What's in a Bag of Coffee?

The coffee news never stops. This week:

• To meet demand and cut costs, many coffee companies—legally—mix sought-after Kona beans with cheaper coffee from other regions. Now, Hawaii has passed a law mandating that bags labeled as Kona actually contain 51% coffee from the Kona region, upping the percentage from 10%. However the law has proven divisive, with some in the industry worried that it could increase prices and deter customers from buying the more expensive beans.
• More influential industry voices are adding to the growing calls to delay implementation of the European Union’s deforestation legislation. Vanusia Nogueira, director of the International Coffee Organization, told a coffee summit in Honduras: “We can’t meet that date; it is not possible.”
• Demand for coffee is increasing—whole bean coffee in particular—indicating a growing interest in home brewing. A new report looking at Amazon data shows that demand for whole-bean coffee has increased 46% over the last year.

For more on these and lots more, check out the full roundup over at Fresh Cup Magazine:

In case you missed it, here’s my latest deep dive—on Starbucks’ attempts to market itself as a community gathering space (successfully at first, less so in recent years):

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?

The PouroverFionn Pooler

Until next week, it’s goodbye from Merlin: