‘The Computer That Also Makes Coffee’

This week: when is a coffee machine also a computer? When it's trying to find tariff loopholes. Also, more unionising, and what exactly is regenerative agriculture?

• Regenerative agriculture is all the rage in coffee right now, so much so that even the biggest brands are embracing its promise of sustainability and soil regeneration. But what does the term mean, and what does it actually involve? To that end, the multi-stakeholder association Global Coffee Platform has released the RegenCoffee Guidance, a document which offers a framework and common language for the coffee industry to use as regenerative agriculture becomes more common.
• Workers at three Verve Coffee Roasters locations in Santa Cruz and San Francisco are unionising with help from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. More than 80% of those eligible signed authorisation cards. Workers are looking for higher wages, improved benefits, and more say in how their workplaces are run. “People don’t feel like their voices are heard, or that their questions are being answered. It makes us feel disrespected at work,” said shift lead Sasha Pavy.
• Modern coffee machines are tech-heavy, from touchscreens to programmable recipes to (ugh) apps. All of which made the Italian manufacturer De'Longhi think, hmm, coffee machines being imported to the United States face a 15% tariff, but computers are exempt. As its new advertisement puts it: "So, meet the computer that also makes coffee."

For more on all these stories, plus another study that found microplastics in takeaway coffees, check out the full Roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:

Coffee News Club: Week of September 8th

Is that a milk frother or a USB stick? Why espresso machines are now computers. Plus, your coffee cup is leaching microplastics. How much? Click to find out.

Fresh CupFionn Pooler

Last week, paid subscribers received a wild tale of coffee smuggling (and more) in 1980s Miami, featuring “a secret banking network that served drug smugglers, tax evaders, arms dealers and rapacious tyrants, including Panama’s Manuel Noriega”.

The Coffee Smuggler of Boca Raton

For paid subscribers: A tale of international intrigue, bank fraud, and coffee smuggling from the 1980s that sounds like an episode of Miami Vice.

The PouroverFionn Pooler

I'll be back on Friday with a new article, the content of which may change depending on what happens with tariffs this week. Until then, it's goodbye from Delia and Fabio, who are keeping an eye on things: