McDonald's is planning to add a new item to its menu: baristas. The burger chain, which upgraded the quality of its coffee in recent years to draw customers from Starbucks, will this year start adding coffee bars in its U.S. restaurants (it has 14,000 in all), complete with specialized staff members to serve the coffee drinks. Those drinks are expected to include things like cappuccinos, mochas, lattes, and other Starbucks-type specialty drinks.

As Starbucks added hot breakfast sandwiches and lunch foods, it became even more of a destination to eat and relax and not just drink coffee, McDonald's and other restaurants found that they were losing business to the Seattle-based chain. Dunkin' Donuts several years ago started offering cappuccinos and lattes to its menus to better compete with Starbucks.

This will be a very expensive move for McDonald's... it will be interesting to see how successful it is.

Will Starbucks try to counter this move by announcing a new line of fatty, deep-fried menu items? Naw, but it would be poetic justice if they did.