Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending October 13th

This week, in coffee news:

• Alaska Airlines has switched its coffee supplier from Starbucks to Stumptown Coffee, with the press release really leaning into how hard they worked to create a coffee that tastes good in a pressurized container at altitude.
• Your La Marzocco espresso machine can now talk to your Mahlkönig coffee grinder and make automated grind adjustments in real time. Well, so long as you have very specific models from both manufacturers.
• A National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz illegally threatened a union supporter during a “listening tour” in 2022. Schultz’ comment that the barista should “go work for another company” amounted to “a warning that protected pro-union speech was not compatible with employment at Starbucks,” according to Reuters.

Read the full Roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:

I’ll be back with a new article this Friday, but until then it’s goodbye from Merlin who was there to welcome me back from the USA: