For paid subscribers: Coffee is increasingly used to burnish the United Arab Emirates’ international image. Now it is being supercharged by merging with the popularity of the Dubai chocolate trend.
The coffee scene in Dubai is thriving, and the city is set to welcome the Specialty Coffee Association’s World of Coffee event next month. But underneath the glitzy facade and marketing buzz lies a moral quagmire.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is targeting Hawaii's coffee-growing regions. ICE agents are using supposed welfare checks on undocumented minors to gather information about—and eventually detain—the children and their adult guardians. Hawaii's coffee sector uses a lot of migrant labour, and some of the raids have taken place on South Kona coffee farms. This has left many workers living in fear and constantly watching their backs.
A couple of years ago I wrote about a respected Mexican producer in Hawaii who was deported in 2017, and how his daughter had no choice but to take over his farm.
Venice is famous for its watery locale, and visitors to this year's Biennale can get a literal taste for the city by enjoying an espresso brewed with canal water. Just head on down to Canal Café, a design project which uses a series of filtration tanks to purify lagoon water before brewing and serving it to guests. The idea is to make attendees think more closely about clean water and climate change: “It’s visceral — to drink or not to drink — and will provoke people to confront the issue that is literally right in front of them", Biennale director Carlo Ratti told the New York Times.
The Trump administration's tariffs are impacting much of the coffee industry, and equipment manufacturers are no exception. Most coffee gear is made in China, the country hit hardest by the tariffs (well, until today when everything changed again) and the launch of Fellow Product's fancy new espresso machine has suffered from the uncertainty and disruption.
For more on all these stories, plus a double dose of Boston-based unionisation news, check out the full Roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:
Paid subscribers (it could be you!) will receive a new article this Friday with some bonus buzzwords, but until then it's goodbye from a sassy-looking Maru:
I'm a coffee writer and creator of The Pourover. Based in Scotland, I have over a decade of experience in the specialty coffee industry. Ask me about coffeewashing. (he/him)
Fionn Pooler
Fionn Pooler
Fionn Pooler
