Isn't after noon when people want decaf, so they aren't kept awake all night?

I'm sure it makes sense to some MBA marketing weenie or bean counter somewhere when they're thinking up the strategery that gets them their big bonus, but in my humble opinion telling a third of your customers to get lost isn't the smartest longer-term cost-cutting move.

Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew instant coffee.

Starbucks has found a way to offer a truly great cup of coffee that you can prepare by just adding water. Other instant coffees taste flat and lifeless. Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew is different – it’s full-bodied and flavorful, just like the Starbucks® coffee you know and love.

I mean, OK, what? Starbucks instant coffee?

OK, I'll head down to a Starbucks and get a sample. I'll bring it home, mix it up and report here -- so you don't have to.

OK, what?

It's a nice set, including a small French press and two matching glass cups with a very classic look. It comes packaged in an attractive black box with plenty of foam to prevent breakage. The materials aren't as heavy as one would find on more expensive sets, but for the price ($20-25, depending on volume), it's a good value. The size is perfect for brewing a small serving for two, say as an after dinner coffee, or for a larger cup for one.

I've been using the press to make my morning coffee for a few weeks now. On my initial brew I had a problem with sediment slipping past the filter into the cup. Unfolding the edges of the mesh filter a bit to give it a tighter seal against the edge of the carafe helped minimize this. I've had better performance since then, though still find an occasional bit of coffee slipping through along with the usual sediment one finds in a French press. Making this filter tighter or adding a second filter to the lid would improve the product.

I was happy to get this as a sample and I think any coffee drinker would be glad to receive it; it's certainly a step up from the usual promotional coffee mugs, of which most people already own plenty anyway. Recipients who don't already have a French press will hopefully be encouraged to try out a new brewing method. If they use it properly, they'll likely find they get a better cup than with their drip brewers.

I have taken advantage of these special online-only offers, and they have been wonderful. They ship immediately in a special package that keeps the beans fresh. Here is their email message:

Indonesia Flores

Nice ripe fruitiness and earthy finish. A memorable coffee from one of the least known coffee islands of Indonesia.

We are only offering Indonesia Flores on two roast dates - Jan 21st and Jan 28th.

The island of Flores, 200 miles east of Bali, lies in a vast archipelago of some 18,000 islands stretching from Sumatra, Indonesia to the eastern sovereign nation of Papua New Guinea.

A blessing to Flores' rugged terrain is its numerous volcanoes, the ashes of which create soils for coffee to thrive in. In this remote origin, coffee has traditionally been natural processed – which is to say, dried whole in its "cherry" – and sold into anonymous supply chains for relatively small amounts.

That all changed in 2005 when the Indonesian Coffee & Cocoa Research Institute set out to work with small farmer groups to improve coffee quality and shorten the marketing chain from farmer to supplier. Farmers were taught the lengthy value-added way to process their coffee with the semi-washed method, both transforming the cup quality and returning them a greater piece of the value supply chain.

To start, only two farmer groups participated in this project but by 2007 the price incentive motivated four more to join. In our supplier’s words: coffee quality improvement for smallholding farmers is not only a question of technology, but also social and economic awareness.

We love seeing these examples of quality delivering farmers a better return. We also particularly enjoy introducing you to new coffee origins which deliver such quality beans. The cup has nice ripe fruitiness and that slightly funky, earthen aftertaste of the most interesting Indonesian coffees. If you like these full-bodied, full flavored coffees, try this newly styled cup from one of the least known coffee islands of Indonesia. After a few sips, we think you'll find Flores very memorable.

We are only offering Indonesia Flores on two roast dates - Jan 21st and Jan 28th.

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union has issued a statement in response to Starbuck’s expression of its corporate values by purchasing a new $45 million jet for CEO Howard Schultz. Starbucks workers recently won a court victory when the company was found guilty of violating labor laws.

Before you start thinking that you have to move somewhere else to grow your own food, take another look around. With a couple of notable exceptions, American cities sprawl. They are full of wasted space. As a homesteader, you will begin to see any open space as a place to grow food. This includes front yards as well as backyards, vacant lots, parkways, alleyways, patios, balconies, window boxes, fire escapes and rooftops. Once you break out of the mental box that makes you imagine a vegetable garden as a fenced-off parcel of land with a scarecrow in it, you'll start to see the possibilities. Think jungle, not prairie. The truth is that you can grow a hell of a lot of food on a small amount of real estate. You can grow food whether you're in an apartment or a house, whether you rent or own.

Do you have 4' ? 8' feet of open ground? If you don't have a yard, do you have room on a patio or balcony for two or three plastic storage tubs? If you don't have that, then you could get a space in a community garden, a relative or neighbor's house, or become a pirate gardener, or an expert forager -- some of the tastiest greens and berries are wild and free for the taking.

-- Sudeep

Update - This post inspired the creation of a new blog: Growing the Garden

Once you taste lettuce that actually has a distinct flavor, or eat a sweet tomato still warm from the sun, or an orange-yolked egg from your own hen, you will never be satisfied with the pre-packaged and the factory-farmed again.

. . . When you grow some of your own food, you start to care more about all of your food. "Just where did this come from?" we'd find ourselves asking when we went shopping. What's in it?

It's not just about flavor and health and quality. It's also about local control and about putting carbon into the air. Food that is shipped means carbon going into the air. Food from a giant supermarket is more money going to the corporate system and away from local farmers.

I stopped buying imported olive oil when I realized that this is something that is very heavy that is being shipped across the planet. What's the point of that?

Click any image to go see:

JUST in time for Christmas!