No Politics, Please, We're Starbucks

A slightly delayed newsletter this week, due to Memorial Day in the States (Fresh Cup always publishes on the Tuesday after a holiday) plus the fact that I was driving most of yesterday coming back from a holiday of my own.

Anyway, here's what happened in coffee last week:

• Coffea Canephora (a.k.a. robusta) is becoming more and more popular, but it still lags behind arabica in terms of attention to sensory analysis. To tackle this, a team of researchers from Brazil created a robusta-specific flavour wheel. The goal of the new wheel is to standardise aroma and flavour descriptors so farmers and researchers can continue improving robusta’s quality.
• Starbucks in South Korea has blocked customers from using the names of presidential candidates in the country's upcoming election when ordering drinks via the mobile app. Customers had been adding political phrases to their orders, forcing baristas to call the slogans out when a drink was ready.
• In collaboration with the charity Farm Africa, a community-led project in Ethiopia's Oromia region reforested more than 5,000 acres of land, boosted household incomes by 45%, and increased coffee exports by 70% over the course of three years. “The Forest Coffee project shows that protecting nature doesn’t have to mean sacrificing income,” one participant said. “With ingenuity we can grow profitable new income streams rooted in production methods that restore and protect our ecosystems.”

For more on all these stories, check out the full Roundup at Fresh Cup Magazine:

Coffee News Club: Week of May 27th

Scroll to find out what tomato, shoyu, and coconut water have in common. That and more—here’s the coffee news for the week of May 27th.

Fresh CupFionn Pooler

If you missed it, why not check out my latest article on the looming $10 latte and how specialty coffee can go about communicating price rises to a consumer base that has been taught to undervalue the drink:

The $10 Latte is Coming—But Who Will Buy It?

A complex web of pressures, from climate change to tariffs, are pushing up coffee prices. But the industry has a challenge: How to communicate necessary price rises to consumers without scaring them off.

The PouroverFionn Pooler

Paid subscribers will receive a bonus article this Friday, but until then it's goodbye from a new guest End of Newsletter star, George Puss, who is enjoying the Lake District sunshine: