hell yeah it’s a grind when you live in dallas and can’t see driving all the way to frisco for a cup of joe. but if you live in frisco (and more & more people do), you’ll welcome this new outlet of a small chain based in Long Beach CA, called It’s a Grind. owner Marchand Froschheuser lived in cali and craved a change from the IT world in which she previously resided. the website claims that IaG’s “upholstered wingback chairs, cozy fireplace, blues and jazz motif, and music” make it “an atmosphere unlike any other coffee house” which uh ok whatever. their main asset is that they are willing to bring the usual espresso-based drinks to the wilds of frisco, even as the paving of the nearby tollway continues apace

6959 Lebanon Rd. #100, Frisco 75034. (972) 782-2527. open 6 a.m. every day!

Mug & Mouse, an independently-run coffee house, opened in aug in frisco, where it serves Lavazza coffee along w/ sandwiches, smoothies, shakes, slushies (made w/ fruit juice), and bubble tea (tho they’ll add the tapioca pearls to any cold drink). What distinguishes M&M from the usual independently-run coffee place is that it started out as a gaming clan of sorts, then evolved into an independenty-run coffee place. thus prevails a gaming vibe; for ex, it’s a LAN ctr so you can go and play vidgames w/ other customers. assuming you are 15 and semi-geeky-techy. being somewhat of a suburban kid thing, it keeps wild hours, from 5 a.m. to midnight on wkends. it’s down a side street behind Ikea but a city rec ctr’s going in across the street so maybe it’ll do better than some of the other independently-run coffee places that seem to close almost as quickly as they open*

5995 Preston Rd. #105, Frisco. 1-469-362-8590

*which is why i’m sorry writing about a certain coffee chain is more gratifying than the little guys

today: too much news to eat. yet it’s all so garbagey that none merits a main course. so we’re going buffet style and hold the links pls:
1. Having caught wind of this crazy “gourmet-coffee” thing, Folgers has a new premium line. in folgers world, premium = FLAVORS. except flavors = opposite of premium. anyway, free samples of dreck like “caramel drizzle” & “vanilla biscotti” here if you dare
2. Winestyles - “a new and easy way to shop for wine” - takes Best Cellars’ make-wine-EZ concept and dumbs it down further by putting wine in categories such as crisp fruity mellow rich & bold. no need to worry about labels! just walk in & say, “i’d like something rich”. snicker. it’s sweeping the burbs w/ branches open in FW, flower mound, southlake, grapevine, lewisville, etc and a jillion more set to open in the next 6 mths.
3. remember when McD made a big frigging deal about offering salads? which consisted of 5 chunks of honeydew & 3 walnuts. well McDonald’s is now shrinking its “meal-size” fruit salad to “snack pack” size. pretty soon they’ll have it down to an airplane-size bag of nuts. they so suck

Do you begin to get a sense that people are taking this coffee thing too far? To wit: Wrigley’s Doublemint Kona Crème coffee-flavored gum. Kona as you may already know is the sposed high-end coffee from Hawaii. Crème is the froufrou spelling of cream. the gum tastes at first like sweetened iced coffee. but as the combo of coffee + mint unfolds, it gets a little odd. in the + column: It has sugar (preferable to sugar-free gum which has phenylwhatsits, said to excite your brain cells to DEATH). And the coffee color is nice. But minus: tis neither refreshing, which is what you want from gum nor does it provide a dose of caffeine

Despite oodles of new items to post, today’s theme is follow-up:

Frappio One 15-oz can of this new coffee-energy drink from 7-11 was consumed on Fri Apr 7 at 7 pm. (alertness was being sought for a work assignment.) Oh alertness was found; 12 hrs later, the teeth-grinding still hadn’t stopped. That stuff is scary. Admittedly, the can says “two servings”; but isn’t it stupid to put two servings in a flip-top can? It’s not the caffeine; I think the nuclear ingredient is the Indian ginseng.

