In a climate of disappearing disposable income on one hand, and a contingent of consumers that are always seeking out better and more sustainably-grown and traded coffee beans on the other hand, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) is losing in all fronts. Today, Dunkin Donuts announced that its coffee had beaten Starbucks' brew in independent taste tests across the country; 476 adults in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and Seattle participated in a double-blind taste test, comparing Dunkin Donuts Original Blend against Starbucks House Blend. Exact numbers were not released, but the research firm said the customers "clearly indicated a preference" for the Dunkin.

This isn't the only blow against Starbucks in the media this week; last week, a story about the new Juan Valdez Cafe chain highlighted the pressure from the other end of the competition spectrum: quality and sustainability. Coffee sold at the 101 stores across Colombia and in New York, Seattle, Philadelphia, Spain, and Santiago, Chile is grown by 22,000 shareholders who are looking to market their beans; according to this article, they're not hoping to profit from the cafe enterprise, even though the collective plans to open 500 more stores across the U.S., Latin America and Europe in the next two years. What's more, coffee is slightly cheaper at Juan Valdez Cafe than at Starbucks in New York City.

Starbucks is being squeezed into an uncomfortable middle ground between the low-price, blue collar product on one end (Dunkin Donuts) and the eco-friendly, high-quality product on the other end (Juan Valdez). The only thing it has going to keep its profits from splattering all over the wall is customer loyalty ... and oatmeal. Will it survive?

Unless The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) manages a corporate blunder in the next few hours, it will be KO that has won the investor taste test challenge over PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) for the month of October.

KO closed September 29 at $44.68, and was at $46.75 on last look. KO is up from an adjusted closing price at the close of 2005 after dividend of $39.46 and nominally closing at $40.31.