Although some of us will choose local favorites who make fresh juice from whole and organic fruits anxd vegetables in front of us, I think this is a wonderful mission and worthy move for Starbucks. With all the jokes and cartoons about a new Starbucks going up overnight, predatory practices aside for the moment, I'd love to see a juice bar and healthy eatery on every block. Seattle could become famous for the health it supports rather than caffeine addiction.

The coffee that Starbucks served was once coffee and not just coffee-based soft drinks. I'm struck by how few people go to Starbucks and just order a cup of coffee or an Americano. They want milk or cream and they want flavoring syrups.

After seeing how Starbucks transformed coffee in to fat- and sugar-laden beverages I don't think that it is a stretch of the imagination to see someone walking in to one of these shops and ordering a Wheatgrass with flavoring syrups and whipped cream in a few years.

Wheat grass? It still tastes like lawn clippings smell. I don't care how much syrup you put in it, I won't be drinking the stuff any time soon.

GaryP, I shared your prejudice. The shot of wheatgrass that Mr. Rudinstein offered smelled no grassier than a Washington sauvignon blanc, and tasted not a whit of lawn clippings or sod. At two bucks a shot, I'm not likely to become a convert, but Evolution Fresh is, no doubt about it, an evolution away from Starbucks as a candy store.