Best Coffee Stocks 2012 - Stocks to Buy - Coffee Stocks - Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) - My top coffee stock pick in 2012 is Starbucks (SBUX). I like this stock because they continue to grow and raise prices which help margins. Sales of Starbucks VIA Ready Brew are also surging.   At first I was surprised as I am not generally a fan of Starbucks coffee unless it comes in 500+ calorie Latte or Frappacino form. However, I recently received a VIA travel mug as a Christmas gift along with Columbian, Vanilla, and Mocha flavors of the intriguing little packets. To my surprise, the “instant” coffee was actually really good. The flavors (Vanilla and Mocha) were great and came slightly sweetened, so no cream and sugar were needed. I also stopped buying Green Mountain Coffee K-Cups because they were getting very expensive.   Will VIA sales out number single cup Keurig sales? It’s hard to say. Keurig which is owned by Green Mountain Coffee (GMCR) has gathered a pretty large faithful following over the past few years and rightfully so, because the coffee is wonderful. However, VIA, being attached to the “Starbucks” brand,  is a pleasant addition to the already multi-billion dollar company ($35 billion to be exact). So my best coffee stock pick in 2012 is Starbucks (SBUX) and I have a $55 price target which is another 20% gain from here.  Any pullback in 2012 is a buy.

#2 Top Coffee Stock to Buy - Coffee Stocks - Caribou Coffee (CBOU) - My 2nd Coffee Stock Pick for 2012 is Caribou Coffee (CBOU) . The stock surged 30% in 2011. This company not only sells coffee for the Keurig, but it is the second largest company-owned coffeehouse operator in the U.S.  While K-Cup sales from Keurig are not a money-maker for the company, as they are not licensed to package the cups, Green Mountain coffee, in turn for the Caribou names, is a free advertising source for Caribou through its catalog and Caribou K- Cup shelf space in grocery stores.  Caribou should continue to see strong growth in coffee sales in 2012 and I rate the stock a buy.