Nearly five years since the first Starbucks location unionised, contract negotiations are still dragging on. Can external pressure from shareholders and human-rights campaigners make a difference?
It's the Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending June 12th
For paid subscribers: retail coffee prices have soared in recent years, driven by climbing commodity costs and tariff stupidity. Some of those pressures have now started to ease, and yet retail prices continue to rise. Will they ever come down?
A website and newsletter about coffee—its culture, politics, and how it connects to the wider world.
The Pourover is a newsletter and website dedicated to exploring, analysing, and critiquing the global coffee industry.
Coffee is at once an unassuming beverage enjoyed by tens of millions every morning, and a complex and often murky industry that spans the globe.
As a beverage, coffee offers a moment of clarity or a caffeine boost to start the day. As a crop, it provides a livelihood for millions of farmers, labourers, roasters, and baristas from Ethiopia to Hong Kong.
But despite the sunny claims of marketers and influencers, inequity and wealth disparities cloud this multi-billion-dollar industry—and, as the climate crisis takes hold, the very future of coffee is at risk.
A website and weekly newsletter written by Fionn Pooler, a decade-plus veteran of the industry, The Pourover delves deep into coffee's history, culture, and politics (and occasionally yells at corporations).
Subscribers will receive an original long-form article every other Friday that delves into a different topic related to coffee. Relying on expert interviews and critical analysis, these pieces explore how coffee, and the people and companies who grow, ship, roast, and sell it, connect to the wider world.
There’s also the weekly Coffee News Roundup, and although it’s now hosted exclusively on Fresh Cup Magazine subscribers will still receive a summary of the week’s coffee news every Monday.
I am a coffee writer based in Scotland and the creator of The Pourover. I have written for publications such as Sprudge, Daily Coffee News, STiR Coffee & Tea, and Fresh Cup Magazine. For Fresh Cup, I write the weekly news roundup Coffee News Club.
As well as writing about coffee, I have over a decade of experience working in the industry, as a barista, roaster, and marketer.
Feel free to reach out with any feedback, comments, tips, or collaboration inquiries: hello [at] thepourover [dot] coffee
Deeply researched articles exploring all the ways coffee connects to politics, history, and culture—delivered direct to your inbox
