Coffee Shop Talk

Lord knows I can't make it through my day without copious amounts of coffee or other caffeinated beverages. As such, I've grown to like and enjoy the various drinks at the coffee shops in the Minneapolis downtown. I predominantly visit Caribou Coffee, but will occasionally make a run to Dunn Brothers as well. I refuse, however, to set foot in a Starbucks. I don't know what it is exactly, but all of their coffee tastes like it was first burnt in the roasting process and then brewed through a dirty jock strap or old pair of gym socks. It seems like no matter what you get at Starbucks it tastes like liquid ass and I don't know why people continue to go there.

Anyhow, getting back on topic. Most often I get skim mochas at Caribou since they have the sweetest mochas of the shops around. If I'm going to get coffee instead of an espresso drink, it's always Dunn Brothers. Every now and again, however, I like to get something different at Caribou, usually one of their cold or iced drinks.

So this morning as I was in Caribou getting my weekly mocha, I noticed an advertisement for their new cold drinks--various combinations of tea and fruit. I don't know about you, but mushing together green tea and mango just simply sounds atrocious. True, I'm not much of a tea guy, mostly because it tastes like warm, slightly flavored water, but adding it into a grossly colored smoothie isn't appealing.

It's crazy stuff like this that makes me remember why they're a struggling company. I've wanted to invest in them in the past since I like most of their products and they're local, but it's crazy crap like this that I can't get behind... well, that and their negative EPS.

On the other hand, I did run across a Caribou product in Target the other day that I simply have fallen in love with. They are selling, via General Mills, mocha flavored granola bars. How can you go wrong with a granola bar that has a slight mocha flavor, a refreshing espresso smell, and a dash of caffeine to get you going? You can't.

It's really too bad that Caribou can't continue to make more interesting products like their granola bars that seem to have more legs than their crappy-ass new drinks. Given time, hopefully they'll learn...