The Year in Coffee News

Why Might Luckin Want To Buy Blue Bottle Coffee?

For paid subscribers: Nestlé is exploring a sale of Blue Bottle, and Luckin is reportedly interested. With such different approaches to coffee, however, it’s worth asking the question: why?

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, however, it's a recap of the entire year.

It's been a long year, and a lot happened in coffee. For Fresh Cup, I wrote a lengthy (and yet somehow not exhaustive) summary of the year in coffee news based on my weekly roundups.

The recap features the year in coffee more generally; which retail trends came and went; a look at the ways climate change impacted coffee in 2025; the year in coffee unionising; and of course whether coffee was good for us over the past twelve months. (As always, the answer is: mostly?)

You can read the whole recap over at Fresh Cup Magazine. I hope you do, because it took me ages!

So much happened that it was honestly hard to fit everything in. But I managed to include the biggies, such as tariffs and the associated price volatility. There were lots of mergers and acquisitions, from the private equity-backed Fairwave buying Black & White Coffee Roasters to Coca-Cola trying to flog Costa Coffee. The Specialty Coffee Association's takeover of the Q Grader exam gets a mention, as does Starbucks' continued attempts to regain its former glory.

In unionising news, there was Starbucks Workers United and the Blue Bottle Independent Union putting pressure on their respective companies with strike action. Meanwhile, although there were lots of coffee health studies published over the past year, the most significant one was a comprehensive review of decades worth of research. It found that, overall, moderate coffee consumption is good for you. Woo!

And as with every year, there's always some goofy nonsense going on in coffee. That's covered too, from the Venice lagoon espresso to which coffee brand gets to control the concept of death to Gen Z's so-called "baristaphobia".

Of course, this barely scratches the surface of 2025's coffee news. Go check out the full article for the whole recap!

On Friday, paid subscribers received some musings on why Luckin, a low-cost chain built on speed and convenience, might want to buy Blue Bottle Coffee, a brand known for its meticulousness and expensive build-outs.

I'll be back on Friday with the annual State of the Pourover, featuring a look back at my five favourite Pourover articles from 2025. Until then, it's goodbye from my sister's cat Maru as he is overcome by sleepiness: