For paid subscribers: A fascinating academic paper delves into the ways Korean Buddhists, after centuries of drinking tea, have started to embrace coffee.
Demand for coffee is growing, and climate change threatens supply—yet consumers don’t want to pay more. In an intensified and unequal industry, however, someone always pays.
I should just start calling it the Starbucks News Roundup. Here’s what happened this week:
The world’s largest roasters are buying more sustainably-certified green coffee than ever before, according to the latest Global Coffee Platform report. However, the increase might be slightly misleading, due to the increase in participation and addition of new sustainability certifications.
Starbucks has finally figured out Australia after two decades of trying. All it needed to do was wait for the coffee snob generation to be overtaken by the TikTok generation and hey presto—massive sales jump.
Italy’s €1 espresso is a famous part of its culture, but the traditionally cheap coffee is now under threat from rising costs. However, raising the price can be very difficult for cafes: “Your business would die a very quick death”, one expert said. “The people dictate what the price is going to be”.
Read more on all these stories—plus an update on the Starbucks unionisation litigation—over at Fresh Cup Magazine:
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)
