Who should get the tips you leave in that plexiglass box at Starbucks?

That's the question at the center of a dispute in front of New York state's highest court.

Lawyers for baristas, assistant store managers and Starbucks argued in front of the New York Court of Appeals this week to hash out what types of employees are eligible to participate in a tip-pooling arrangement.
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Starting Thursday, Starbucks customers will have the option to save their planet - and their wallets - a dime at a time. The coffee giant is offering $1 plastic cups, which can be reused for drink purchases at a discount of ten cents.

Jim Hanna, the director of environmental affairs at Starbucks, told USA Today that while the company has sold reusable tumblers for some time and offered the ten cent discount, he expects that the modest price of its new one, available at company-owned stores in the U.S. and Canada, will encourage consumers to take action more frequently. The new effort comes largely in response to consumer criticism over the volume of paper coffee cup waste - approximately 4 billion cups globally each year - generated by Starbucks.
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The Wall Street Journal labeled it a “Halloween horror story.” The Internet called it something else: a “pumpkin panic.”

During the first week of October, the Journal reported that Starbucks stores around the country were running out of the syrup used to make its Pumpkin Spice Latte — one of several fall drinks the chain releases seasonally, for a limited time.

Customers, like those who frequent StarbucksGossip.com, were shocked.

“WHAT IS HAPPENING?” wrote one user.

The answer is simple.
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Two years ago, I met Square CEO Jack Dorsey at Third Rail, one of his favorite coffee shops in downtown New York. He held up a small plastic square and told me that the future of payments was in this tiny device.

The entire industry was about to change, he said.

Dorsey was in the middle of a major change himself. Recently ousted from Twitter, the company he cofounded, he rebounded by shifting his famously intense focus to a new pain point: the way we pay.
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It's sweaty, hot and gross as heck all across the country this week. Summer should be good for something, right? To heck with bathing suit season; you deserve some free cold beverages, ice cream (sorta), and chicken.

July 11: 7-Eleven – Free Slurpees
You have until 7 p.m. to haul yourself over to the nearest participating 7-Eleven for a free 7.11-ounce Slurpee drink in honor of the chain's 85th birthday. Can't make it there in time? Whip up a batch of bourbon slush at home (with or without the bourbon).
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Starbucks is getting into the bread business.

The Seattle-based coffee chain announced plans Monday to buy San Francisco-based Bay Bread and its La Boulange bakery brand for $100 million.

"This is an investment in our core business," said Howard Schultz, Starbucks chief executive, in a conference call with financial analysts. "After more than 40 years, we will be able to say that we are bakers too."

Schultz said one-third of Starbucks transactions include the purchase of a food item. Food now accounts for $1.5 billion in sales at U.S. company-operated Starbucks stores and has grown sharply in recent years, he added.

Starbucks will create a "new methodology" to produce fresh baked items, Schultz said without elaborating.

Read - Starbucks: 'We are bakers too'

Want some crushed bugs with your Starbucks frappuccino?

Well, you'd better get on it, because soon it will be too late. The coffee franchise announced that it's phasing out the use of insects as food coloring in its drinks and food products.

Starbucks President Cliff Burrows wrote, in a Thursday blog, that Starbucks is "transitioning" away from the use of an insect called the cochineal.
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Dried, crushed cochineal beetles add the red tint to Starbucks' strawberry and cream cappucino. The Food and Drug Administration says they're safe to consume, but vegetarians are awfully bugged out by the revelation.

Previously - Health department bugs out over grasshopper tacos and I scream, you scream, we all scream when there are cicadas in the ice cream

Chiggy Cybil Wallace is our boss! She oversees CNN Living and Travel. Holy heck, does that lady love bacon.

Today Starbucks decided that my name is now “Chiggy.”

Yep. It was news to me as well.

I know that lots of people have "Starbucks names." And even yesterday a coworker I was standing in line with seemed surprised that I was giving Starbucks my real name. I’ve thought about it. But I always pay with my debit card and fear getting caught fibbing to my barista.
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