Scrutinising the Coffee Industry's Sustainability Progress
It's the Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending June 12th
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Whatever Happened to IBM’s Coffee Prediction Drone?
For paid subscribers: Eight years ago, the media got very excited about a patent for a drone that could monitor and deliver coffee to the those it deemed under-caffeinated. It never became reality—why not?
6 min read
Coffee drone delivery, while innovative, isn't particularly game-changing. It takes a latte where it needs to go, just quicker. But what if the drone could hover above a crowd, predict who needs a caffeine pick-me-up, and deliver coffee to them at just the right time? Now that would be futuristic.
In 2018, the United States Patent Office granted an application to IBM for “drone delivery of coffee based on a cognitive state of an individual”. The idea was that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) would hover above a group of people, use sensors to monitor their biometrics, and deliver coffee to those deemed tired or otherwise sufficiently uncaffeinated.
As the patent abstract explains, “the drink is connected to the UAV, and the UAV flies to an area including people, and uses sensors to scan the people for an individual who has gestured that they would like the drink, or for whom an electronic analysis of sensor data indicates to be in a predetermined cognitive state”.
Unsurprisingly, this patent garnered a lot of media attention. It was covered by the BBC, Financial Times, Inc., USA Today, and many many more. The vaguely creepy nature of the project—it could connect to your Fitbit and monitor your blood pressure!—combined with the coffee aspect made it eminently newsworthy.
Who Benefits From Coffee’s Enduring Newsworthiness?
Coffee is always in the news, from health studies to novel products to stunt job postings. But what do these “earned media” stories tell us about the motivations behind such coverage?
Fionn Pooler
IBM wasn’t the first company to think up coffee-delivery drones, of course. As detailed in the main Pourover newsletter last week, such UAVs have been around for well over a decade at this point. IBM’s version was just different, stranger, more dystopian, and thus received more attention. But was the prophetic patent as scary as it sounded, and why did it never become reality?
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Will Sky High Retail Coffee Prices Ever Come Back Down?
For paid subscribers: retail coffee prices have soared in recent years, driven by climbing commodity costs and tariff stupidity. Some of those pressures have now started to ease, and yet retail prices continue to rise. Will they ever come down?
What’s in a Coffee Shop Name?
For paid subscribers: Naming a coffee company is tricky, and choosing the wrong one can result in controversy. Just ask Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii.
Starbucks and ChatGPT Offer a Glimpse Into Coffee’s Dystopian Future
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.
Buddhist Brews
For paid subscribers: A fascinating academic paper delves into the ways Korean Buddhists, after centuries of drinking tea, have started to embrace coffee.