Dannon Activia yogurt Have sampled this stuff twice: stomach-churning experiences both times. Has anyone else tried it? Would love comments and-or emails.

Hmmm. Frappio. Interesting product name. It’s a new bev from 7-eleven & yet has such a familiar name, no? altho pls: it’s not like “frappuccino” wuz original either: starbucks adopted it from a coffee chain which stole it from the locals’ weird name for a milkshake. Anyway, frappio = coffee-energy-drink hybrid w/ caffeine PLUS a “patented, all-natural herb” ashwangandha aka Indian ginseng, which has been used to treat rheumatism, leprosy, & arthritis and which 7-one-one claims will not only pep you up (in a “jitter-free” way) but suppress your appetite too sorta like speed, I guess

1. Starbucks has 2 new spring bevs based on green tea (”real Japanese matcha ground green tea leaves”): green tea latte - green tea w/ steamed milk, and blackberry green tea frappuccino which is only semi-new, really just a twist on the already-existent green tea frapp. Green tea is a big seller for sbux, acc to sbux employees who don’t know they’re being quoted here. haha sbux pr dept.

2. Meanwhile, for 2006, its annual new summer flavor frappuccino will be ta-da BANANA. “fresh banana pureé blended w/ coffee, milk, & ice.” banana + coffee = hmm. Remember last summer’s flavor was mint mocha chip; but no flavor can ever compare w/ the late, lamented mocha MALT frapp. some sbux stores still carry malt powder but the drink’s not on the menu, thereby dooming its prospects for those not in the know

Of course the photo here shows an entirely diff product, starbucks’ new iced coffee which has been addressed here previously, is now in stores, & which tastes somewhere between the milkier bottled frappuccino & the stronger espresso DoubleShot.

*no links today but with such exciting news, who misses the links, right?

Starbucks saving mankind: Mar 15 (tomorrow), it’ll host a “coffee break” (its “first-ever“)*, wherein it’ll give away free 12-oz cupsa coffee 10 am - noon. At stores and also employees’ll be on the streets dispensing cups via “giant coffee backpacks“. Coincidentally, the chain is simultaneously launching its “annual brewing sale” wherein you can buy coffeemakers at low-low prices. But really that’s just a coincidence, that it happens at the same time. FREE BREWED COFFEE (not instant!?!) I mean, what a wonderful altruistic campaign

*Quotes = pressreleasespeak

Coke’s new bev, finally coming in Jan, is big-big news: Coca-Cola Blak, a soda combining cola + coffee. Coffee soda rocks cuz it’s 1. fizzy 2. coffee-themed 3. not yet quite mainstream. in the 90s, Starbucks did Mazagran, an awesome coff soda tragically ahead of its time; Pepsi’s Kona also failed. But Ernest Borgnine’s daughter Nancy makes an intense coff soda (ltd avail), & Green Mountain Coffee just intro’d Double-Bean Elixirs, a line of coff sodas in 5 syrupy flavors. Most of those are pure coffee; but coffee-plus cola? Blak represents Coke’s latest attempt to gnaw off a piece of the Red Bull & Frappuccino mkt. Like those bevs, the 8-oz Blak is smaller than the usual 12-oz soda & said to have a “coffee-like” froth when poured.

Hey hey, for all those corporate-phobes out there, gather round this new independently-owned coffee place: Drip Coffee Company. Altho i feel obliged to point out that, like SO many of these “independent” heroes, Drip’s (very cool) founder Steve Thatcher studied coffee w/ you-know-who. In fact, he moved to Seattle back in the ’90s to work for them and learn the ropes. He opened his first indie coffee place in Amarillo, when he was a mere 22; he’s also done coffee in Austin & Boston. He came to Dallas for a girl — and we get another coffee spot in the bargain. Drip is in the old Avon Cleaners bldg, where he’ll be roasting about 10 varieties of coffee, along w/ fine teas from Octavia and pastries from Doughmonkey.

4343 Lovers Lane. 214-599-7800. Opening 1st wk of December