Is this A Sign…

… From Above 47° 37’ N 122° 20’ W?

I think Seattle is sending me some signs.

I found a bottle of Starbucks Coffee Frappuccino at my local supermarket… is this a first step toward Starbucks Coffee Shop?

Even though Finland, Norway, Iceland, Denmark & Sweden trust the 6 first places (France is 19 and USA rank 26) of annual per capital consumption of coffee (2008 Data), Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee house chain, has yet to penetrate most of Scandinavian countries. In fact Starbuck opened a coffee house in Sweden (albeit the Stockholm airport – Terminal 5 gate area 1-10!) just a month ago and the 1st one in Scandinavia opened in Copenhagen airport only in 2007.

Enjoying a Frappuccino on my deck in the SUN!

Actually I think it’s not so much the Starbucks coffee that I’m missing but more the memories of friends meeting there and me working countless hours on my computer at their various locations in Beijing.


Coffee Factoids You Should Know:

• Coffee is grown in 53 countries around the world. Every single one of those countries lies along the equator between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
• Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world. Vietnam is the second largest coffee producer in the world.
• The United States imports more coffee than any other country in the world, however, other countries drink more coffee per capita.
• One acre of coffee trees can produce about a ton of coffee beans every two years. Most coffee is grown on small farms with less than an acre of trees.
• There are about 7 million tons of green coffee beans produced worldwide each year.
• Most coffee farmers still pick every coffee cherry by hand. Many bring the coffee cherries to a mill to be processed, but many still spread the cherries to dry and process it on their own.
• The only US grown coffee is grown in Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The rest of the country doesn’t have the climate for it. Puerto Rican and Hawaiian coffees are among the most expensive in the world.
• Until the late 1800s, most people bought green coffee beans and roasted them at home in a frying pan over an open fire. The United States was the first country to turn to roasted coffee. In many European countries, it was still common to roast at home as late as the 1940s.
• Coffee is the second most-traded commodity on the market. The most traded commodity on the market is oil.
• Most coffee farmers get less than 25 cents a pound for their coffee.
• The value of the coffee in a typical Starbucks coffee is about 6 cents.