Coffee is increasingly at risk from the climate crisis, and corporate-driven incremental change won’t save it. The theory of degrowth offers hope for a better world and a fairer coffee industry.
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 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.
This year’s Best of Panama coffee auction was the most expensive ever, and was once again dominated by the gesha variety that put Panamanian coffee on the map. Now, the country’s coffee association is seeking to brand and trademark its most valuable asset.
As the climate crisis intensifies, regenerative agriculture could play a key role in sustaining and strengthening the global coffee industry. That is, if it can escape becoming just another corporate sustainability buzzword.
Coffee companies are going all in on automation. We’re told that it improves efficiency, cuts costs, and yields a better product. But what does it mean for the baristas whose labour these automations displace?
Well-funded startups mimic the aesthetics and language of specialty coffee. Giant multinationals cosplay community. Companies chase trends created by social media. It all points towards coffee's growing hyperreality.
Onerous and erratic tariffs have upended the coffee trade, incentivising loopholes and workarounds. Collectively, these changes herald an uncertain new era for the global coffee industry.
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?
Smuggling has been a part of coffee since the beginning, and continues in many forms today. In the process, it reveals much about the industry’s power structures.
While Starbucks tries to return to its coffeehouse roots, a new wave of cafes spreading across the United States show how to really build a welcoming third place.
The United States has long been at the centre of the global coffee industry. But as policies shift under the Trump administration, that dominance is under threat.
