Coffee News Roundup

Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending May 15th

Fionn Pooler

16 May 2020 — 4 min read

An espresso cups sits on a table beside a folded newspaper. Via Unsplash — An espresso cups sits on a table beside a folded newspaper. Via Unsplash

How is it already mid-May? Is time just meaningless these days? Why does it seem to stand still while also simultaneously roaring through the year like a runaway freight train carrying Steven Segal?

Hopefully somebody is studying this, because I’d like to know.

Anyway, what’s been happening in the coffee world this week? Almost nothing, you say? Excellent.

Post-it notes on a glass door read “SORRY WE ARE CLOSED” and “COVID-19”. Via Unsplash

COVID-19 Updates - via Various

With many states prematurely and haphazardly beginning to ease lockdown restrictions, coffee shops and other small businesses are being forced to decide what to do. Do you open, bring your staff back and potentially have fewer if any customers? Can you pay your bills? What happens when there’s another outbreak in your area? But if you stay closed, you might never reopen again. It’s a quandary, and Sprudge has spoken to several coffee shop owners to get their take.

In the UK it’s a different matter again, due to the slightly more robust help the government has given to small businesses. It’s not quite as make-or-break, although that hasn’t stopped Costa, as reported last week, and now Starbucks from announcing reopenings (causing foolhardy but entirely predictable traffic jams). Oh, and speaking of Starbucks…

A hand holds up a white Starbucks cup with “LAVE AS MAOS” written on it. Via Unsplash.

Remember when Starbucks, along with Peet’s and lots of grocery store chains, announced they would be giving raises to those who continued to work during the pandemic? Hero Pay, some called it. Well, now that state-imposed lockdowns are being lifted, those tiny little $2-3 per hour raises are being taken away. Because the pandemic is over, right? Everything’s fine?

According to Starbucks baristas, their stores are busier than they’ve ever been and some customers don’t seem to be taking the situation seriously. “It’s a whole different animal to have a bunch of angry, upset, impatient customers waiting outside the door to yell at you because you didn’t get them their frappucino fast enough,” one barista told the Los Angeles Times. “Every company that has given a little bit more in pay is trying to pitch it like it’s for heroes and they’re grateful for us. But it’s not really reflecting as much anymore.”

And speaking of not taking things seriously, a coffee shop and restaurant in Colorado opened on Mother’s Day in defiance of the state’s stay-at-home order, and was completely swamped with customers. “Nearly every table was full after the restaurant opened its doors on Sunday morning,” says the Washington Post. “Customers crowded around the counter waiting for their orders. The line to place them went out the door, wrapping around the side of the building. Almost no one was wearing a mask.” The county health department shut the business down soon after.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s first ever Cup of Excellence green coffee competition took place this week, albeit in Portland, Oregon due to the coronavirus pandemic. 28 coffees, including three that scored 90+, will head to an online auction in June that already has 130 potential buyers registered. As the pandemic affects supply chains across the world, this article in Daily Coffee News looks at ways for collaboration and relationships to help the coffee industry move forward.

The week in corporate greenwashing

Nothing new this week, which is a positive thing I think?

Is coffee good for you?

It can help with depression, according to a new study, so that’s definitely good. The research, a meta-analysis of studies covering 300,000 people undertaken by a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, found that people who “consumed higher levels of coffee were at lower risk of depression than people who consumed less or no coffee.”

The study even gave an actual measurable amount of coffee as being the sweet spot for your daily intake, instead of the usual waffle-y “uhhh two cups per day” nonsense. According to the study, coffee’s “peak protective effect appeared to be among those who consumed 400 mL/day (i.e., 13 ounces).”

A person sits on the floor reading a book. via Unsplash — A person sits on the floor reading a book. via Unsplash

What to read

Make A Killer Cup Of Coffee At Home With These Hacks From Baristas by Natasha Hinde

Until next week, drink good coffee, support your local roaster, and please wear a mask if you have to go out in public. It’s literally the least you can do.