for all my coffee drinking friends...

Consider this a peace offering. I was at a coffee shop with a friend the other day (I just order a hot chocolate, that's all) and was mesmerized by the artistic expressions from this espresso artist. The one I saw was in slow motion, but this one will do the trick.



As an FYI, turns out a recent Wall Street Journal Article reveals some interesting tension between Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks.

”Dunkin' Donuts last year paid dozens of faithful customers in Phoenix, Chicago and Charlotte, N.C., $100 a week to buy coffee at Starbucks instead. At the same time, the no-frills coffee chain paid Starbucks customers to make the opposite switch.

When it later debriefed the two groups, Dunkin' says it found them so polarized that company researchers dubbed them "tribes" -- each of whom loathed the very things that made the other tribe loyal to their coffee shop. Dunkin' fans viewed Starbucks as pretentious and trendy, while Starbucks loyalists saw Dunkin' as austere and unoriginal.

‘I don't get it,’ one Dunkin' regular told researchers after visiting Starbucks. ‘If I want to sit on a couch, I stay at home.’”

Oddly enough, even in light of this research Dunkin' Donuts is in the beginning stages of remaking nearly 5,000 U.S. stores to be more like Starbucks without feeling like Starbucks. There will be fancy Panini style sandwiches called a “stuffed melt.” Also, Dunkin’ marketers are considering ways to allow its customers to text message their orders in.

Weird... instead of capitalizing on the differences that make them unique they are trying so hard to look like each other in order to survive.

Hmm... how can the church avoid this trap?

I think I'll just watch the latte video some more...