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.
Twenty-three years after they were displaced from their land so that Neumann Kaffee Gruppe could build a sprawling coffee farm, thousands of Ugandans are still waiting for compensation.
As Korea’s coffee market heats up and attracts investment from foreign chains, home-grown brands are looking abroad for new opportunities. Much of the expansion demand is fuelled by the Korean Wave or Hallyu, a term used to describe the increasing global popularity of Korean culture over the past three decades.
A chap named Winter is trying to visit every Starbucks on the planet. He’s been to 19,521 in 71 countries since he began his quest in 1997, and he’ll probably never finish: earlier this year, Starbucks opened 364 new cafes in just 13 weeks. (This story is absolutely wild and you should definitely read the whole thing.)
Fresh Cup also republished one of my Pourover pieces, so in case you haven’t read it yet (or want to read it again on a different website) you can check it out here: The Moral Complexities of Civet Coffee
I’ll be back on Friday with a new article, but until then it’s goodbye from Merlin:
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)
