Coffee News Roundup

Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending April 15th

Fionn Pooler

16 Apr 2022 — 13 min read

An espresso cup sits atop a magazine on a table, seen from above. Via PxHere

It’s the weekend, which means it’s time to check in with all the coffee news from the previous seven days.

There’s been a lot.

Here Are The Winners Of The 2022 US Coffee Championships - via Sprudge

Six competitions took place over three days at the Specialty Coffee Association’s Expo event in Boston last week, with winners being crowned in the US Barista Championships, Brewers Cup, Cup Tasters, and Roasters Championship, as well as the Coffee in Good Spirits and US Latte Art Championship.

The winners will now go on to represent the United States at the world events in Milan in June and Melbourne in September.

The Barista Championship was won by Morgan Eckroth, also known as content creator MorganDrinksCoffee—Sprudge called her “the first already-famous person to win a major coffee competition”—who livestreamed her performances for her combined 7 million followers. Her routines are now available to watch via YouTube.

See the full list of competition winners here.

Speaking of Expo, a slightly giddy article in Global Coffee Report reported attendances of 10,000 at last weekend’s event which “returned in full swing” in Boston. While there were COVID protocols in place—attendees were required to show a negative PCR or lab-tested LFT test when picking up their badges, and masks were required—anecdotal reports on social media spoke of lax enforcement, while photos published by attendees and the SCA itself showed a mostly maskless event.

In the days since, as Boston and the northeast also experience a BA.2 subvariant-related surge, reports of positive cases have been posted on Twitter, prompting the SCA to (eventually) email attendees to warn them of a potential outbreak.

As of now, no news stories have focused on this aspect of the event, and the SCA has not made any public announcement, but as the positive tests keep rolling in perhaps by next week there will be more to report on.

Starbucks Is Weighing Better Benefits For Employees But Says They Could Exclude Union Workers - via CNBC

As part of what CNBC coyly calls “Starbucks’ campaign to dissuade baristas from unionizing”, new-old CEO Howard Schultz is considering expanding worker benefits, but that those who voted in favour of unionization won’t be eligible for these new (unnamed) benefits.

Schultz “cited federal labor law and advice from the company’s legal counsel in saying it would be illegal to extend benefits unilaterally with unionized locations in the equation,” according to the article.

However, as the article says later—and other stories also point out—the company can simply ask the union if its workers want the same benefits. “Nothing prevents a company from offering unionized workers those same benefits,” Fortune reports, citing labour experts. “If the company wanted to, it could go to each unionized store and ask if they want improved benefits or wages, while continuing to bargain for an overall contract.”

Of course, these hazy promises of undefined new benefits could be seen as an attempt to, what did CNBC say, dissuade workers from voting for a union. But at the very least, it also shows the power of organizing—as one activist put it on Twitter in reference to this story, “Corrected headline: Union poised to win a raise for all unorganized workers at Starbucks.”

Read the full story here.

Uganda Lawmakers Seek Reversal of Controversial Coffee Deal - via Bloomberg

In February the government of Uganda, Africa’s biggest coffee exporter, signed a deal that gives one company, Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Ltd, exclusive rights to buy the country’s coffee.

Understandably, not everyone is happy with this agreement. The Parliament’s committee on trade has opened an investigation into the deal, according to a statement released by the legislature.

The agreement’s terms state “that nobody will procure coffee unless this company gets the quota that they want,” according to a lawmaker quoted in the statement. Uganda Vinci also has the rights to determine the price for the coffee, and is exempt from all taxes. In return, according to Bloomberg, the company will build “the first final product processing plant in the country worth $80 million”.

Uganda exported 6.61 million bags of coffee over the twelve months to February 2022, and hopes to reach 20 million bags by 2030.

“Uganda Vinci will pay for superior quality coffee beans at a premium price,” the country’s finance ministry tweeted convincingly, “which will be determined transparently and not lower than the price approved by Uganda Coffee Development Authority.”

Read the full story here.

A person sitting on a park bench reads a newspaper. via Wikimedia Commons

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The Week in Coffee Unionizing

Another mini Roundup-within-a-Roundup:

This week’s Starbucks elections saw four stores vote unanimously in favour of unionizing, while one voted against. Clean-sweep victories for Starbucks Workers United came at four stores in Boston, Pittsburgh, and Eugene, Oregon, while organizers blamed the loss in Springfield, Virginia on the company’s anti-union messaging and veiled threats.
In response to the company firing activists and actively hiring to dilute the pro-union vote, Starbucks’ job openings have been flooded with thousands of automated applications created by an activist group called Gen Z For Change and their campaign, Change is Brewing.
A vote at Three Brothers Coffee in Nashville, Tennessee, has resulted in a win for the nascent union, meaning the company will become the first unionized coffee shop in the city.
Workers at the eco-conscious Peace Coffee in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have announced plans to unionize, seeking “better wages, better working conditions, and a collective voice at work.” Peace Coffee’s owner and CEO Lee Wallace said in a statement that, “We very much support each worker’s rights and will respect whatever choice they make.” Which isn’t the same thing as recognizing the union, but better than the usual “we think workers are better served dealing directly with the company” line.

The Week in Corporate Coffeewashing

Stumptown Coffee Roasters is “celebrating its commitment to the earth, people, and coffee” to kick off “Earth Month”, according to a press release. Stumptown, which is owned by Peet’s which is in turn owned by JAB Holdings, has a new webpage to highlight its sustainability credentials, and has also released its annual Sustainability & Impact Report.

The press release also trumpets the company’s B Corp recertification, which it says “underscores [our] commitment to sustainability.” The score went from 80 (the minimum passing grade) to 89.7.

Anyway, good for them. I’m sure the company and everyone working there means well, there’s just no way to ignore the fact that it’s owned by a gigantic shadowy holding company that in turn owns giant companies like Keurig Dr Pepper and Jacobs Douwe Egberts, as well as having a murky, Nazi-influenced past.