Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending March 15th

It was a bit of a slow week for coffee news, but I somehow still managed to write a whole roundup. Here’s what happened:

• A California Assembly member introduced new legislation that would ban coffee decaffeinated using methylene chloride. The FDA has said that the health risks from decaffeinated coffee using methylene chloride are so low “as to be essentially non-existent”, but that hasn’t stopped a food safety nonprofit from pushing for the ban.
• Keurig will introduce a plastic-free coffee pod—well, it’s more of a puck—as part of what its CEO calls “our ambitious agenda [which] reflects our commitment to providing variety, quality, value, and sustainability to the 45 million North American coffee consumers who currently use Keurig brewers.” Those 45 million people will need an entirely new machine in order to use the new K-Rounds, so what happens to all those old brewers?
• Coffee has a complicated relationship with migraines—does it cause them? Cure them? Science doesn’t know! Things are no clearer despite two new studies investigating the subject.

Read the full Roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:

If you missed it, my latest article explores the hype, controversy, and nuance surrounding kopi luwak:

The Moral Complexities of Civet Coffee

Coffee collected from the droppings of civets is sought after by the rich and deplored by animal welfare advocates. Caught in the middle are the farmers who produce it.

The PouroverFionn Pooler

And Fresh Cup also republished another piece from the Pourover archive: The Accidental Coffee Farmer

Until next week, it’s goodbye from Merlin, enjoying a skritch: