Coffee Beans

Most companies want to be No. 1. Making it to No. 2 would be good enough for Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, a fast-growing Los Angeles-based coffeehouse chain. It's an admission that in the coffee business, there is Starbucks Corp., and then there is everybody else. Coffee Bean, on schedule to have more than 400 stores by the end of this year, is one of at least half a dozen small players vying for the second spot.

Ethiopian farmer Mohammed Ali Indris estimates that five years ago he made $320 for his coffee and corn, comfortably supporting his family of 12. This year, according to the relief group Oxfam, he expects to make only $60. He has had to pull three of his children out of school and sell his oxen to pay back loans for seed and fertilizer. That is the price of the global coffee glut, a downward spiral that U.S. leadership could help end.

When Ralph Steele wakes up and smells the coffee, he reaches for the phone. Steele is one of half a dozen Ojai Valley residents complaining that the aroma of roasting coffee beans from a coffee shop a block away is making them sick. Fumes from sizzling Mayan blend and French decaf are so acrid, Steele and the others contend, that the county should force the cafe to cease all roasting operations. But the owners of Stir Crazy cafe say that would put them out of business.

Los Angeles' Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has accused rival Starbucks Corp. of stealing the phrase "ice blended" to market a cold coffee drink. In a lawsuit against the nation's largest coffee-shop chain, Coffee Bean claims it registered "ice blended" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1995 and has been using the name since 1986. The suit, filed in the U.S.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Hillhurst Avenue at Ambrose Avenue, Los Feliz WAIT:5 to 15 minutes COST:$1.40 and up TASTE*:4 (on a scale of 1 to 10) OPTIONS:Dry pastries and moist cakes; bagels with tubes of cold cream cheese impossible to spread with plastic knives; fruited iced teas. Coffee by the pound and expensive ancillary coffee items. CLEAN?*:Inside, 6; outside, 0.

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In the '80s, Americans went nuts for coffee with hazelnut, raspberry and other flavors. Foodies called them depraved innovations, and maybe they were depraved (at least if the coffee were of premium quality to begin with). But flavored coffee is no innovation. Spices have long been added in the Middle East, where coffee originated. Yemen, which was once the world's only source of coffee, has a traditional coffee spice mixture, hawaij al-gahwa.

At some point, Mindy Finkelstein hopes to walk onto a volleyball court and serve. She will then step off the court, out of harm's way, and let the point play itself out. Chatsworth High might score. Its opponent might force a side-out. Either way, Finkelstein's season will be made.

Colombia, the world's second-largest coffee producer, probably will raise the price of its beans soon amid signs that U.S. consumers are willing to pay more for higher-quality coffee, the head of the nation's growers group said. Colombia produces the mild arabica beans that many drinkers of specialty coffee prefer. Demand for higher grades is on the rise in the U.S.