Recently in Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Category

It's the economy, stupid. And in response, Starbucks is starting a "rewards program." Earth to Seattle: We've been in shit soup for more than two years now. (And while I'm at it, ain't nobody gonna pay nearly $1 for single serving of instant coffee. What are you thinking?)

It looks like the Sbux brain trust realized nobody was going for that stupid pay-extra "Gold" card, and they're now admitting that it was a big bag of BS and offering that same privilege to anybody who makes 30 purchases with a "regular" Starbucks card.

The upside is that with every 15 uses of your Sbux card you get a free drink. And 30 uses ups you into the Gold ranks, the benefits of which still elude me. You get coupons and this: A "Personalized Gold Card - We'll send you a special Starbucks Card that recognizes you are one of our favorite customers."

Lipstick, meet pig.

My immediate question/issue: Do you have to buy 30 drinks before you start getting the 1 free drink every 15 drinks deal? That looks like the way it is. Does anybody vet this crap before they release it on a downtrodden public?

What really irks me about this announcement is that SBux is making it look like after five uses you get all these magical benefits that you used to get with using the card only once in any given month:

• Free Wi-Fi - Up to 2 Continuous Hours a Day
• Free Beverage Customization
• Free Refills on Brewed Coffee
• Free Beverage with Whole Bean Purchase
• Free Trial Offers

Let's see ... instead of using the card once in a month, I have to use it FIVE times? Hopefully that'll be it ... they won't reset the "five times" meter every month. That way I can get my free WiFi, refills and "customization" in perpetuity. Is that how it is? I'm OK with that, but they're making it look like it's something special and new, which it isn't.

If only Coffee Bean went back to their free drink with every x number of purchases program. (It's been so long that I can't remember how many punches you needed on your card before the free flowed.)

My analysis: Starbucks is running scared. This smells of roasted desperation.

Photo by Boris from his Flickr page released under a Creative Commons license.

I won't go into excruciating detail about the Daily News' recent move after about 20 years on Oxnard Street in Warner Center to the shared but infinitely fancier confines of the nearby Warner Gateway office park (where Owensmouth Avenue meets the Ventura Freeway), what with the clean carpets, lack of grime on everything we didn't bring with us (meaning there's still plenty of grime to be had), and actual windows.

But there's one thing I will talk about:

Better coffee.

The Organic to Go company has a little cafe on "campus" (is that the right word for this grouping of buildings?) and while the place looks pretty nice, the employees are friendly (especially the ever-cheerful Damon) and the food looks OK (haven't had more than a bagel thus far), the one thing Damon and Co. do absolutely right is coffee.

All I'm saying is that the coffee at Organic to Go rocks extremely hard.

I had the Peru blend today, and it rivals the dark roasts at both Coffee Bean (Organic's is less bitter but still full-flavored) and Starbucks (which, if you follow this blog, you know is gutting the very core of its business with its insistence on pushing the mild, nondescript Pike Place Roast in place of its signature dark blends).

And best of all, at $1.80 for a large coffee, Organic to Go's coffee is not only better but cheaper than that at both S*Bucks and Coffee Bean.

Wait ... it gets better.

Organic to Go even has one of those "Buy 10 get 1 free" cards, which Starbucks never had and Coffee Bean abandoned at least two years ago, if I remember correctly (and I very well may not).

So yes, the moles of the Los Angeles Daily News have a clean carpet, phones not caked with two decades' accumulated grime, no rat traps under my desk (and yes, years ago I did unwittingly grab one — rat included — while looking for an errant pen on the floor), bathrooms with no-touch fixtures that'll probably save me six communicable diseases per year and real windows to the outside world (which here includes quite a few trees).

Still, nothing beats good coffee.

I decided to stop in at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in the huge office park off of Canoga Avenue in good ol' Woodland Hills.

Sure it's a minor inconvenience to get my parking validated ... but at least there is parking.

And they have not one, not one and a decaf, but FOUR drip coffees brewing and available: light and dark roasts, a flavored coffee and a decaf.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Starbucks ruler Howard Schultz.

I'm no fan of flavored coffees, but maybe some of you are.

It's about freedom.

I am a fan of dark roasts, and the Colombian I got today was and is excellent.

Adding to the overall goodness, Coffee Bean always offers nondairy creamer at its condiment bar — a tip of the hat to a) vegans and b) the lactose intolerant.

