Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending March 1st
What does "100% responsibly-sourced coffee" actually mean?
This week, in coffee:
Starbucks and its union announced that both parties will “begin discussions on a foundational framework to achieve collective bargaining agreements for represented stores and partners.” What a “foundational framework” means is still unclear, and labor experts are urging cautious optimism, but hopefully it’s a positive step towards winning a first contract for thousands of Starbucks workers.
Indonesia is in the midst of a drought which has caused coffee yields to plummet in the world’s fourth-largest coffee exporter. Coffee farmers blame the El Niño weather pattern for the heat and lack of rain, a wild swing from the previous two years when La Niña caused excessive rainfall.
Workers at Ultimo Coffee in Philadelphia won a tentative contract agreement with the company after more than a year of fractious negotiations, NLRB complaints, a boycott, and a one-day strike last week.
And the German coffee conglomerate Tchibo has announced a partnership with the sustainability auditor Enveritas to source 100 percent of its coffee “responsibly” by 2027. It isn’t entirely clear what Tchibo means by that word.
Read the full Roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:
Speaking of coffeewashing, my latest Pourover piece looks at Nespresso’s relationship with George Clooney and how the suave superstar helps the coffee giant burnish its image as a sustainability pioneer even as it’s hit by scandal after scandal:
And Fresh Cup continues to update and republish some articles from the Pourover’s archives, this week featuring an exploration of Kenya’s homegrown coffee scene: ‘Enjoyed by Those Who Grow It’: Wangeci Gitata-Kiriga And Kenya’s Coffee-Drinking Revolution
Until next week, it’s goodbye from Merlin:
