, would be phased in, appearing first on paper products like cups and napkins in March. Starbucks declined to say how much it would cost to switch to the new logo.

Starbucks has come through a restructuring over the past few years, during which it closed almost 1000 stores around the world and put more emphasis on brands like instant coffee Via and Seattle's Best Coffee.

It is now fighting Kraft Foods Inc for control of its grocery distribution business.

'It's nuts'

Some brand experts questioned whether the logo change was a smart move, and even likened it to a recent ill-fated attempt by clothing chain Gap Inc to change its well-known brand image.

"I think it's nuts," said James Gregory, chief executive of brand consulting firm CoreBrand. "What's it going to be - the coffee formerly known as Starbucks?"

The new logo probably will not hurt cafe sales in the near term because most Starbucks customers are enthusiasts, Gregory said. But, he said, a nameless logo was a bad fit for Starbucks products sold by grocery stores and other retailers.

"There you're dealing with people who aren't enthusiasts. You're looking at something that's almost generic, and it's not shouting out as something that is Starbucks."

"If they want to extend the brand, they can keep the 'Starbucks' and lose the 'Coffee'," said Alan Siegel, founder and CEO at Siegel+Gale, a strategic branding firm.

Several well-known companies, including Apple and Nike, have long used only symbols to represent their brands.

Robert Passikoff, president and founder of Brand Keys, a consumer and brand loyalty consulting firm, said the action could prove wise if Starbucks moved more aggressively into a wider portfolio of consumer goods.

"If it isn't (the reason for the change) and they're just trying to freshen stuff up, no one cares," he said.

Marian Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR North America, said the explosion of social media and real-time feedback was working against the company.

"Nothing is worse than an armchair quarterback," she said. "Nothing ever ends well that starts this way."

Asked if she thought Starbucks would follow Gap's lead and scrap the logo, she said: "Ask me on Monday."

This is not the first time Starbucks has been criticized for revamping a logo: last year it stood behind a new logo for Seattle's Best Coffee despite criticism from customers and others.

The company timed the debut of the new Starbucks logo to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the founding of the first Starbucks store in Seattle in 1971.

The founders of that artisan coffee shop were looking for a way to capture the seafaring history of coffee, and Seattle's strong seaport roots when they found a 16th century Norse woodcut of a twin-tailed mermaid that fit the bill.

Over the years, their siren has been transformed from a bare-breasted mermaid grasping a tail in each hand to a more graphic, family-friendly image. "Our new evolution liberates the siren from the outer ring, making her the true, welcoming face of Starbucks," the company said.

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Peru’s Tunki coffee sells in Spain and England

More than 2,000 kilograms of Tunki coffee, awarded as the best special coffee in the world, was successfully sold in Spain and England during 2010, reported Andina.

Recognized in April 2010 as one of the best high quality coffees in the world by The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), has been sold to Spanish companies and restaurants of renowned Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio. The announcement was made by Miguel Paz, commercialization manager for the Organization of Sandia Valley Agrarian Coffee Cooperatives (Cecovasa).

Around 230 kg of coffee were sold to England and 350 kg to Spain, he said. The company's target is not to increase production or conquer new markets but to maintain the quality of the product, assured Paz.

"We want to strengthen the presence of our products in the gourmet coffee market to improve product prices," he said. Paz also said that sales in 2010 increased by approximately 30 percent over the previous year. “However, we are not in line with international market prices yet," he added.

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Tight Markets Seen for Coffee, Sugar, Cotton

A scarcity of commodities such as cotton, sugar and coffee that propelled prices to historic highs late in 2010 is expected to continue into 2011, and it could mean more prices increases for consumers. Cotton, sugar and coffee are seen remaining in recent high price ranges as supplies remain low.

Cotton broke a post-Civil War record in December, as supplies from top producers failed to keep up with demand, particularly China's voracious appetite for the fiber. Cotton futures gained 91.5% for the year; the March contract closed 2010 on the InterContinental Exchange at $1.4481 a pound on Friday.

The run up has led some large clothing manufacturers to increase prices. In December, Hanesbrands Inc. said it will raise prices in the first quarter to offset higher cotton costs, and that it is considering more increases for mid-2011. VF Corp., which produces The North Face, Lee and Wrangler clothing, recently said it expects to "have select price increases across our portfolio of brands next year."

A late harvest in India and lower estimates for stockpile levels in July, when the U.S. crop year ends, have pushed prices higher. Little relief is expected until the next U.S. harvest in fall 2011.

"We're going to be living with historically high prices for the rest of 2011," said Mike Stevens, an independent cotton analyst based in Mandeville, La. "I see nothing on the horizon that would change that, short of severe economic slowdown."

Coffee prices, which hit their highest prices since mid 1997 this year, are also expected to stay high. The emergence of new coffee drinkers in Brazil and China and sustained demand in North America and Europe through the economic downturn were met with lower output from top producers of the prized, mild washed arabica beans. Torrential rain tore through Colombia and Central America this year.

Coffee futures rose 77% this year, ending 2010 at $2.4050 a pound.

The higher prices have led Starbucks Corp., Kraft Foods Inc. and Farmer Bros. Corp. to raise prices for some of their products this year, and more increases may be on the way for other companies.

"While many of our franchises have held their prices steady for more than three years, we expect that some may make modest adjustments to coffee prices in their restaurants," said a spokeswoman for Dunkin' Brands Inc., which owns Dunkin' Donuts. The company uses only arabica beans.

In December, consistently low supplies of arabica coffee prompted the IntercontinentalExchange Inc. to include arabica beans from Brazil, the world's top producer, on its list of grower nations for the benchmark "C" contract. The deal, one decade in the making, is expected to boost liquidity in the market and will take effect in March 2013.

Sugar prices have also seen a dramatic run-up, touching nearly three-decade highs in 2010. The prices are expected to stay strong as India cautiously weighs increasing exports and wet weather hampers the crop out of Australia.

"We need to look at supply concerns," said Sterling Smith, an analyst with Country Hedging. "That creates a situation of vulnerability in the market."Raw sugar futures gained 19% in 2010, ending the year at 32.12 cents a pound.

Cocoa prices saw some gains in December, but haven't risen dramatically despite the ongoing political crisis in top producer Ivory Coast. Many large cocoa companies have said they don't expect the impasse there to affect shipments unless a civil war breaks out. Cocoa futures shed 7.7% this year, ending at $3,035 a ton.

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