Corporate vs Specialty Coffee
The coffee industry is huge, and there is much tension between the corporate and specialty sectors. These articles explore those tensions.
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish … Espresso?
How a Microsoft business strategy from the ’90s explains Starbucks’ new cortado—and the general flattening of modern coffee culture.
Corporate Philanthropy Will Not Save the Coffee Industry
Coffee companies love to fund projects that look good in press releases and impact reports. However, corporate philanthropy is mostly a shield to deflect criticism, protect power, and avoid regulation.
Starbucks and the Myth of the Third Place
Starbucks wants to be known as a community gathering space, even after morphing into the ultimate convenience-focused coffee chain. But was it ever truly a third place in the first place?
Equity Crowdfunding and the Democratisation of Coffee Investing
While many specialty coffee companies turn to venture capital to fuel their growth, others are going in the opposite direction: utilising equity crowdfunding to share ownership with their communities.
How Corporations and Executives Captured the Coffee Industry’s Profits
The global coffee industry is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and yet many stakeholders struggle to make ends meet. As corporate revenues climb, it’s worth examining where those profits go.
Could a Private-Equity-Backed 'Collective' Offer a Template for Specialty Coffee’s Future?
FairWave Specialty Coffee Collective is acquiring coffee brands across the Midwest, promising a localised approach to growth. Is this a model for the industry—or just another consolidation strategy?
Coffee's Tech Dystopia
Technology is deeply embedded in the coffee industry, from loyalty apps to blockchain traceability platforms. But is that a good thing?
Private Equity vs. the Coffee Workers
Big money pours into specialty coffee with one goal: wealth extraction. But as soon as things go wrong, workers are the first to suffer.
'Capitalism on Steroids': Private Equity and the Future of Specialty Coffee
It’s hard to shake the feeling that all the money that has flowed into specialty coffee over the past decade or so is warping the industry in ways that we haven’t yet begun to grasp.
Stealth Starbucks: A Premonition of Modern Specialty Coffee
Unbranded Starbucks stores divided opinion back in the 2000s, and there are echoes in modern corporate-backed specialty companies like Intelligentsia and Blue Bottle.
In Defense of Dark Roasts
Rabbithole Roasters’ David Lalonde wants specialty coffee to embrace the dark side.
Coffee People Talk the Fourth Wave
Market research thinks we're entering coffee's fourth wave. But are we? I asked some folks.