Introduction
I am familiar with and interested in the topic of drive-thru espresso shops because for the last year and a half I have held a part-time job at one. I am a barista, which is a term for an expert espresso bartender, at Southern Mudd Espresso, located on highway 54 in Durham right before I-40. Southern Mudd is one of the few drive-thru espresso businesses in the area; the only other kiosk competition relatively close is in Cary. The owners, who are natives of Durham, got the idea from espresso kiosks they saw out west, specifically in Montana. They modeled Southern Mudd after a drive-thru company called Mountain Mudd in Billings, Montana.
Southern Mudd is a full espresso bar, providing drinks from lattes to americanos, Italian cream sodas, to specialty coffees, exactly as a full-sized espresso café would. The efficiency for the consumer and producer that the kiosk espresso shop offers without sacrificing the quality of the product makes the setup a very practical one. Southern Mudd opened roughly three years ago and has collected a loyal customer base, especially Monday through Friday morning coffee drinkers on their way to work who have a particular taste for fresh gourmet coffee (they drive by a particular fast-food joint on their way to us).
Apparently this drive-thru trend is fairly new to the South, but is something relatively common in the Northwest, where it is seeing much success. Therefore, I am interested in researching the history of the coffee and espresso industry in the United States to track when the consumer acquired a taste for gourmet coffee and when he decided he wanted it fast, thus allowing the creation of drive-thru espresso bars. Did the idea stem more from the drive-thru concept for fast food, or from the kiosk setups that are popular in shopping malls and centers, or both? I am also interested in information on starting a drive-thru espresso bar: who to contact, what kind of layout is optimal, what are the regulations, etc.
My intended audience includes those who are interested in opening their own drive-thru espresso shop, and the consumer that needs his/her latte on-the-go. For those who are interested in starting an espresso shop, this research will be beneficial because I hope to make information on the start-up process readily available as well as research on market trends. And for the coffee lover, this research will be beneficial to entice the consumer to try drive-thru espresso shops for convenience, and to assure them that the setup still allows for a quality product.

Print Sources
Dicum, Gregory. The coffee book : anatomy of an industry from crop to
the last drop. New York : New Press, 1999. HD9199.A2 D53 1999.

Hattox, Ralph S. Coffee and coffeehouses : the origins of a social
beverage in theMedieval Near East. Seattle : University of Washington Press, 1985. GT2919.N33 H37 1985.

Marshall, C. F. The world coffee trade : a guide to the production, trading,
and consumption of coffee. Cambridge: Woodhead-Faulkner, 1983.
HD9199.A2 M37 1983.

Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon grounds : the history of coffee and how it
transformed our world. 1st ed. New York, NY : Basic Books, 1999. TX415 .P46 1999.

Ukers, William H. All about coffee, 2d ed. New York: The Tea and Coffee
Trade Journal Company, 1935. TX415 .U5 1935.

Electronic Indexes and Database Sources
4th ed. Gale Group. (2000). Specialty Coffee. Encyclopedia of Emerging
Industries. [Online]. Available: Business and Company Resource Center [1 February 2003].

Cote, J. (June, 2002). The Espresso Lane Drive-Throughs Prove they can
Serve up Coffee Alongside the Big Guys. Modesto Bee,
McClatchy Newspapers, Inc. [Online] Available:
Academic Universe LexisNexis [1 February 2003].

Crawford, M. (February 2002). Tales from the drive-through frontlines.
(Convenience Coffee). Specialty Coffee Retailer. [Online]
Available: InfoTrac [1 February 2003].

Gale Group. (July, 2002). Survey: U.S. coffee drinking reaches highest
level in decade. Nation’s Restaurant News. [Online].
Available: Business Industry [1 February 2003].

Huffman, F. (January, 1998). Joe to Go. Entrepreneur. [Online].
Available: Business and Company Resource Center
[1 February 2003].

Sheridan, M. (May, 1999). Grinding it Out. Restaurants and Institutions
[Online]. Available: ProQuest [1 February 2003].

Tasoulas, M. (September, 2000). That Caffeine Fix. Restaurant Business.
[Online]. Available: ProQuest [1 February 2003].

Web Pages
Mountain Mudd Espresso
Description: An online catalog of services and products Mountain Mudd, LLC.
provides for the entrepreneur in search of starting his/her own
drive-thru espresso kiosk.
Source of Web Site: Mountain Mudd Espresso, LLC. Billings, Montana

Drive-Thru Coffee: From Conception to Completion
Description: A good comprehensive source, though a bit biased in the sense that
the hope for the author is to gain your business in buying his start-up espresso kiosk products,
for information on the origins of coffee, espresso, and the trends in the industry.
Good information on drive-thru espresso business, though.
Source of Web Site: Paradise Roasting Company

CoffeeResearch.org
Description: Over 300 pages of information on coffee and espresso, including
market information, consumption statistics, and social issues related to coffee.
Source of Web Site: Coffee Research Institute

Special Coffee Retailer Online
Description: An up to date business monthly for the specialty coffee industry
with articles, industry links, business strategies, and lists of
products and services for the industry.
Source of Web Site: Specialty Coffee Retailer.

Coffee Universe
Description: The goal of this page is to elevate the appreciation and awareness of
quality coffee by being the “one-stop source” for all coffee lovers,
whether in the coffee business or not
Source of Web Site: Bellisimo-Coffee Information Brokers