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A newsletter about coffee—its culture, politics, and complex history. Sign up for biweekly deep dives into the way your morning beverage connects to the wider world.

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A Newsletter About Coffee

Coffee is at once an unassuming beverage enjoyed by tens of millions every morning, and a complex and often murky industry that spans the globe.

The Pourover aims to illuminate that murky complexity with deeply researched articles that analyse the industry and its biggest players.

Subscribers receive:

• A bi-weekly deep dive into a different aspect of coffee, from private equity's hold over the industry to the ways in which climate breakdown is impacting farmers.
• On Mondays, you'll also receive a quick summary of the latest coffee news.

Here are some popular articles:

In the Age of Coffee Automation, What Happens to Baristas?

Coffee companies are going all in on automation. We’re told that it improves efficiency, cuts costs, and yields a better product. But what does it mean for the baristas whose labour these automations displace?

The PouroverFionn Pooler

Starbucks and the Myth of the Third Place

Starbucks wants to be known as a community gathering space, even after morphing into the ultimate convenience-focused coffee chain. But was it ever truly a third place in the first place?

The PouroverFionn Pooler

The Coffee Industry Will Regret Embracing Generative AI

Coffee professionals and brands are increasingly adopting generative AI. But should an industry that prides itself on authenticity and sustainability really be embracing such a destructive tool?

The PouroverFionn Pooler

The Pourover is written by Fionn Pooler, a writer and sometime coffee roaster based in Scotland, with over a decade of experience (for better and worse) in the industry. Hi! 👋

Paid Subscriptions Help Support My Work

The Pourover is an independent newsletter that is dedicated to exploring—and critiquing—a multi-billion-dollar industry.

You can help support this work by becoming a paid subscriber. In return, you'll receive a bonus article every other Friday with extra analysis and occasional rants that aren't suitable for the main newsletter.

Some recent bonus articles for paid subscribers:

Dubai’s Chocolate-Based Propaganda Push

For paid subscribers: Coffee is increasingly used to burnish the United Arab Emirates’ international image. Now it is being supercharged by merging with the popularity of the Dubai chocolate trend.

The PouroverFionn Pooler

Starbucks’ MAHA Misstep

For paid subscribers: What Starbucks’ CEO Brian Niccol’s meeting with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says about the company’s embrace of coffee’s wellness trend—and the trend’s darker side.

The PouroverFionn Pooler

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