Smuggling has been a part of coffee since the beginning, and continues in many forms today. In the process, it reveals much about the industry’s power structures.
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Hello, and welcome to the Roundup. Every week, I read all the coffee news and write about the best bits for Fresh Cup Magazine. Then, I summarise those bits for you in this newsletter.
This week: yet more tariff stuff, a record-breaking coffee auction, and the coffee clone war comes to Berlin. Let's jump in:
The 50% tariff on coffee imports from Brazil to the United States is now in force (at least, as of this writing—who knows what it will be tomorrow). With U.S. demand expected to fall, Brazilian exporters are looking for alternative destinations for some of the $2 billion or so worth of coffee that American companies buy each year. Enter China.
Julith Coffee, a one-week-old company from Dubai, just smashed the record for a green coffee purchase by spending $604,080 on 20 kilos of washed Gesha coffee at the Best of Panama auction. That's $30,204 per kg, more than triple the previous record, set last year at—you guessed it—the Best of Panama auction. Understandably, there's been a lot of Discourse surrounding this news. Is it groundbreaking and helping to advance the industry? Is it an obscene display of wealth in an industry where the majority can't make ends meet? A little of both?
The coffee clone war is spreading. A venture capital-backed, low-cost-small-footprint-digital-first specialty simulacrum has made its way to Berlin. LAP Coffee wants to "provide coffee that is good, fast and—most crucially—cheap", according to The Berliner. Coffee folks in the city see it as an existential threat, using investment cash and a facsimile of specialty to undercut the competition.
For more on all these stories, plus how late-night coffee might make you more impulsive, check out the full Roundup at Fresh Cup Magazine:
I'm the creator and writer of The Pourover. Based in Scotland, I have over a decade of experience in the specialty coffee industry as a barista, roaster, and writer. Ask me about coffeewashing.
Fionn Pooler
