Chatbots telling us what we want. Robots making our coffee. Baristas reduced to smiling servers. If Starbucks and other brands get their way, this is the future: a frictionless, interactionless, lifeless coffee experience.
The US Food and Drug Administration says that coffee beverages can, finally, be labelled as “healthy”—just so long as they contain fewer than five calories per serving. The update pleased the National Coffee Association, which has been pushing hard for the rule change.
As if to back up the FDA, new research found that drinking coffee can lengthen your life—but only if you drink it in the morning. Interestingly, those who continued their coffee consumption into the afternoon and evening did not receive any benefit, according to the study from Tulane University.
Sure to raise the blood pressure of any non-Starbucks barista, the corporation released a new (to them) coffee beverage: the cortado. Much like its version of the macchiato, Starbucks’ cortado is much bigger than the drink whose name it stole. Good luck to all the baristas who now have to explain to new customers that no, actually a cortado is only supposed to be four ounces.
For more an all these stories, plus a new certification for Indian coffee producers, check out the full roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:
I’ll be back on Friday with a new article (if you’d like a clue, it will be an in-depth look at one of the stories from this week’s news) but until then it’s goodbye from 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. It's pronounced Fin (he/him)
