Starbucks Scrutinizes Single-Cup Caffeine (SBUX, GMCR, KFT)

Starbucks SBUX is coming for your coffee cup. Starbucks plans to take single-cup steps independent of current market leader Green Mountain Coffee Roasters GMCR, according to Starbucks' internal memo that was leaked yesterday. Starbucks' further announcement to partner with Courtesy Products this past Tuesday will allow the coffee conglomerate access to up to 500,000 hotel rooms nationwide via Courtesy's CV1 in-room and on-demand single brewed coffee cup system. Starbucks has said it will launch its CV1 premium coffees in the fall of 2011. KFT) is set to expire on March 1 of this year, freeing the company to pursue other opportunities. The clash for coffee is likely to go international. U.S. consumers have yet to swarm to single-cup brewing but European households embrace the model, Schultz stated in the Starbucks memo. In Germany, he states, almost 40% of households own a single-cup brewing machine. "Now consider that approximately 80% of Starbucks customers do not yet own a single-serve coffee machine in their homes," Schultz stated. "This fact alone suggests that we are, again, at the very early stage of adoption and that Starbucks has a fantastic opportunity to introduce and deliver new single-serve coffee innovations to our customers." Shares of Starbucks were trading at $33.99 at the time of posting, up 1.46% from Thursday's market close. As Benzinga readers know, Green Mountain shares are rallying today at $42.01 at the time of posting, up 3.20% from Thursday's close.