The Coffee Singularity Grows Closer

This week: two consolidated coffee giants... consolidate.

• Keurig Dr Pepper (a beverage conglomerate formed by the merger of Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group) is acquiring JDE Peet's (a coffee conglomerate formed by the merger of Jacob Douwe Egberts and Peet's Coffee) for $18 billion. The resultant company will be split into two, one focusing on coffee and the other on soft drinks, with the coffee arm expected to bring in $16 billion in annual sales and rival Nestlé as the second-largest coffee company in the world. At this rate, I expect those two companies to eventually merge with Starbucks, leaving one enormous coffee behemoth called JDE Keurbustlé or Nesbucks or something.
• The coffee industry loves tree-planting to offset carbon emissions or expanding coffee production, but it turns out that protecting existing forests is better than planting new trees on deforested land. A recent study found that removing existing forests released double the carbon that tree planting could capture, even if every farm in the world planted new shade trees.
• Verve Coffee Roasters in California added a 5% surcharge to all orders to fund expanding healthcare benefits for full-time employees. However, baristas told Lookout Santa Cruz that not all workers are full-time, and the surcharge misleads customers into thinking that they are subsidising healthcare for employees who might not actually receive benefits. (Verve disputed these claims.)

For more on all these stories, plus research showing that caffeine could impact the effectiveness of antibiotics, check out the full Roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:

Coffee News Club: Week of September 2nd

Keurig Dr Pepper acquires JDE Peet’s in a major coffee consolidation. Plus, saving forests beats planting new trees, and Verve’s healthcare surcharge has people irked.

Fresh CupFionn Pooler

If you missed it, you can check out my latest long read, on all the ways I think the coffee industry will come to regret embracing generative AI:

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

On Friday, paid subscribers will receive a bonus article looking in more depth at the wild exploits of Munther Bilbeisi, who made millions smuggling coffee into Miami in the 1980s with the help of a bank that Time Magazine called the “largest criminal corporate enterprise in modern history”. If you'd like to read it, you can become a paid subscriber here!

For now, though, it's goodbye from Clem, who is keeping an eye on things from on top of a shelf: