Companies are turning to automation as a tool to fight back against industrial action. In coffee, that role could well be played by robot baristas—in fact, it sort of already has.
Coffee companies are going all in on automation. We’re told that it improves efficiency, cuts costs, and yields a better product. But what does it mean for the baristas whose labour these automations displace?
Another week, another smorgasbord of coffee news. What’s been going on?
For the third year in a row, Brazilian coffee production has steadily increased despite the country’s arabica coffee usually following a biennial production schedule with alternating larger and smaller harvests. However, drought and frost hit the country in 2020 and 2021, breaking the cycle—and there’s a chance this upswing trend will continue.
The Specialty Coffee Association has released a report exploring the findings from its 2023 survey investigating equitable value distribution in the industry. There’s a lot in there, but basically respondents believe that farmers are not reaping the value of coffee proportionate to the amount of value their work gives coffee.
And Starbucks is shutting down its NFT rewards program Odyssey before it even left the beta testing phase. Then-CEO Howard Schultz announced Odyssey’s launch in 2022 during an anti-union tour, using NFTs to “excite [workers] about a union-less future with the company,” according to Mashable.
Last week, Fresh Cup also revamped and republished my piece about the Red Sea crisis and the coffee industry’s focus on shipping delays rather than the ongoing genocide in Gaza: read Coffee At Sea.
I’ll be back with a new article on Friday, but until then it’s goodbye from Merlin:
I'm the creator and writer of The Pourover. Based in Scotland, I have over a decade of experience in the specialty coffee industry as a barista, roaster, and writer. Ask me about coffeewashing.
