Latte-tude adjustment at Wapping

It looks like the tit for tat continues apace in the News International/Starbucks coffee wars and the winner is … a rival coffee chain. Following the Sun's "victory" in exposing Starbucks and their constantly running taps last month, Starbucks withdrew copies of fellow NI title the Times from its chains, replacing it with - Monkey full disclosure alert - the Guardian. But News International got its own back - by getting rid of the Starbucks franchise from its Wapping plant. And before you can say Grande Caramel Macchiato, the newspaper group has now just installed rival chain Costa Coffee. "The coffee shops in the main building and Times House will be closing on Friday, October 31 at 2pm and will not reopen until Monday morning at 8am," an unsigned memo to Times staff sent on October 30 reads. "Owing to a change in contract, Costa Coffee will be served at Wapping from Monday onwards. The closures are to enable training and the recalibration of equipment to take place." The memo, which makes no mention of Starbucks, goes on to praise Costa as a "globally renowned business" that "still brews coffee using the methods brought over from northern Italy by the founders". Over to you, Starbucks …