Business World

Hot or iced, with whipped topping or not — Seattle’s Best Coffee fans can soon have it their way.

Burger King (BKC) will start serving up the Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500)-owned brand at 7,250 of its restaurants across the United States by September, for $1 to $2.79 a cup, the company announced today.

"The addition of Seattle’s Best Coffee expands on our ‘Have it Your Way’ brand promise by offering our guests even more beverage options and strengthens our ability to remain competitive in a continuously changing industry," the restaurant chain’s senior marketing VP, John Schaufelberger, said in a statement.

The news comes amid a weak economy in which consumers seem to be pinching pennies and avoiding burgers, soda and beer.

Last week McDonald’s posted same-store sales were down 0.7% in January in its U.S. restaurants. Burger King competes with McDonalds’ McCafe to attract morning customers. Burger King doesn’t post monthly figures, but showed same-store sales in the U.S. and Canada were down 3.3% in the second quarter of 2010.

Seattle’s Best Coffee will replace Burger King’s BK Joe coffee menu, launched in 2005.

The sandwich chain Subway also signed a deal with Seattle’s Best back in November and now sells its coffee in 8,500 stores. 

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