Burger King Hops on Specialty Coffee Bandwagon

Burger King is looking to give McDonald's and its McCafés a run for their money: now, you'll start seeing specialty lattes at Burger Kings as soon as March.

MSN Money shares that the lineup of 10 new coffee drinks, which includes vanilla, mocha, and caramel lattes and iced coffees plus Arabica brewed coffee, is thanks to a partnership with Seattle's Best Coffee chain. And while it's pretty clear that Burger King is hoping to lure people away from their McCafés, there's more to it — while soda sales are on the decline, coffee drink sales are trending up. Coffee makes for a $32 billion industry — a lot of moolah. As restaurant industry researcher Malcom Knapp put it to USA Today, "[Coffee drinks] are a lot more profitable than cheeseburgers or fries." 

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And the real winner behind Burger King's new drinks? Starbucks. Seattle's Best is a Starbucks-owned chain, which means for every vanilla latte you buy at Burger King, Starbucks will get a cha-ching at the register. (And hey, it's way cheaper than Starbucks — $1.49 for a small iced coffee, and $3.49 for a large latte.) Only time will tell whether BK's push forward will cramp McDonald's McCafé sales. 

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