Is Coffee Fermentation Magic?

This week:

• Picking coffee cherries at their exact peak ripeness is widely considered essential for high quality coffee. However, a new study from Brazil has shown that, using the right post-harvest fermentation, underripe cherries can be improved to the point that they reach the same—or better—quality than ripe cherries.
• Blue Bottle Coffee says that it has achieved carbon neutrality, although the Nestlé-owned brand relied on carbon offsets to get there. Getting into the nuts and bolts of the story is beyond the scope of this mini Monday newsletter—my Fresh Cup piece goes into Blue Bottle's claims in a bit more detail, and I will certainly be writing about it in a future Pourover article.
  
  I've also previously written about carbon neutral coffee in general:

“Carbon Neutral” Coffee: Climate Accountability or Marketing Spin?

The coffee industry creates emissions and carbon offsets won’t save us.

The PouroverFionn Pooler

• Death Wish Coffee, known for suing other death-themed coffee companies, has filed a lawsuit against Liquid Death because it says the water brand is about to launch a line of coffee products. In response, Liquid Death said it has no current plans to get into coffee, and also noted that "we don’t believe any one company can legally own the word DEATH regardless of how it’s used".

For more on all these stories, plus why Verve Coffee had to pay $182,000 to its workers, check out the full Roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:

Coffee News Club: Week of October 20th

There can be only one death-themed coffee brand. Plus, how post-harvest processing can improve underripe coffee, and Blue Bottle Coffee achieves carbon neutrality—but does that mean anything?

Fresh CupFionn Pooler

Paid subscribers to The Pourover receive a bonus article every other Friday, often on topics that are either inspired by or that don't quite fit into the scope of the main newsletter. However, I've also been exploring coffee history—the latest bonus piece looks at Sweden's history of banning coffee, and how Gustav III's attempts to prove it harmful may have been the world's first randomised controlled trial:

The King of Sweden’s Coffee Experiment

For paid subscribers: Today, Sweden is famous for its love of coffee. But historically that hasn’t always been the case, and one particular ruler’s attempts to prove coffee’s harmful health impacts may have been the world’s first randomised controlled trial.

The PouroverFionn Pooler

I'll be back on Friday with a new long read—this week I'm finally going to tackle the thorny subject of automation in coffee—but until then, it's goodbye from Clem, who is waiting for something (probably a treat):