At Starbucks, you can request soy milk from the barista, but nondairy creamer at the condiment bar? Nope.

And remember, there's a huge Coffee Bean opening up in the Ralphs market directly across the street from my local Starbucks.

Now I'm not saying I won't darken the doorway of many a Starbucks — there's just too damn many of them.

But Coffee Bean, you know what I need. I'm not complicated. You seem to "get me."

We were at the Third Street Promenade on Saturday and found ourselves at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

Now there's a place that always has dark roast brewing ... and never mind that the average Coffee Bean light roast is way better than the average Starbucks light roast.

Cancel that. There is no other light roast at Starbucks other than Pike Place Roast.

Not that I care, since I always choose dark above light.

But if Coffee Bean stays committed to coffee — in a way that Starbucks is not, that says a lot.

It's funny, saying that Starbucks has abandoned coffee, the beverage. But it's pretty much true.

What I'm really saying: Placing Pike Place Roast, not just above all other light roasts but above all other kinds of drip coffee is Starbucks' jump the shark moment.

I made a quick stop today at the Ralphs market on Burbank Boulevard near Van Nuys Boulevard to check up on the construction of the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf outpost, as well as the market in general.

You see, like all good Angelenos, we do most of our shopping at Trader Joe's, since Ralphs draws you in with double coupons and advertised specials while violating you big time on just about everything else.

So I don't get over to Ralphs all that often. There's quite a bit of construction going on at the market, but the bones of the Coffee Bean setup are there. It's built, but not ready for operation.

I don't have a photo (although there was another guy there shooting it with a digital camera), but it looks pretty much like the Coffee Bean kiosks at the Westfield Topanga and Promenade malls. I don't know if they're going to do any seating. It would be nice, but I'm not expecting it.

Parking at the Ralphs is dicey at best, but that's also the case at the Starbucks across the street. Seating for coffee-drinkers would be great, but again, I'm expecting nothing in that regard and will be pleasantly surprised if there is anything of the kind.

I said this when the Starbucks moved in, replacing the Red Chariot, a bar known more for having serial killer Glen Edward Rogers as a customer more than anything else. The bartender was very nice to me one day when I got locked out of the house clothed only in a pair of shorts ... but that's another story for another time.

As I was saying, I give Starbucks major, major credit for opening not one but four locations in Van Nuys and the best Starbucks in the East Valley (in an expansive former bank building on Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood), none of which are within spitting distance of Ventura Boulevard.

There was considerable vision at work, and I'm sure the whole enterprise has been very profitable for Starbucks, seeing as there is no competition whatsoever in the vicinity of each and every one of those locations.

And it may be years later, but Coffee Bean will have no problem siphoning off considerable business from its across-the-street rival.

While the Coffee Bean kiosk is being built, there is Coffee Bean coffee available in those big thermos-ish dispensers near the deli counter. But hopefully the full-fledged Coffee Bean will be ready for action in the days or weeks ahead.

I even had my recharged Starbucks card at the ready so I can potentially take advantage of the free wireless Internet offer from the big coffee company, should I ever be toting a laptop, find a power plug because all my batteries are dead, actually have the time to sit at Starbucks and use free WiFi ...

And I know it's 111 degrees outside in Woodland Hills.

But I still want coffee.

I want the Starbucks dark roast of the day. Not Pike Place Blend.

But the very friendly barista at Starbucks, corner of Oxnard Street and Canoga Avenue in Warner Center says, "No dark roast, only Pike."

She sees the look on my face.

She elaborates, "There no dark roast after 12 noon."

I reply: "Ever?"

It certainly seems to be so.

For now, anyway.

That's one way to make the Pike Place Roast sales soar: offer nothing else. Hey, if it worked for the Soviet Union, it just might work for Starbucks.

The friendly barista took pity on me and wouldn't charge me for my hot venti drip of Pikes on this even hotter day. (Thanks! ... but what are those corporate people smoking?)

I can only hope that this is somehow related to the hot weather and that all will be righted when the ambient air temperature dips below 100.

I direct the rest of this entry to Howard Schultz, returning CEO of Starbucks:

It's called Starbucks Coffee. So make me some coffee. The good stuff.

Meanwhile: in other news, my neighborhood Starbucks is about to get some competition in the form of a Coffee Bean kiosk in the Ralphs market directly across Burbank Boulevard in Van Nuys.

I bet they have dark roast. Lots of it.