The Red Cup Rebellion Returns

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 Moral Cost of Dubai’s Coffee Boom

The coffee scene in Dubai is thriving, and the city is set to welcome the Specialty Coffee Association’s World of Coffee event next month. But underneath the glitzy facade and marketing buzz lies a moral quagmire.

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.

Starbucks Workers United has authorised strike action in response to stalled contract negotiations with the company. Unless Starbucks agrees a contract, the strikes will take place across the United States on November 13th, or Red Cup Day—Starbucks' busiest day of the year when baristas hand out free holiday-themed collectible cups. The union has targeted this day before, having held strikes in 2022 and 2023 under the name "the Red Cup Rebellion". “If Starbucks keeps stonewalling, they should expect to see their business grind to a halt. The ball is in Starbucks’ court,” SBWU spokesperson Michelle Eisen said.
At this point, microplastics are just a fact of life. They're everywhere—in drinking water, in our bodies, in the Antarctic—and also in our coffee brewing equipment. Specifically, pod machines: a recent study found "significant levels of microplastics" in coffee made using coffee pods. Just another reason coffee pods are bad:

Drinking coffee to help you stay alert while driving is good; drinking too much can be bad. That's what one study found when it looked at the impact of caffeine consumption on truck drivers: those who drank five or more caffeinated drinks per day had poorer sleep outcomes, higher daytime sleepiness, and had poorer driving records than their low-caffeine-consuming counterparts.

For more on all these stories, plus more coffee unionising news at Kaldi's Coffee in St. Louis, Missouri, check out the full Roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:

If you missed it, why not check out my latest deep dive, this time looking at the recent interest in regenerative agriculture and whether it can resist being turned into yet another corporate sustainability slogan:

Paid subscribers will receive a bonus article this Friday (looking at Blue Bottle's carbon neutral claims in more depth) but until then it's goodbye from Bella, the library cat I met in Edinburgh last week: