Weird Coffee
Coffee is big and complex, and with lots of room for weirdness. These articles look at the strange underbelly of an ever-changing industry.
A Short Lexicon of Coffee Buzzwords
Coffee is filled with buzzwords that lack agreed-upon definitions: slightly woolly terms like “Sustainable,” “Ethical,” even “Specialty.” Companies use them constantly to sell more coffee—but what do these words actually mean?
The Cynical Evolution of Coffee Substitutes
We used to grudgingly turn to coffee alternatives in times of turmoil. Now, however, there is a new breed of venture capital-backed substitutes, with a more antagonistic relationship to coffee.
The Graveyard of Coffee Kickstarters
There are a lot of coffee gadgets on Kickstarter. Some are successful, others less so. This is the story of the latter.
Why is Beanless Coffee?
Coffee-less coffee is marketed as the sustainable solution to the climate crisis. But is it? And what about the farmers who will be left behind?
The Oddly Poetic Plagiarism of BaristaSpeech.com
A website is taking coffee content, running it through paraphrasing software, and reposting it without permission. The results are... interesting.
The Alternative Coffee Tasting Dictionary
Knowing what to say during a coffee cupping can be daunting. When you run out of the standards—Full, Juicy, Mild, Complex etc—here are a few...non-standard adjectives to try.